Creator: Kristine White
GENRE: INSTALLATION, VISUAL ART
This project is a series of fairy tales reinterpreted from a queer perspective and illustrated through shadow projections. It is a re-reading of well known folk and fairy tales that have undertones of queerness, mental health and sexuality that have been intentionally or otherwise suppressed in the versions we know. The form of the installations are large light boxes which project an intricate paper-cut tableau of images relating to the story. The folk style of papercut art is a powerful contrast to the sometimes morbid, raunchy and eerie subtext which these stories contain– themes which the illustrations will be heavily focused on.
Kristine White is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in the realms of puppetry, installation and performance. Kristine’s work is often driven by explorations of myth, folklore and symbology, creating visual metaphors that often result in immersive and site-specific installations and performances.
CONTENT WARNINGS
Nudity, Violence, Sexual Content, Rape and/or Sexual Assault
To purchase pieces from the Mad Fairy Tales series, please contact paulina_wiszowata@workmanarts.com for more info.
Images of the Mad Fairy Tales installation in Re:Building Resilience:
Photos by Henry Chang
Please Note: There is one virtual ticket available for the entire Re:Building Resilience Exhibition. Whether you’d like to see one project or all of them, you only need to book one ticket to access everything. The exhibition runs October 15-25, and all purchasers will be sent a link to view the virtual content. Any ticket bought prior to October 15 will receive a follow up email on the 15th with the link.
ACCESSIBILITY
Self-Care Kits are available for free curbside pickup to ticket holders. Kits can be picked up from 651 Dufferin Street between the hours of 10AM-9PM, October 15-25. If pickup is not an accessible option for you, contact justina_zatzman@workmanarts.com for accommodation.
COMMUNITY PARTNER
ALSO OF INTEREST
GENRE: DANCE, INSTALLATION, INTERACTIVE, MEDIA ART, MULTIMEDIA, PERFORMANCE ART, POETRY, THEATRE, VISUAL ART
TYPE: EXHIBITION, PERFORMANCE
Re:Building Resilience features 25 installations that examine all facets of mental health issues. This will be our last festival at 651 Dufferin Street before moving to a brand new facility at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. What better way to say “good-bye” than to animate all 11,000 square feet with performance art, installations, theatre, dance, film and media art?
Tickets and Viewing Options
Tickets for virtual viewing are pay what you wish. Virtual viewing is available throughout the festival. With your ticket, you will have access to a virtual tour that includes a virtual swag bag with extra features from the 25 projects on offer. All ticket holders will also be invited to receive physical RWM swag bags available for free curbside pickup during festival hours.
Please Note: There is one virtual ticket available for the entire Re:Building Resilience Exhibition. Whether you’d like to see one project or all of them, you only need to book one ticket to access everything. The exhibition runs October 15-25, and all purchasers will be sent a link to view the virtual content. Any ticket bought prior to October 15 will receive a follow up email on the 15th with the link.
ACCESSIBILITY
Self-Care Kits are available for free curbside pickup to ticket holders. Kits can be picked up from 651 Dufferin Street between the hours of 12PM-9PM, October 15-25. If pickup is not an accessible option for you, contact justina_zatzman@workmanarts.com for accommodation.
PROJECTS INCLUDED IN RE:BUILDING RESILIENCE
Grey K P Muldoon: Mad Carpets - Hotel Carpet Dance Projections
Saba Akhtar: The Anatomy of a Home
Justin Mencel: Alpha Support
Mitchell Clark Meller: Scarecrow
Kara Stone: Medication Meditation
Alexandra Caprara & Raechel Kula: ThreadBare
Wieslawa Nowicka: Into the dark of my skin
Kristine White: Mad Fairy Tales
Kassandra Walters: untitled (`{`not`}` always like this)
Ivetta Sunyoung Kang: Intolerance of Uncertainty
Sophie Dow: Mountain Duets
Van Lisa: Due to Renovations
Quarter Kid Productions: Prose in Therapy
Jenny Chen: Multitude of Fish
Laura Shintani: Neuroelastic
Megan Moore: Ectoplasms
Longernin Collective: Post-Part
Rochelle R: Queen Latifah Give Me Strength
Hanan Hazime: Mad Poetry Apothecary
Paul Butler: The Collage Party
James Knott: Apocalypse In Your Bedroom
Mike 'Piecez' Prosserman: BREATHE: a dance production on Hip Hop + Mental Health
Pesch Nepoose: The Bridge
ALSO OF INTEREST
Making Mad: How Expressions of Vulnerability Connect Us
GENRE: MEDIA ART, VISUAL ART
TYPE: EXHIBITION
Featured Artists: Alison Crouse, Peter Dillman, Esmond Lee, Ben McCarthy & SpekWork, Sarah Trad and Véronique Vallières
Curated by Claudette Abrams
Through humour and pathos, the artists in Making Mad explore the ways in which depictions of vulnerability in their work resonate on a human scale. Deep-diving into personal touchstones that go beyond the individual, these works relate in poignant and absurd ways to our condition as a collective of fallible, temporal beings.
Vulnerability is rarely associated with courage, yet it is central to survival. Happiness and contentment require little consideration—fitting well within our expectations and ideals—yet pain and uncertainty seem to demand justification in order to understand their purpose and meaning (especially in the absence of any explanation).
