Dex Diggler

​

​I have always felt society treats me differently because I am in a wheelchair, and I talk funny. When I was in my last year of university, I remember talking to some friends about never having had a girlfriend before, and worrying that I might never end up having my own family. All you ever see in the media are pictures of people with ‘perfect bodies’. This makes me feel like there is something wrong with my body, or something wrong with me as a person. This has made me angry at society and a lot of mainstream media. 

This project is inspired by that anger – it’s my way of resisting the shame society throws onto disabled people.

Growing up in Jamaica in the 90's, when disabled people where commonly referred to as "handicapped", there was little in the way of specialist facilities and I was made to walk on my knees and treated differently from other children. A constant reminder of my physical difference was compounded when I matured and my body confidence suffered. This project is a cathartic exploration of my own body and

sexuality and an affirmation of my current confidence. I want to show that disabled people's bodies and sexuality have been under represented in both art and the media and that a physical disability doesn't diminish a person's desires or needs. Mixing ideas of classical nude statuary, the representation of the body in painting, boudoir photography and the aesthetics of pornography I want to challenge

perceptions of what it means to be a young, black, sexually-active disabled man in the 21 st century.