I’m a disabled artist and activist. I create art where everyone is valued – including nature

I love my art but sometimes it’s tricky, and it takes a village. This article has been co-written by me and some of my ‘village’, my creative assistants Ciara Bolton,Emily Nicholl and Nick Alban, as well as my mother, Thea Chambers. My writing process is conversational, grounded in listening, reflecting and responding.

We begin by exploring themes and I write directly using my eye gaze or select new phrases. My assistants expand upon my insights, weaving them into sentences. Together we then review, so that my authorial voice and intentions are felt in every line.

Comfort in the gloom and smoothness in the rough, the world beneath us is full of under-appreciated contrasts – bristly and squeaking, yet still and quiet. It’s easy to miss the layers of life we don’t see, but if you listen, you’ll feel the wet, warm noises. This is what I wanted to capture in A World Beneath Us, an accessible At Home show created with Oily Cart, a theatre company that crafts sensory shows for and with disabled children and young people.

A World Beneath Us is an immersive experience of touch, music, and zesty vibrations, inviting audiences to explore the often-underestimated importance of the bristling fungal life under our feet – much like my own experiences as a disabled artist in a world that often overlooks those that don’t conform.

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My name is Greta, and I use an eye gaze communicator, which means I create and communicate with my eyes. I’m an award-winning, multidisciplinary artist based in Portobello, with a practice which often focuses on activism, advocating for disability representation, climate justice and agency. Visual art, music and film empower me to express my unique way of seeing and experiencing the world.

I paint with my eyes, each gaze a deliberate brushstroke that colours the world as I see it. The music I make, composed with Drake Music Scotland, layers my eye movements into soundscapes that echo my experiences. In my films I’m an actor, director, and editor, drawing on genres like horror and climate fiction to tell stories inspired by real-life.

I love collaborative creative projects, often working with Edinburgh Youth Theatre and other independent, local artists through Studio Greta. At the heart of my work is a drive to make disabled perspectives visible, which is why I’m often the protagonist in my films—I want my voice heard, my face seen, and my presence recognised.

AWorld Beneath Us is a sensory journey through textures, sounds, and the hidden mycelium networks beneath our feet. The sensory film, accompanied by a box of sensory experiences delivered to your home, brings families into a world of tingling vibrations, sizzling rain, and dazzling shadows. Each layer – a squeaky mushroom blanket, rhythmic breath, shadows framed by light, the smell of damp projections through frothy water – a harmony between all senses, to create an enjoyable space where stories unfold beyond words.

As a disabled artist, it’s important to me that there is theatre for everyone. The film reflects this, each sensory element bringing the outdoors to those who otherwise might struggle to access it. Everyone creates differently. Everyone experiences things differently – this belief is at the core of my work.

This enchanting project has given me more independence as an artist. As Oily Cart’s associate artist (2023-25) and as the film’s director and performer, I have loved learning new ways of working and collaborating with the creative team Nicholas Alban, Ciara Bolton, Thea Chambers , Minttumaari Mäntynen, Maka Marambio, Natalya Martin, Josie Tothill, and Toya Walker.

A World Beneath Us is a call for more accessible theatre, a celebration of ecosystems and communities, whilst asserting that everyone deserves a place in storytelling.

To me, climate activism is an issue that demands individual action and consciousness. As a young, disabled person facing the impacts of inaction, I’m very worried that we’re running out of time, and I’m determined to reflect this urgency in my art. 

Through many of my films, I’m not only urging climate action but also amplifying young and disabled voices. By sharing our perspectives we broaden how society understands and tackles these issues. Change Direction, inspired by Greta Thunberg’s Our House Is on Fire, was screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and channelled the voices of young activists who highlight the critical need for climate action.

Into The Air, awarded Films for Our Future by the Scottish Youth Film Foundation, imagined the steps households must take by 2030 to make a difference. Our futures are interconnected, and no voice should be overlooked in the fight to protect our planet.

Just as mycelium threads connect life beneath the forest floor, our communities thrive on unseen connections. This interconnectedness extends to our responsibility to the planet. A World Beneath Us reminds us that we are all part of a delicate, vibrant ecosystem, resilient yet vulnerable.

In my art, as in nature, there is beauty in slowness and awkwardness. Just by being, we play an important role in our networks. In embracing vulnerability, I create art where everyone – disabled or not – is valued, including the natural world. A whisper of leaves on wet, staggering earth, stirred by unseen breaths, each vibration a quiet call for care. My art honours this and though I’m just one artist, one activist, I am, like the mycelium beneath us, small but mighty.

Oily Cart is touring When the World Turns and Great Big Tiny World across the UK from February. More details can be found at www.oilycart.org.uk.

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