December 2023

The Street, Central Saint Martins, UAL (London, UK)

Part of Central Saint Martins x Radical Beauty Project
(A Culture Device initiative)

Radical Play

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Radical Play *

Radical Play was an experiment in curatorial authorship, collective care, and the aesthetics of agency. Spanning three photoshoots—one of which was lost to theft—a public panel, a closing performance, and a suite of commissioned merchandise, the project navigated the labour, politics, and ethics of working with performers, artists, models, and actors with Down Syndrome. Positioned at the intersection of editorial practice, fashion image-making, and neurodivergent representation, the exhibition emerged from a sustained collaboration between shortlisted postgraduate students of the Culture, Criticism and Curation programme and the Radical Beauty Project, an initiative of Culture Device.

What began as an inquiry into performance, identity, and representation evolved into a curatorial methodology shaped by adaptation, improvisation, and collective responsiveness.

The resulting exhibition took over The Street at Central Saint Martins with unapologetic visibility, extending onto the building’s glass façade as a guerrilla intervention. More than its outputs, Radical Play made transparent the conditions of its making: emergent, contingent, and fiercely committed to reimagining who gets to be called an artist—and on what terms.

- To challenge neuronormative standards of beauty, value, and authorship within the fashion and art industries
- To platform neurodivergent artists as autonomous creative practitioners
- To reframe narratives of disability through aesthetics of radical care, joy, and co-creation
- Visual ethnography and collaborative image-making
- Participatory moodboarding and open-call outreach
- Interviews with artists and performers; co-designed photo sessions with photographers
- Budget and logistical coordination with institutional and external stakeholders
- Disability aesthetics and neurodivergent agency
- Curatorial ethics and inclusive representation
- Performance, identity, and embodied authorship
- Institutional critique and public space interventions
- Curatorial essays and wall texts combining reflective and critical theory with lived experiences.
- First-person interview integration into merchandise narratives to support graphic storytelling
- A large-scale public exhibition at Central Saint Martins, including commissioned portraits, archival prints, and guerrilla interventions on CSM facades
- Accompanying live panel discussion and Drag Syndrome performance
- Merchandising (card decks, postcards) that broke even commercially
- Behind-the-scenes documentation and a video essay used for outreach and legacy
- Legacy contribution to Radical Beauty's ongoing body of work and the MA CCC program archive

Making Space Taking Space

Apart from the cross-UAL promotions, Radical Play employed an innovative utilisation of the front facade glass panes at the CSM for a guerilla marketing intervention. The strategic placement allowed the main exhibition to extend its presence beyond the Street space, engaging with a broader audience at no additional cost. The use of the glass panes for display maximised visibility and added a dynamic layer to the building's architecture, inviting passersby to interact with the exhibit in a more informal and unexpected setting. This approach demonstrated a creative solution in marketing, leveraging available resources to enhance the exhibition's reach and impact.

Graphic Design Courtesy: Tanvi Ranjan

View Promotional Posters

Expanding Exhibition

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Event Programming

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Expanding Exhibition 〰️ Event Programming 〰️

“It is important for future creatives to know and meet these artists, and what better place to make that bold statement with their presence at CSM.”

— Daniel Vais, Founder (Culture Device)

Play, Printed. Voice, Archived. Micro-Objects, Macro-Activism

As an extension of Radical Play’s ethos, the project ventured into merchandising not as an afterthought, but as a critical space of authorship and representation. A limited-edition set of postcards and a custom-designed card deck were commissioned as collectible objects that embodied the spirit of play, defiance, and unapologetic individuality.

These merchandises extend the politics of the exhibition into the hands of its audience. These micro-objects are not passive takeaways—they archive voice, celebrate agency, and carry forward a vision of aesthetic defiance. The card deck, in particular, reimagined everyday play as a site of radical inclusion, with custom suits and rulers reflecting neurodivergent identities.

All proceeds from sales were redirected to support the exhibition budget, completing a loop of care, collaboration, and reinvestment.

Cover by: MIRACULOUS MANUFACTURER | Graphic Design and Production: Moco & Nayanika

Radical Play Deck
Cover Design
Information Cards
Postcards

How can neurodivergent artists assert narrative sovereignty in mainstream culture?
What are the ethics of co-creation and consent in curating marginalised voices?
Can “play” be both a creative impulse and a curatorial methodology?
What tensions emerge when radical aesthetics enter traditional art and fashion spaces?
How commissioned merchandise (postcards, card decks) can carry political value, or are they only aesthetic afterthoughts?
How do we differentiate between meaningful visibility and exploitative spectacle in the display of marginalised bodies?
Broadly, the discussion revolved around cultural self-determination, epistemic justice, voice sovereignty , self-representation, and agency of expression in the age of image culture.

Panel Discussion

Live at the LVMH

As the final act of Radical Play, performers from Drag Syndrome took to the LVMH Theatre stage in a live, unscripted performance—part ritual, part reclamation. Among the standout moments was a reimagined version of their iconic "Swan" piece, which had once stunned audiences during their Icelandic tour. It was not any curtain call, but a statement of artistic lineage—placing neurodivergent performance squarely within the canon of contemporary drag and dance.