This discussion is accompanied by an ASL interpretation by Brooke Nancekivell.
In this informal conversation Sean Lee and Aislinn Thomas will discuss Aislinn's project, Three windows and their reflections on Crip time* in pandemic time.
Three windows was originally commissioned by Tangled Art + Disability as part of the Flourishing project in 2018. In the past, Aislinn has described the piece as, "an invitation to slowness," created in response to her lived experience of chronic illness and access. Of course, being isolated at home is no longer so rare a thing. Sean and Aislinn will reflect on how this work and the context it grew out of are understood differently in light of Covid-19, and their experiences of Crip time in pandemic time more generally.
Sean Lee is a disabled artist, curator and the Director of Programming at Tangled Art + Disability. He sits on the boards of CARFAC Ontario, Creative Users Projects, and the8Fest. He is a member of the Ontario Art Council’s Deaf and Disability Advisory and Toronto Art Council's Visual and Media Arts Committee.
Aislinn Thomas is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes video, performance, sculpture, installation, and text. She culls material from everyday experiences and relationships, creating work that ranges from poignant to absurd--at times straddling both. Many of her recent projects respond to access and disability, treating both as spaces for creative acts. Aislinn is grateful to live and work in Mi’kma’ki, in Unama'ki / Cape Breton on the unceded territory of the Lnu'k.
The references mentioned during the discussion between the two artists :
Talia Lewis definition of ableism, with Dustin Gibson.
Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time by Ellen Samuels.
Disability Justice" is Simply Another Term for Love by Mia Mingus.
The exhibition FLOURISHING at the Tangled Art + Disability.
The Human Flourishing Project (of which the Tangled exhibition was a part).
To learn sore on Aislinn's work with experimental approaches to visual description :
Critical Distance Centre for Curators recently hosted a case study where they talked about the successes and room for growth in the A distinct aggregation, the project curated by Jacqueline Bell for the Walter Phillips Gallery Aislinn mentions. The recording is not yet public, but will be in the near future.
In 2019 Critical Distance hosted The Culture of Crip Aesthetics as part of ACCESS IS LOVE and LOVE IS COMPLICATED where Aislinn geeks out about experimental visual description.
Robert MacFarlane interview where Aislinn heard the quote she references.
Kelly Fritsch’s definition of Crip time in Bodies in Translation Guiding Principles.
Shape Arts on the social model of disability (defined in opposition to the medical model).
*Crip time : “Crip time is flex time not just expanded but exploded; it requires reimagining our notions of what can and should happen in time, or recognizing how expectations of ‘how long things take’ are based on very particular minds and bodies” (27) Alison Kafer, Feminist Queer Crip, 2013. Extrait du Queer Futures Collective.