On 2 July, Turner Contemporary will join 29 museums and galleries across the UK to host We Are Invisible We Are Visible (WAIWAV), presented by DASH, the disabled-led visual arts organisation.

⁠31 disabled artists will disrupt 30 museums and galleries across the country with surreal interventions in recognition of the 102nd anniversary of the first Dada International Exhibition. The project, which won the 2021 Ampersand Prize, is the most ambitious showcase of work by d/Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent artists to be presented in the UK.

Luke ‘Luca’ Cockayne, a Scottish conceptual artist and writer, will take over inside and outside the gallery. Their work is highly autobiographical and self-referential, concerned with the limits of language, and how ideas and feelings – from the deeply personal to the societal – can be communicated visually.

My intervention is simple: the artist draws or marks a one metre square on the ground and members of the public are invited to stand in the square and repeat the word ‘Dada’. They can scream, sing, whisper, mumble, chant, shout, or say the word in any other way they like – but it’s the only word they can say.

…explore that feeling of a word repeated losing all meaning, as well as allowing people to verbally stim.

Luke ‘Luca’ Cockayne

WAIWAV is presented by DASH, the disabled-led visual arts organisation, and was awarded the 2021 Ampersand Prize.⁠

DASH

DASH is a Disabled led visual arts charity. It creates opportunities for Disabled artists to develop their creative practice. These opportunities take many forms, from high-quality commissions to community-based workshops, the work it creates is centred around its vision and mission.

With a history of work including visual arts, dance, theatre, live arts and festivals in Shropshire since the mid 1990’s, DASH became a limited company and registered charity in 2001 and in 2004 secured revenue funding from Arts Council England.  In 2009 DASH took the decision to specialise its work in visual arts, while expanding its geographical boundaries.

During the last ten years DASH has undertaken truly ground-breaking work – projects that have challenged perceptions, fostered and mentored new Deaf and Disabled artists, encouraged professional development and helped to engineer change in the sector.

The Ampersand Foundation

The Ampersand Foundation was founded in 2011 by businessman, collector, and philanthropist Jack Kirkland to support the visual arts. The Foundation supports high-quality exhibitions and projects, provided they are free to the public at least one day per week. It also supports public collection expansion. The Foundation is focused mainly on supporting institutions and projects within the UK.

The Ampersand Award

The Ampersand Award is open to the 48 members of the Plus Tate network. It aims to enable the winning institution to realise its dream project in the form of an exhibition, new commission, public space intervention or any other kind of project. There are no restrictions on the subject or format of the proposal except that it must be delivered by a curator, director or a team of curators working within the institution. The winner is awarded £125,000 to realise their proposal, and an additional £25,000 to produce a related publication. The remaining shortlisted institutions each receive £5,000.