When I grow up, I will become a coat rack
In Jenni-Juulia Wallinheimo-Heimonen’s glittering and futuristic worlds, blind people drive cars and the elderly wish for care robots to protect them from their human caregivers. In the exhibition When I grow up, I will become a coat rack, she invites us to better understand the consequences of excluding disabled people from decision-making and technological innovation.
Wallinheimo-Heimonen is both an artist and an activist. She highlights unnecessary dependencies between the disabled community and medical and social infrastructures that perpetuate the lower status of disability in society. Adjusting, fixing, rehabilitating or converting people to what is supposed to be normal is no longer politically correct for any minority, and it shouldn’t also be the case for disabled people.
In her playful and humorous worlds where things can be different, she makes us think critically about the potential of inclusion and awareness. In addition, she points out the contribution technology could make if understood from a place of joy and pleasure and what would change if quality of life was prioritised over profit, efficiency and ableism.