The artists in Making Mad unapologetically take cues from their own misgivings to draw attention to our universal susceptibility to harm. They attempt to debunk stigma equated with weakness, shame and isolation, to embrace the compassion, intimacy and intensity of the ways in which vulnerability teaches us to live with an awareness of the likelihood of change.
- OPENING RECEPTION
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 7-11 PM - October 11- October 20
daily, 12 - 6 PM
(closed Oct 14)
FREE
TMAC - Toronto Media Arts Centre
32 Lisgar St
Toronto
ARTIST TALK/PANEL
Saturday, October 12, 1-3 PM
Wheelchair Accessible Venue, Artist Talk/Panel is ASL Interpreted
ARTISTS
Alison Crouse
Devastation Portraits is a series of performative images, staged by the artist, who deliberately collapses face down in public spaces. These overt re-enactments give visibility to the often-invisible weight of anxiety and depression and challenge societal norms of what is considered “appropriate” emotional expression. Alison continues to produce these scenarios for sharing on social media, and they have been featured in BuzzFeed, Metro.uk and on the NPR Picture Show.
Alison Crouse is a Philadelphia-based artist, filmmaker, photographer and instructor. She received her MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University and her BFA in Photography from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and University of Vermont. Her award-winning film and videos have been broadcast, screened and distributed internationally. Alison Crouse’s photographic work has been published and shown in galleries across North America.
Peter Dillman
45 Homes is a body of work which chronicles the forty-five different homes that he moved in and out of throughout his life with a changing constellation of family members, house mates and partners. Through the compilation of documentary materials, such as census data and photographs the artist reconstructs and recounts a history of domestic instability from an early age, moving to a more stable environment as he achieved autonomy.
Peter Dillman is a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist, curator, theatre professional and instructor. He studied Fine Art at the University of Waterloo, Theatre Design at the National Theatre School, and Culture and Heritage Management at Centennial College. His multi-media work explores themes of home and environment. Peter Dillman’s work has been exhibited across Canada and is held in corporate and private collections.
Esmond Lee
Ancestral Veneration is a photo-based series depicting the inter-generational realities of migration. As a second-generation Chinese Canadian, Lee’s work examines the nuances and ambiguities of suburban cultural evolutions. His layering of familial and familiar motifs on vinyl mesh banner material echo the clash and assimilation of ancestral values with contemporary identities and experiences.
Esmond Lee is a Toronto-based artist and architect. He holds a Master of Architecture (University of Toronto) and Bachelor of Architectural Studies (Carleton University). He has received Toronto and Ontario Art Council grants and is recognized by the Ontario Association of Architects. His work has been exhibited at Gallery 44, Koffler Centre for the Arts, Toronto Media Arts Centre and Artscape Youngplace. Recent projects include participation in the Ontario Heritage Trust’s Doris McCarthy Artist-in-Residence program and Nuit Blanche 2019.
SpekWork
resourced is a VR documentary about the precarious labour of frontline workers. The user progresses through a series of interactive levels, each built to reflect the lived experience of street nurses, social workers, sex workers, and activists; people serving those at the margins of society who are often marginalized themselves through associated stigma and poverty.
SpekWork is a studio exploring new political narratives through game design with a focus on the dynamic relationship between work and play. The studio is a collaborative effort of Cat Bluemke, Ben McCarthy and Jonathan Carroll, post-secondary instructors teaching from the intersections of art, labour and emerging technologies. Members of the collective have been recognized through awards, grants and commissions for their individual and collective work, and supported by Rhizome, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Sarah Trad
In Sickness and in Health (but mostly, Just in Sickness) is a multi-channel video projection installation which visually shows unnoticed moments between couples and explores the difficulties of seeking companionship while faced with mental illness, codependent tendencies and metaphysical crisis. The title, partly taken from traditional marriage vows, highlights the optimistic decision to bond.
Sarah Trad is a Philadelphia-based artist. She graduated with a BFA in Art Film from Syracuse University, where she subsequently became an Engagement Fellow. She is the recipient of the 77Art Artist Residency (Rutland Vermont Art Center) and Carol N. Schmuckler Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film. Sarah has shown at The Warehouse Gallery (Syracuse, NY), Kitchen Table Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), Gravy Studio and Gallery (Philadelphia, PA) and the Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse, NY).
Véronique Vallières
I Extend my Arms/Je Tends les Bras is a multi-media installation involving a methodically storied assemblage of forms that playfully hinge on spectrums of human experience, spirited dualities and intensity of feeling. Physical interaction with material is signified as curative. Craft functions as a survival tool, patterns as armour, and scale that transforms larger-than-life, gender-fluid, soft-sculptures into delightfully embracing recliners.
Véronique Vallières is a Toronto-based, multi-media artist, working primarily in ceramics, textiles and printmaking. They hold a BFA from Concordia University and have attended residencies in Montréal, Moncton and Winnipeg. As a film curator, they co-programmed monthly film and performance events for the Revue Cinema. Véronique Vallières has received multiple grants for their work, which has been exhibited widely, and most recently, acquired for the CAMH permanent art collection.
MEDIA PARTNER
#GETMAD: JOIN THE CONVERSATION
ARTIST TALK/PANEL
Saturday, October 12, 1-3 PM
Toronto Media Arts Centre
Join the exhibiting artists in conversation with Curator Claudette Abrams as they discuss how their work explores and navigates issues of mental health and pushes back against stigmas.