• Frictional Crip Creative Practice
  • Sandra Lange approaches art experience as a tool for social transformation through interaction. Situated in the Netherlands and collaborating internationally, their work is rooted in a frictional crip artistic practice where initiating conversation on subjects society is inclined to dismiss is considered to be the core business.

    The word ‘friction’ refers to the practices of identifying phenomena of social injustice, and the friction that is caused by articulating them. In this practice, friction is considered a valuable tool for opening up a discussion about the economy and value of knowledge. 

    By using the word ‘crip’, Lange refers to a crip understanding of ancestry and lays a claim to her personal experience of living with complex embodiment. Thus identifying as a female disabled person, an activist, an artist and a researcher. 

    The crip aspect also makes her a member of a community that never gathers. Following Ahsan (2017), the most accessible form of protest that is afforded to the community's members, is the occupy bedroom movement. Coming from a place of disability identity denialism and ongoing social isolation, Lange's understanding of the interlocking systems of privilege and power has come about through involvement with non-academic contexts of art, activism and intersectional scholarship. These have impacted personal and professional decision-making processes. 

     

     

  • Sandra Lange on her research:

    As an advocate for radical slowness, I am interested in the fluidity of a bodies’ ability, (in)visibility and mobility, in relation to the epistemic injustice folks in specific social locations experience on a daily basis.

    Currently I am developing a research project which will concern itself with unpacking the embodied knowledge of people who identify as women[1], who are disabled and/or chronically ill. The yearning to critically engage with the credibility deficit of disabled women is linked with a personal knowledge of complex embodiment, and is supplemented with my experience in art making, inquiry, writing and socio-political engagement.

    Evoking awareness for the lived experience of disabled folks can be perceived as raising “ability trouble", as the non-normative performance of disability draws attention to “the inherent instability of all bodies, especially the able-bodied”, (McRuer 2006). 

     



    [1]When referring to the female gender identity in this text, this includes but is not limited to cis-gender women. Words such as ‘woman’, ‘female’, ‘feminine’ also acknowledge and are witness to subjects born in a female body but identifying as male, subjects born in a male body but identifying as female, or folks identifying as non-binary or gender-questioning. The relevancy of temporality and fluidity to the process of gender identification is therefor taken into account, but will not be explored any further on this page.