Gravity Blanket: on autistic artistic practice

Abstract

My thesis consists of two artistic and one written component. The artistic component is a body of work called Gravity Blanket, which was partly exhibited at Kuvan Kevät graduating masters’ degree show at Exhibition Laboratory (Helsinki, Finland) in May 2021, and with some changes and additional work at Titanik gallery (Turku, Finland) in August 2021.

Gravity Blanket is a mixed media work consisting of photographic and sculptural pieces. It explores neurological queerness, embodied knowledge, touch, resilience and our culture of coping. The work draws on my personal neurodivergent experience, more specifically my experience of being autistic and diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Like many others on the autism spectrum, I sense my surroundings intensely and with overwhelming focus on details. With Gravity Blanket, I try to bring this experience of autistic perception to the center of my artistic work, both as a subject matter and as a method: I allow my sensitivities to inform my choice in materials and search for an embodied ‘autistic knowledge’ to guide my process.

In this written component of my thesis, I focus specifically on three individual works: Gravity Blanket (2021), Frayed polyester chiffon in green and fingers (2021), and Burnout Blanket (2021). This text is an account and reflection on two interlaced processes: one of creating the artworks and one of learning to navigate life and artistic practice as an autistic individual – both processes of learning and unlearning, queering, struggling and surviving, refusing and desiring. I discuss the major material and thematic shift in my artistic practice in relation to issues of accessibility and representation of autism and make connections between my work and contemporary theorisations of neurodivergence, glitch, and disability.