Connection with those around us is an essential part of human life, but neoliberalism, smartphones and Wordle have been distracting some of us so much lately that finding focus is becoming harder and harder. We spend so much time trying to access a decent life that burnout can only leave room for selfish, easy individual pleasure, one that is digital, a fetish served on a silver plate, with a soft comforting pillow to prop up our aching bodies.
Amidst doom-scrolling the latest news, art is what keeps our hopes alive. Contemporary art is the testament and ref lection of each era in history. There’re only a few things more powerful than a striking piece of art that dismantles our too-comfortable beliefs. And there’s always a great mind and artist behind it. Meet Emily Barker (Born 1992 in San Diego, CA). They’re a talented artist in the real world and they experience the everyday in a different (and much harder) way to able-bodied people. Emily’s art denounces the discriminatory architecture of a world built excluding disabled and elderly bodies. They advocate for accessibility. Also, they have been selected by the Whitney Museum 2022’s Biennial Quiet as It’s Kept – alongside Sixty-two other artists, on show April to September 2022. The longest-running survey of American art is showing their piece Kitchen, in an exhibit where personal narratives examine political, literary, and pop cultures to address larger social frameworks.