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Meet Adishi Gupta, a boundary-pushing artist whose work is as bold, layered, and unapologetic as the title of the show was a part of—Disabled and Disorderly. With a style that’s as much about emotion as it is about rebellion, Adishi uses her art to explore identity, visibility, and the lived experience of disability. Whether her work is confronting stereotypes or celebrating the power of chaos, it’s always rooted in authenticity. We caught up with her to talk about her pieces in the show, the beauty of making a mess, and why disorder can be a form of creative power.
Tell us about the pieces you showed at the exhibition. What stories or ideas are woven into them?
My digital collage piece reminds me of Adrienne Rich’s words: “To be a female human trying to fulfill traditional female functions in a traditional way is in direct conflict with the subversive function of the imagination.” It’s a reflection on the conflicting and constrictive expectations placed on me as a queer, racialized, and disabled woman. The bird, the flower, and the figure capture what it feels like to be constantly picked apart by outside forces while also, somehow, growing, changing, and blooming through it all. It’s about the tension between being scrutinized and being transformed. The work is both a portrait of that pressure and a refusal to submit to it. A refusal to abandon everything that is disabled, disorderly, and defiantly alive within me.
What’s one feeling or truth you poured into your work for the Disabled and Disorderly art show that people might not see right away?
There are a lot of layers to this piece and I am curious to know what stands out to people the most. I wonder if people will see the anger, tenderness, and grief it holds. Anger at being constrained. Tenderness for what survived. Grief for what didn’t/couldn’t.
The show’s title, Disabled and Disorderly, is bold and brilliant. How does your work connect with or disrupt that theme?
The underlying tensions and emotions in the collage connect deeply with the show’s title. I love that the title re-claims “disorderly” as something powerful instead of shameful. My work embraces the tangled, non-linear forms that ideas and emotions take. It refuses order. It’s messy and sometimes contradictory. It shows disorder not as dysfunction, but as defiance.
If someone could only glance at your work for 5 seconds, what do you hope stands out the most?
I hope they catch that strange, tender tension between growth and disruption. That blooming isn’t always gentle; it can be both messy and uplifting.
To invite deeper insight into identity and process, how does your lived experience with disability shape the way you create, or what you choose to create?
I move through the world picking up fragments of images, textures, patterns and half-formed thoughts. My art process mirrors that. Collaging and working with found materials feels natural because they allow for brokenness, imperfection and pause. They allow me to work with what’s left behind or discarded. The work is shaped by a bodymind that doesn’t always move in “order.”
What do you hope someone feels, questions, or carries with them after standing in front of your work?
I hope they carry a softened idea of what “order” means. That maybe disorder isn’t something to be feared or fixed. Maybe it’s something you can feed, nurture, and find wonder in.
What’s your favorite part of your creative process, and what’s the most delightfully chaotic part?
Favourite part: When seemingly disparate images and materials come together to form a narrative
Most chaotic part: Collecting and managing found materials, as exciting as it is, it is also very cumbersome when you are stretched for space both digitally and physically
Do you ever create with accessibility in mind: visually, conceptually, or otherwise? How does that influence your work?
While creating my work, I hope people feel something even if they don’t know every reference or follow a traditional way of reading an image/ “appreciating art”. I try to leave space for different kinds of seeing, different ways of making sense of things. Accessibility, for me, starts with making work that doesn’t assume everyone experiences the world in the same way. I’m still learning how to make my work more accessible across different sensory experiences and it’s something I think about more and more.
Art world spaces aren’t always built for disabled artists. If you could disorder one part of the mainstream art world, what would you flip on its head?
I would flip the assumption that disabled artists are an exception to the rule. In most spaces, accessibility feels like an afterthought, something you add on once the “real” work is done. I dream of spaces built with disabled artists at the center from the start. Spaces that expect different bodies, different speeds, different ways of thinking and feeling. Spaces that don’t demand you fit a mold just to belong.
What makes your work in Disabled and Disorderly impossible to ignore?
Maybe the fact that it is a bit odd to look at. It is not easily digestible, it needs a slower kind of attention. It asks one to sit with contradiction.
What advice would you give to other disabled creatives trying to carve out space for themselves in the arts?
You don’t have to be inspirational, perfect, or fast. Make the art you need to make. Take your time. Take up space. Be disorderly.
What’s something unexpected about your art or practice that might surprise people? Any secret materials, strange rituals, or guilty-pleasure inspirations?
Some people might find it surprising that I never set out to become an artist, because I never thought that I could. I do not have any formal training in the arts. I have always felt I’m too clumsy with my hands to make anything worthwhile. I started because I am a very tactile person and I needed to put my anxious hands to work. Collaging and blackout poetry became my best friends. When I realized people actually liked what I was creating (which still feels unbelievable to me), I decided to stop doubting myself so much. I started taking chances I never even dreamed of (this exhibition being one of them).
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foundartbyadishi/
