KATHRYNE GRIMM
JUNE 5 - 26, 2020
KATHRYNE GRIMM is an award-winning and nationally exhibited fine art conceptual figurative photographer and queer trans disability activist whose artwork focuses on using femme and non-binary bodies to initiate a dialogue about issues facing the disabled. They were the recent subject of the short documentary “Kathryne: Uncensored” where they discussed accessibility in the arts, and their artwork has been published in various literary journals and art magazines. Kathryne’s activist work has led to numerous lectures and presentations on disability rights and issues facing the disability community, including ableism in media narratives and representation. They currently sit on the board of the Kansas Disability Caucus and on the Expressions curatorial and organizing committee through The Whole Person as their Disabled Artist Representative. Kathryne’s current activism and art focus is breaking down the barriers of how disabled bodies are viewed in contemporary art and in society, bringing awareness to the lack of accessibility within the Kansas City arts scene, and discussing the intersection of Domestic Violence, Disability, and Queerness. They currently reside in Kansas City in a very dark and edwardian-inspired apartment with their elementary school aged child and an apocalypse-ready sized stash of green tea.
Invisible Victims
A series about the intersection of Disability and Domestic Violence
Disabled people are 40% more likely to experience intimate partner violence than those without disabilities. Women with intellectual disabilities are sexually assaulted at rates more than twelve times higher than those without disabilities. 83% of disabled women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
Invisible Victims examines the internal narrative of a disabled domestic violence victim while they are living with their abuser, and functions as a voice for victims of an epidemic that is never addressed. We follow the invisible victim as they experience severe isolation, represented by a stark dark background and often solitary presence, though evidence of the abuser is always present through the symbolic use of the color red. We continue through observing them experiencing a denial of bodily autonomy, woven in numerous pieces either through the use of hands violating the figure, smeared lipstick, or blindfolds and gags. We then follow them as they experience torture, with drops of blood symbolic for the abuser’s actions. This victim cries for help, but their cries go unanswered, and they, inevitably, stand alone, cradling their head in their hands, left by society to endure their unexitable circumstances. We finally find them at the end of the series, covered in their own blood as a subversive Madonna; a failure of societal expectations of disability to be “inspiring” and function as inspiration porn to the non-disabled. Instead of society creating avenues of assistance, the invisible victim is judged for not performing perfect inspirational disability.
