Carrie Sandahl
2017, acrylic on wood, 48" x 24"
Private collection
Carrie Sandahl's portrait grew out of our extensive conversations about the role of pain in Disability narratives (and realities). It is a frank depiction of Sandahl's involvement with the BDSM community; the image is meant to be a refutation of suffering, and to demand an erotics of pain.
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Carrie Sandahl is Associate Professor in the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Head of the new Program on Disability Art, Culture, and Humanities, which is devoted to research on and the creation of disability art.
A performance scholar and artist, her academic and creative work centers on disability identity in theater, dance, and film. She recently collaborated on the feature-length documentary Code of the Freaks, a skewering critique of disability representation in Hollywood film. She is working on Too Much Information, a series of performative lectures and lyric essays. Sandahl is the mother of two disabled, transracially adopted children, and a fierce advocate for children with mental health issues.
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