Some struggles are invisible: Art, Neurodiversity, and Aotearoa

Bailee Lobb, Big Blue (2021). Hand dyed nylon, electric fan, variable dimensions. Interior view. Toi Pōneke Gallery, Wellington. Courtesy of the artist.

ArtLink Australia Magazine
Issue 42:2 Wirltuti / Spring 2022
pp.32-39

“All struggles are essentially power struggles. Who will rule, who will lead, who will define, refine, confine, design, who will dominate.”[1]

—Octavia E. Butler

Some struggles are invisible simply because a single word is missing from public discussion.[2] I find that
this is particularly the case with words that carry life- giving concepts and that challenge social hierarchies. Their absence can give clues to who might be excluded and what is considered of less value within a given society. One such word is ‘neurodiversity’, and it is missing from exhibition records within some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading public art galleries.

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1 . Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower, 2019 ed (London: Headline Publishing Group, 1993), 89__

2. I acknowledge the influence of Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man especially the opening paragraph which reads ‘I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.’ See: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, New Ed edition 2001 (London: Penguin Classics, 1952)__