Masking/Unmasking

In 2025, I developed the project Masking/Unmasking to delve into the concept of masking – when we hide, change or suppress parts of ourselves to meet society’s expectations. It’s something many disabled, neurodivergent, chronically ill, and people with mental health struggles do every day.

My name is Sam Cleasby, I’m a disabled artist and disability activist, I have a degree in Fine Art, where my practice lies within disability and accessibility and a PGCert in Disability Studies. I have delivered creative workshops all over the UK and my passion is in highlighting the struggles, joys and real lives of disabled people. I am a writer and a public speaker and I have spoken all over the UK and Europe about disability and accessibility. As an artist, I know I want to use my creativity to push change and understanding and so I created this project based on my own experiences of the masking/hiding/altering I have done for over 20 years due to the societal expectations around disability.

After a call out for disabled and/or neurodivergent people, I found a group of amazing folk from all over the UK. I held online workshops in small groups to create a safe space for us to talk about masking and how it has affected our lives. These workshops were powerful and emotional and gave the participants a chance to unmask and open up about the realities of their lives.

Each participant then received a pack with some art supplies, and were asked to create a mask that represented themselves and their feelings about chronic illness, disability, accessibility, mental health struggles and neurodivergency.

I have been overwhelmed by the response. Beautiful, raw, honest and incredible artworks and stories came from Masking/Unmasking. And I am now looking for an opportunity to exhibit some of these stories. Both through presenting the scuptural works of the masks and also sharing audio soundscapes and written words of the stories I was entrusted with.

I will be developing this page over the next few weeks, sharing more images and stories, but if you can support me in creating an exhibition for Masking/Unmasking, please get in touch on artsamcleasby@adminsam

Above all, thank you to the people who got involved, who trusted me to hear their stories and who created powerful works of beauty, strength and vulnerability.

Lizzie Norris

Sam Cleasby

Alex Young

Tracy Jallow

Cherie Sullivan

I will be updating this page with more images and stories over the coming weeks, but once again, if you can help me to get this important work into an exhibition, please get in touch. I am a disabled artist and this has not been funded in any way. Contact me at artsamcleasby@adminsam