Curator
Notes

Notes, sources and, substantiation of choices.
Written for the teacher of Ciritcal Curating term 2.2.

Why is this exhibition made?

I am one autistic person. Which means I have a limited but legit view of what autism is on a personal level.
I could never speak for other autistic individuals, and I cannot show every autistic artist and their work.

My personal network involves mostly individuals with ADD, who share commonalities with autistics but still diverge a lot. I currently do not have many autistic individuals in my life. This is due to being a 'partly closeted' autistic myself. As I am still processing my late diagnosis, and the grief and imposter-syndrome that came with it.

Asking other autistics is something I am not yet ready for. Which makes this exhibition mostly relevant to people on the spectrum who relate to my experience and knowledge about autism. This is a situational experience which I am aiming to change in the near future, as I would like to be openly and proudly autistic.

This exhibition is therefor a startingpoint toward opening myself, owning my identity and feeling more secure, safe and bold. Hopefully I will be meeting other autistic people soon that I can share experiences with.

How much knowledge does the curator have on the topic?

This exhibition is curated through my own point of view. As an autistic artist and creative educator, I am missing some things in museums and exhibitions. For example, certain accessibility and support for the (diverse) needs of an autistic individual.

Most autistic participants I worked with had great artistic talent, with a very intriguing and creative mind. This is visible too when you look at the autistic community on social media. For example, on Instagram there are many autistic creators who draw, make comics, and visual images to educate anyone interested in Neurodivergence. As well as to explain their own experiences, and/or to immerse themselves in their creative special interest.

This population and their huge, diverse collection of art should get a space of its own. Where everyone interested in, and everyone who experiences autism and neurodivergence can: appreciate, relate to, feel empowered by, be educated about, and inspired by the artistically autistic community. While being in a safe, supportive, and visually stimulating environment.

What are the limitations of the curator?

This question is impossible to have an answer to, as amount of knowledge is subjective.
But I can share some factual numbers to prove my interest in the topic, and the time I spend on it.

- The current number of saved bookmarks (online sources) in my ASS-folder is: 136.

- The current number of saved bookmarks (online sources) in my Artistically Autistic folder is: 41.

- The current number of YouTube videos in my ASS-playlist is: 60.

- The current number of books I own about autism is: 12.

- The current number of books I have read about autism is: 8.

- The current number of days I have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (level 1) is: 588.
(30-07-2021 – 10-03-2023)

Personal urgency

There is a personal urgency attached to this exhibition proposal. As I was researching the topic and visiting other exhbitions I missed the creative world of autistics. From the 8 exhibits I have visitied, only one of them included a work of an openly diagnosed autistic artist with a work specifically made about her own autistic brain. This piece was enlightening to me, as I had an artist to relate to, within the context of a museum. And I wished I could visit an exhibition, a musuem with only artistically autistic exhibitors.

I looked into (past) exhibitions of autistic artists, and recognized a certain amount of ableism in the PR texts and pictures. Almost a feeling of alienation, 'Wow look what this autistic can do?!'... The visitors in the picture were not diverse at all and I did not read anything about other autistics visiting or feeling welcomed.

A personal urgency formed, to create an exhibit to inspire, empower, support and educate autistic artistic people. So we can feel welcome in a space like that, see our own ability to create and to maybe one day be included in a safe exhibition space ourselves. This is a reason why the works that are choosen aren't too difficult in terms of techniques or materials. But rather simple empowering works, so when we've looked at it, we get a feeling of 'I can create and be great too!'.

Location

This exhibition space can be build with walls in other big halls or exhibition spaces. For example in hal 3 of the Kunsthal in Rotterdam.

This exhibition/ museum is excluding any works made by neurotypicals, and artistic autism is its theme,
the reason being that there isn't such a space yet. The perfect scenario would be that this is a musuem that stands on its own, in its own building, with its own autistic staff, artists and visitors.

Triangle shaped spaces

I was looking for a fun way to design the space, while not having to deal with useless rooms and angles.
With 3 subexhibits only 3 rooms are needed, so why not give the building 3 corners and make it triangle shaped. The corners were perfect to place the decompressing spaces, as it is small and cozy. Many autistics enjoy corners and keeping themselves near the walls while in crowds. Plus the triangle represents the triad of autistics traits: Social relationships, social communication and sensory profiles.

The routing from A sensory

Sensory is the subject of Exhibit A. The first space to visit. This is because sensory experiences are for most autistic people the most profound everyday life experience we have. May it be positive, or discomfort, we can have over-sensitive senses, or under-sensitive senses, they deeple influence the things we do. The choices we make, the pleasures we experience.

So sensory experiences are very important and profound. It's also intruiging and stimulating to the senses,
to hopefully interest the visitor to get curious about the following exhibits and artworks.

to B emotion

Many autistic people get overloaded or intense joy from our sensory experience. That is why emotion is a logical next stop in the exhibit. It is also important to break the myth that autistic people are robotic, don't feel, don't have emphaty and can't be happy. Because we obviously can, sometimes even better or more deeply than our neurotypical peers.

We might express emotions differently, and experience them differently, but that doesn't make them less. The darker works in this exhibit are important to show the difficulties of being autistic in this society.

to C education

As the previous exhibits are quite stimulating, the exhibition ends in a relaxing reading corner. Because art and texts can go extremely well together and there are so many great books of autistic autors and illustrator on the market these days. Education from autistic people to other autistics and non-autistics is very important to break stigma and to become more accepted.

Many autistic people find reading fun, and I personally have a sweet spot for these empowering artists and stories. They warm my own heart and that I would want to give every visitor in the last stop of the exhibition.

Decompressionrooms and beanbags

A decompression room is different to a quiet room, I personally use the term because information, or sensory overload can feel like a big pressure that needs to be released. But it isn't always released in silence. We might need to make noise, loudly, or move and stim, or lay down for a bit while looking at colorful lights.

Mostly it helps to be in a controlled environment, where the sensory input can be adjusted to our own needs. To get in balance, not under and not over-stimulated.

Beanbags in the middle of every exhibition space, is inspired by:
And my neurodivergent friend who is uncomfortable sitting, but has a difficult time walking and standing around aswell, she often says how she is looking forwards to lie down again. People like her should be able to have a good time too.