PISS ON PITY

by Zoe Partington

Image Description: The wording reads on the art work, 'Piss on Pity', - in bright pink neon lights quite flamboyant in a stylised handwritten font. The neon words are framed inside a transparent Perspex box.

Medium: neon glass tube lights/ surrounded by a Perspex box with electric plug in.

Depth: 80mm, Height: 595mm, Length: 1855mm

Weight: 40lbs (18.14kg)

Installed at FACT, Liverpool

“Piss on Pity“ originated as a slogan of defiance. Disabled people’s activism had been growing throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. In ‘92 we organised ‘Block Telethon’ with the aim of challenging and ending the patronage associated with the UK’s multiple disability charities. Telethon was a grotesque televised event in which ‘celebrities’ pranced around mindlessly for 27 hours demeaning disabled people in a series of trite films and TV routines, whilst begging for money from the public without — as Professor Mike Oliver described it — our permission. Disabled people despised such misrepresentation, arguing that it undermined the case for our rights and put emphasis on our status as ‘tragic but brave’.

For the original anti-Telethon protest in 1990 we made placards, brainstorming slogans — one of which emerged as Piss on Pity. Police officers — clearly known for their delicate sensibilities — described the placard as offensive, and confiscated it.

Our response in 1992 — the second and much larger anti-Telethon protest — was to have 120 ‘Piss on Pity’ T-shirts printed for us to wear. They were black with large shocking pink lettering. I was instructed by the Met police to take mine off and explained that I’d be happy to but wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Was that ok?

Barbara Lisicki, artist, campaigner, activist