About Lisa Bufano
Lisa Bufano was an American interdisciplinary performance artist. Due to a life-threatening bacterial infection, she lost her lower legs and most of her fingers and thumbs at the age of 21. However, this physical impairment did not impede on her continuation of the arts. She toured from 2006 to 2010 with the AXIS Dance Company, a professional physically integrated contemporary dance company that was one of the first to incorporate both dancers with and without physical disabilities. Her work typically incorporated a variety of prosthesis and props, such as using Queen Anne table legs as legs and arms whilst performing. Yet, she likewise included segments in her work in which her body was the sole focus of the performance. Through her work and daily life, Lisa Bufano tested the limitations imposed by not only her physical disability, but the set norms of an ableist society, from using carbon fiber prosthetic legs to run several miles a day to exploring her sexual identity through her art.
Disability and Art: Then and Now
Lisa was a testament of the change of representation of people with disabilities in art. Take the portrait The Beggars (The Cripples) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder for instance. Pieter Bruegel was a significant artist from the Dutch and Flemish Renaissance who was known for his landscape and genre paintings that particularly depicted peasants and Flemish commoners. While some of his paintings depicted commoners in moments of celebration to capture a more joyous aspect of their existence rather than showing them dejected, the portrait The Beggars is essentially the “… depiction of human degradation” (Roger H. Marinjinsen). This unsympathetic depiction is likewise analogous to an ableist society’s negative sentiment towards individuals with disabilities, views that unfortunately persist today.
It is evident that the historical context plays a significant role in Lisa’s representation of disability and that depicted in the portrait. Nevertheless, it is interesting to point out Lisa’s ability to transform her disability into art. She took something that is negatively stigmatized, such as the stilts used by the beggars in the painting and her own, and transformed it into something more artistic, intriguing, and beautiful. As her brother stated in her remembrance, Lisa was “able to transform futility into beauty”. However, her performance simultaneously touches upon the notion of performing disability and the problematic aspects of doing so.
Performing Disability
As Joseph N. Straus mentions in his essay “Extraordinary Measures”, when musical performances have an aspect of a freak show, “audiences pay to see and hear unusual figures whose appearance and ability deviate far from the norm” (Straus). For performers who have conspicuous disabilities, this bridge between performance and a freak show becomes significantly notable. They become a victim of “engulfment”, or the process in which a person is reduced to their disability (Garland- Thomson).
Similarly, Micheal M. Chemers from Carnegie Mellon University, in his essay on “Bodies in Commotion: Disability and Performance”, discusses the notion of staring. While staring is created and wished by a performer on stage, staring is often dreaded in public, especially when it makes an individual with a disability a spectacle to gawk at rather than a mere human being. In a similar regard, Chemers notes how staring at a disabled body is socially permissible whereas staring at a normal body is rude. This can be comparably applied to the case of Lisa Bufano as she showcases her disability through her art. Hence, when considering this perspective, is it not the similar act of paying to witness a performer who strays from the “conventional” attributes established by society back when freak shows were commonly attended by the public? Does it touch upon this problematic notion of displaying disability for an audience to witness, especially when her performance depicts solely her physical body?
Prior to answering such questions, however, it is important to consider the current historical context given by the advancement of Disability Studies. As Micheal M. Chemer states when analyzing disability and performance, “Theatre Studies and Disability Studies derives from the rejection of antiqued models for recognizing and understanding disability”. For example, he mentions the post 1970s development of the Social Model, which essentially views a disability as one of the several characteristics of an individual, thus resisting the previously noted term “engulfment”. Overall, it goes to show that just as there is a social script for race and gender, disability is arguably performative as well, and therefore can be “played tactically, employing a wide variety of strategies…” (Chemer). In this perspective, performing disability is not seen as a “freak show”, but rather as simply portraying one’s disability concurrently with their other physical characteristics, such as skin color and gender.
So, with this perspective taken into consideration, will the questions asked prior still apply to Lisa Bufano’s performance? Or, does the context of the 21st century and the growth of acceptance for individuals with disabilities through the Social Model allow for an inclusive environment within the performing arts discipline? And, most importantly, is it important to create this sense of inclusivity that will allow individuals with differing abilities to express themselves through art, just as Lisa Bufano did. As she stated herself: “Despite my own terror and discomfort in being watched… I am finding that being in front of viewers as a performer with deformity can produce a magnetic tension that could be developed into strength”.
