ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Indebted to the words and thinking of disability justice educator Mia Mingus, wherever you are is where i want to be offers access intimacy as the un-structuring logic for our collective queer and trans crip futures. Refusing the loudly eugenicist mapping of isolation and disposability upon our disabled queer-trans-crip bodyminds, the multi-disciplinary practices platformed here speak with a loved urgency to the ways in which embodied experiences of access intimacy have the capacity to reconfigure time, space, and relation. Spanning installation to textile to video, the work of these artists proposes the act, experience, and feeling of crip kinship as a means and model of radical future-making.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Sarah–Tai Black (they/them) is an arts curator and critic born and (mostly) raised in Treaty 13 Territory/Toronto whose work aims to center Black, queer, trans, and crip futurities and freedom work. Their curatorial work has been staged at Cambridge Art Galleries (Cambridge, ON), Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina, SK), MOCA (Toronto ON), PAVED Arts (Saskatoon, SK), and A Space Gallery (Toronto, ON).

CHAINS & CROWNS
Stéphane Alexis

Chains & Crowns, is a photo-based series of artworks inspired and dedicated to the artist’s mother. This large-scale print depicts the history, politics, science and psychology of Black Hairstyles. The typological series displayed in a grid format encourages the viewer to cross-reference hairstyles and allows the Black and broader communities the opportunity to draw from their personal experiences, whether that be through their own stories or through their community members. The work also comes with information on styles that derive from an array of time periods, cultures and movements ranging from Ancient Egypt (2700 BC – 343 BC) to The Natural Hair Movement (1960 – present). This gives way for the audience to further solidify their understanding through historical text and to question the multi-faceted ways these styles have been utilized and evolved in impact over time.

Stéphane Alexis is an artist based in Ottawa, Canada. His work stems from personal experiences, research, community collaborations and visual expression, all fostering a strong desire to bring a level of understanding to the often overlooked communities. Stéphane’s work seeks to give insight into these communities in which he belongs to.

Artist website:  stephanealexis.com

Keywords: Activism | Community | Depression | Resilience | Trauma

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

AN IN-PERSON EXHIBITION

Kindness is not an act of weakness. It is an act that resists societal expectations of doing and saying nothing. This form of rebellion is evident in this year’s Rendezvous With Madness visual art exhibition whereby the six exhibiting artists address within their work personal experiences that challenge what mental health and wellness looks like. Action is apparent through frameworks of compassion, thought-provoking imagery and considerate storytelling.