Image Description: Photo of the main wall of the gallery exhibit. Sensory strings hang from the ceiling in a spectrum of colours from red to green. Shelves line the wall, covered by translucent fabric the same colours as the strings. An oversized mask bears the title of the exhibit in bright cutout letters. Below, two rows of gold cubbies on the shelves contain the 11 zines in the exhibit. A black and white pen drawing from one of the zines covers the door. It features a stylized facade of a smooth, stone building with arched windows and an optical illusion of stairs that lead nowhere. A series of clown figures occupy the space of the building: at the top-centre floats a large clown face with a pointed hat. Just below, two smaller clowns with striped outfits perch precariously at the edges of two windows. At the bottom of the image, two floating clowns converse from either side of a full-length mirror.
Re•Storying Autism ‘In’ Difference/ Autistic, Surviving and Thriving Under COVID-19 was an initiative of the Re•Storying Autism Collective curated by Kat Singer and supported by arts educator Tara Bursey as well as led and sponsored by the Re•Storying Autism Project and Patty Douglas with contributions from Tangled Art + Disability Gallery. The Collective is an international research creation collaborative with over 50+ members. Through collaborative story making, research and art, we resist the misunderstanding and exclusion of Autistic people and their supporters from education, life and art, and release a multiplicity of affirming stories of Autism, solidarity 'in' difference and collective care. The Re•Storying Autism Project works collaboratively to co-create worlds that align with disability and racial justice and affirm Autistic and Neurodivergent ways of being. An emerging focus on the project is decolonizing stories of Autism with Metis, Cree and other Indigenous collaborators from the land currently known as Manitoba, Canada as well as Māori and Pacifica collaborators in Aotearoa.
Autistic, Surviving and Thriving Under COVID-19
A Zine and Video Exhibition at Tangled Art + Disability Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
September 9-October 21, 2022
Description: A black ink hand drawn image of a shadowy figure emerging from a swirl of bare trees and branches. Cover of Em Farquhar-Barrie's zine Where Did Everyone Go?
Description: An image of two hour glasses with blue liquid inside. A hand holds onto one of them. The second hour glass lays on its side. Image from Steacy Easton's film Fidget.
Thank you to all the makers, facilitators, artists and supporters who made this show possible! Click on the image of logos below for more.
Artists: Anonymous, Chris Pappas, Claire Johnston, Em Farquar-Barrie, Emily Gillespie, G.P., Hannah Munroe, Jen Fehr, Jesse Star, Joan Yang, Katrissa Singer, Lucabean, Mandy Klein, Rose Bisk, Raya Shields, Steacy Easton, Venus Underhill
Logos of exhibit supporters: Bodies in Translation, Re•Vision Centre for Art and Social Justice, Tangled Art + Disability, Mitacs, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Re•Storying Autism in Education is a multimedia story making project that brings together Autistic people, family and kin, educators, practitioners and artists to rethink education in ways that desire the difference of autism.
The project has its home on Treaty 2 territory, the traditional homeland of the Dakota, Anishanabek, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dene and Metis peoples who shared this land before colonizers arrived. We pay our respects to and acknowledge the continued vital presences of Indigenous nations on these lands and support Indigenous resistance and resurgence.
Click the logo to the left to explore the main Re•Storying Autism site.
