When The Sky Gets Bright is a collaboration between disabled art collective Babeworld and youth collectives Society of Explorers and Creative Producers.
The exhibition features four new video works that examine the intersection between online and offline emotional landscapes. When The Sky Gets Bright, the large projected film across the back wall, invites us inside the domestic world of the unnamed protagonist. They narrate their daily routines in a way that is satisfyingly specific and highly relatable to disabled people who create rich worlds indoors.
Like opening all the windows after the smoke cleared, the protagonist’s honest humour feels freeing and refreshing. It inspires me to confess that I was anxious to engage with the exhibition. I, too, am chronically online and chronically disabled. I feared encountering pathologisation and being thrust into my long-standing agony-inducing battle against psychiatry. I’m grateful to Babeworld for proving my fears wrong.
Across the room, a smaller projected film resembling old-school behind-the-scenes DVD extras answers personal questions about the protagonist. The director’s interview satisfies my need for further connection by delving into the main character’s motivations, fears, self-perception and meaning-making.
Deja Vu Video Diary 1 and 2 are two short clips displayed on CRT monitors. They struck me as a witty reaction to the capitalist imperative to sell our minds and bodies for its benefit. Instead of internalising this morally chastising model, the videos exemplify how disabled people defy the hamster wheel, while simultaneously facing the consequences of falling behind.
Attached to the adjacent wall are nine corded telephones. 18 Agonies invites visitors to listen to clumsy relationship queries inspired by 1990s agony aunt columns. Site Gallery’s youth groups, Society of Explorers and Creative Producers, decorated the landline phones with visually striking stickers tackling online pop culture and activism.
In classic neurodivergent style, I arrived 25 minutes before the gallery’s closing time. If you’re willing and able, I suggest giving yourself roughly 40 minutes to absorb everything at a steadier pace.
