For Tristan Tzara, art was both deadly serious and a game. This intervention, Out of Order at the BALTIC is both.

Tony Heaton has championed disability rights for decades and his activism has informed his practice both as an artist as well as his work as CEO and now as Chair of SHAPE, the disability arts organisation.

In the first instance Out of Order, could be seen as a call for action, a direct way to mobilise and ignite awareness of the basic human rights and opportunities denied to many people in society.

Recent world events from BLM and the social and economic inequalities highlighted by the ongoing Covid pandemic make it clear that the idea of society needs to be reconsidered. We need to declare the idea of ‘normal’ that underpins society  an outdated concept.

In terms of accessibility, it is not just about disability, there are many barriers that deter and impede opportunity in the arts and of course in life as well.

The fallen in society are the forgotten, othered, overlooked, left out, pushed out, ignored, discriminated against, despised, hated, locked away, institutionalised, oppressed, overlooked, objectified, abandoned, neglected, excluded, neutered. Society is not binary it is a complex construction with boundaries constantly being reimagined, rewritten and redrawn.

Tzara said, ‘You’ll never know why you exist, but you’ll always allow yourselves to be easily persuaded to take life seriously’. There are people, even today, who don’t want disabled people to exist, who would like to ‘assist’ us not to…

Heaton has for over thirty years, created a series of deadly serious games; ‘Wheelchair Entrance’, ‘Shaken not Stirred’, ‘Great Britain from a Wheelchair’, ‘Monument to the Unintended Performer’, ‘White on White’, ‘Wheelchair Descending a Staircase’, ‘The Barriers’, ‘Gold Lamé’, ‘Raspberry Ripple’, ‘TRAGIC-BRAVE’ and now, ‘Out of Order’ have been played.

‘Out of Order’ is devised, directed and produced by Tony Heaton and Terry Smith with a specially commissioned original musical score by the British composer John Woolrich.

Web: tonyheaton.co.uk

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Out of Order - 2nd July 2022

Many Disabled people and all wheelchair users rely on lifts to access public buildings.

Non-disabled people never have to worry if lifts are out of order, being serviced or even full, they can use their freedom of choice to take the stairs; Disabled people can’t. They rely on lifts being sufficient in number and in full working order… BUT, often this is not the case, lifts are regularly out-of-order, this is stressful and more than inconvenient for disabled people who want to enjoy the experiences everyone else takes for granted.

There are over 15 million Disabled people in the UK, around 20% of the population. Families with prams and buggies, young children and elders rely on lifts for easy access. Add these to the number of Disabled people and it’s a big issue that doesn’t get recorded or raised, because it mainly only has a negative effect on those with the quietest voices and the least power. Disabled people.  

So why is it that architects routinely fail to provide adequate lifts into public buildings? Why do public funders give tax payers’money to schemes that do not give full and adequate access?

This intervention is a provocation to all of those vision-less architects, cowardly planners, indiscriminate funders, inept decision-makers, those with power and rank, they are out of order and we are dedicating this work to them.

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