About the residency
alabamathirteen was Artist in Residence at The Art House in May and December 2021. The residency was hosted in partnership with Outside In, a national charity that aims to provide a platform for artists who face significant barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation.
About the artist
alabamathirteen is a largely self-taught artist from Leeds, UK. Her practice focuses on her own personal limitations navigating and negotiating the spaces that she occupies as a disabled, working-class woman.
Using photography, embroidery and sound, her work explores how we occupy our bodies, spaces and places both as individuals and as a society, particularly the concept of ‘non-conforming bodies as an act of defiance challenging who traditionally gets to take up the most space and whose voices get to be heard the loudest.
Rooted firmly in the history of the disability arts movement and the politics of disability equality, her work seeks to challenge dominant narratives around disability, and highlight the barriers that exclude so many people from both creating and experiencing art.
alabamathirteen is on the board of trustees at Shape Arts, a disability-led organisation which works to improve access to culture for disabled people and supports disabled artists to develop their careers, and a founding member of DISrupt, a collective of disabled artists in Leeds.
Over the last few years, her practice has investigated how her own personal and creative life has become increasingly impacted by the realities of being disabled, with her work exploring themes around false narratives and unfixed identities. More recently she has received funding through The Tetley’s PANIC! Network and from Arts Council England to develop her work thematically using more sustainable, plant-based photographic processes.
Recent exhibitions
- The Pall I featured in The House of Smalls online exhibition Facing It
- The Climb featured in an online exhibition showcasing the work of thirteen disabled artists in Leeds, Possible All Along. Find out more >
- Leeds Summer Group Show 2020
- All Shall Pass at the Fronteer Gallery in Sheffield
- Arts & Minds Annual Exhibition
Further reading
Interview for the Arts & Minds Annual Exhibition by Love Arts Leeds. Read more >
CuratorSpace artist profile. Read more >
Visit the artist’s website
Image: albamathirteen, Polaroid duo from The Outliers, installation and moving image, 2021, PANIC! Bursary, courtesy of The Tetley.
