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The Turner prize is no stranger to sparking debate or pushing boundaries. This year it has achieved both. For the first time, an artist with learning disabilities has won. Glasgow-born Nnena Kalu took the award for her colourful, cocoon-like sculptures made from VHS tape, clingfilm and other abandoned materials, along with her large swirling vortex drawings. Kalu is autistic, with limited verbal communication. In an acceptance speech on her behalf, Kalu’s facilitator, Charlotte Hollinshead, said that “a very stubborn glass ceiling” had been broken.
Kalu’s win is a high-profile symbol of a shift towards greater inclusivity that has been happening in the UK arts world over the past five years. Last month, Beyond the Visual opened at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, in which everything is curated or created by blind and partially sighted artists. The exhibits range from Moore sculptures (which visitors are encouraged to touch) to David Johnson’s 10,000 stone-plaster digestive biscuits stamped with braille. Design and Disability at the V&A South Kensington is showcasing the ways in which disabled, deaf and neurodivergent people have shaped culture from the 1940s to now.
During the pandemic, arts institutions were forced to close and to reconsider their purpose. The 2021 Turner prize responded with a shortlist comprised entirely of artists’ collectives, including the Hastings-based Project Art Works for neurodivergent people. The following year, disabled artists staged a one-day takeover of museums and galleries entitled We Are Invisible We Are Visible (WAIWAV), uncovering hidden aspects of the disabled experience from Gateshead to St Ives. In 2023, the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) set up a residency programme for disabled curators, with a show by 15 disabled, deaf and neurodivergent artists last year.
This year’s Turner prize has brought this work into mainstream contemporary art. The judges compared Kalu’s sculptures to 3D versions of abstract expressionist paintings and said that while “the quality and uniqueness of her work is inseparable from who she is as an artist”, her neurodivergence did not influence their decision. Some critics were unconvinced, accusing the panel of confusing “therapy with talent” and making “a collective act of goodwill” over aesthetic judgment.
But all art is inseparable from who the artist is to some degree. Kelu’s work can only be understood visually – her sculptures and drawings must speak for themselves. They challenge us to look and think in new and different ways. This is what art can do.
In a week when US diplomats were farcically ordered to return to using Times New Roman typeface in official communications, rather than the presumably “woke” Calibri – adopted because it is more accessible for people with disabilities – a recognition of the insights diversity can offer couldn’t be more timely.
Credit must go to the charity ActionSpace, which has supported Kalu and other learning-disabled artists in London for many years. It is part of a growing network of supportive studios across the country, including Intoart, based in south London, Venture Arts in Manchester and Project Ability in Glasgow. At a time of crisis in the arts, and controversy over disability and special educational needs funding, the Turner prize has shone a light on their vital work. If these organisations are not given the financial support they need, they will no longer be able to support prize-winning artists of the future.
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