Sanat Tarihini Sakatlamak: Riva Lehrer’in Portrelerinde Engellilik ve Sanat Tarihinin Kesişimi

Yıl 2026, Sayı: 35, 137 - 158, 22.01.2026

Ahou Mostowfi

https://doi.org/10.17484/yedi.1793231

Öz

Bu makale, engellilik çalışmaları ile sanat tarihi arasındaki kesişim alanını incelemekte ve engellilik kuramlarının engelli sanatçı Riva Lehrer’in sanatsal üretimlerinde nasıl somutlaştığını ortaya koymaktadır. Araştırmanın amacı engelliliği, temsil edilen bir eksiklikten ziyade estetik, etik ve politik düşünce ile üretim alanlarını dönüştüren bir güç olarak değerlendirmektir. Engelli hakları hareketinden doğan engellilik kültürü, 1970’lerden itibaren engelli bireylerin deneyimlerinden beslenen bir dayanışma, bilgi ve üretim alanı olarak şekillenmiş; kusur, kırılganlık, yavaşlık, karşılıklı bağımlılık, tüm canlı varlıklara saygı ve direnişçi mizah gibi değerleri merkeze almıştır. Engellilik kültürü, normatif beden anlayışıyla birlikte faydacılık, üretkenlik ve hız gibi neoliberal değerler sistemini sorgulayan bir estetik ve etik paradigma da oluşturur. Bu bağlamda, engelliliği bireysel yetersizlik değil, ilişkisel bir varoluş biçimi ve kolektif dayanıklılık ile alternatif bir yaşam bilgisinin kaynağı olarak kavramsallaştırır. Aynı zamanda normatifin ötesinde bir duyumsama, varoluş ve gelecek tahayyülünün imkânlarını araştırır. Çalışmanın kuramsal çerçevesi, engellilik kültürünün farklı boyutlarını açıklayan ve kavramsallaştıran düşünürlerin yaklaşımlarına dayanmaktadır: Tobin Siebers’in engellilik estetiği, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’ın bakış etiği, Robert McRuer’in crip teorisi, Amanda Cachia’nın yaratıcı erişim kavramı ve Alison Kafer’in sakat zaman anlayışı bu çerçevenin temelini oluşturmaktadır. Yöntem olarak, yakın görsel okuma ve yorumsal analiz tekniklerinin kullanıldığı çalışmada; Lehrer’in Circle Stories, The Risk Pictures ve Zoom Portraits gibi serilerinden örnekler, anlatılan kavramlar ışığında incelenmiştir. Bulgular, Lehrer’in portre pratiğinin, portre geleneğini biçimlendiren sağlamcı, birey merkezli, idealize ve hiyerarşik temsil anlayışına eleştirel bir karşı duruş geliştirdiğini göstermektedir. Sanatçı, kusur, kırılganlık, yavaşlık ve karşılıklı bağımlılık gibi engellilik kültürünün değerlerini özneleşme, etik ortaklık ve dayanışma biçimlerine dönüştürmektedir. Sonuç olarak makale, engellilik estetiği ve engellilik kültürünün sanat tarihi söylemine etik, estetik ve epistemolojik açıdan dönüştürücü bir katkı sunduğunu; bu çerçevenin sanat tarihinin analitik ufkuna eleştirel ve yaratıcı bir derinlik kazandırdığını ortaya koymaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Sakat sanat , engellilik estetiği , crip teori , Riva Lehrer , portre , sanat tarihi , yaratıcı erişim , engellilik çalışmaları

Teşekkür

Çalışma sürecinde kıymetli önerileri, düzeltmeleri ve yol gösterici katkılarının yanı sıra, akademik rehberliği ve arkadaşlığıyla bana cömertçe eşlik eden değerli danışmanım Sayın Doç. Dr. Zeynep Yasa Yaman’a içtenlikle teşekkür ederim.

Cripping Art History: Disability Aesthetics in Riva Lehrer’s Portraits

Öz

This article examines the intersection between disability studies and art history, revealing how disability theories are embodied in the artistic practice of disabled artist Riva Lehrer. The study aims to reconsider disability not as a sign of lack or deficiency, but as a transformative force reshaping aesthetic, ethical, and political modes of thought and creation. Since the 1970s, disability culture has evolved as a space of solidarity, knowledge, and creative production rooted in the lived experiences of disabled individuals. It foregrounds values such as imperfection, vulnerability, slowness, interdependence, respect for all living beings, and resistant humor. Disability culture challenges the neoliberal system of values centered on productivity, utility, and speed, and offers an aesthetic and ethical paradigm that contests the normative understanding of the body. Within this framework, disability is conceptualized not as individual incapacity but as a relational mode of existence, a source of collective resilience and alternative life knowledge, and a way of envisioning sensory, existential, and future possibilities beyond the normative. The theoretical framework draws upon key thinkers who have articulated diverse aspects of disability culture: Tobin Siebers’s disability aesthetics, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s ethics of staring, Robert McRuer’s crip theory, Amanda Cachia’s creative access, and Alison Kafer’s crip time. Methodologically, the study employs close visual reading and interpretive analysis, focusing on Lehrer’s series including Circle Stories, The Risk Pictures, and Zoom Portraits through the lens of these theoretical concepts. The findings demonstrate that Lehrer’s portrait practice develops a critical counter-position to the ableist, individual-centered, idealized, and hierarchical conventions of portraiture, transforming the disability-culture values of imperfection, vulnerability, slowness, and interdependence into forms of subjectivation, ethical reciprocity, and solidarity. In conclusion, the article argues that disability aesthetics and disability culture offer a transformative ethical, aesthetic, and epistemological contribution to art-historical discourse, expanding its analytical and creative horizons.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Disability art , disability aesthetics , crip theory , Riva Lehrer , portraiture , art history , creative access , disability studies

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