Call and Response: Opulent Mobility

shoeboxartsla
2 days ago
3 min read

Living with an eating disorder and kidney cancer has taught me that our bodies are sites of both struggle and profound transformation. When I encounter Opulent Mobility, I recognize something essential: the radical act of reimagining disability as opulent, as powerful, as beautiful. This is not just representation—this is revolution.

Founded by A. Laura Brody, Opulent Mobility creates vital platforms that challenge the de(con)struction of ableist narratives. Their work doesn't simply include disabled voices; it centers them, amplifies them, transforms the very framework through which we understand embodiment and possibility. In their vision, I see my own journey reflected—not as limitation, but as a surrealist autobiography of resilience.

This organization's mission resonates deeply because it refuses the medicalized gaze that would reduce us to symptoms, diagnoses, deficits. Instead, Opulent Mobility celebrates the richness of disability culture, the innovation born from navigating a world not built for our bodies, the community forged through shared understanding. Their exhibition at Brand Library & Art Center (April 26 - June 21, 2025) partners with Glendale Unified School District students, building bridges across generations and experiences.

This Call and Response collaboration embodies their revolutionary spirit through intimate artistic dialogues. Over two weeks, paired artists created visual conversations exploring mobility, identity, accessibility, empowerment. The works are breathtaking and necessary—Dellis Frank and Lina Kogan transforming assistive devices into symbols of power and beauty, Julie O'Sullivan and Ellen Mansfield excavating the depths of deaf identity, Lidia Kaku and Nino Khundadze choreographing dreams of unencumbered movement.

These exchanges demonstrate what happens when we center disabled perspectives: innovation flourishes, new aesthetic languages emerge, political possibilities expand. Each piece challenges the systems that would contain us while celebrating the creativity that emerges from our lived experiences.

Opulent Mobility demands that we see, that we celebrate, that we learn. Their work reminds us that disability is not deficit but difference, not burden but beautiful complexity. This exhibition stands as testimony to what becomes possible when art centers marginalized voices and builds communities of resistance, celebration, and profound transformation.

~Kristine Schomaker