Some struggles are invisible: Art, Neurodiversity, and Aotearoa

Artlink Australia Magazine

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)__