<span class='caption-artist'>Stefana Fratila</span>, <span class='caption-title'>Portrait of the Young (Crip) Artist at Bathtime</span>, <span class='caption-year'>2021</span>, <span class='caption-medium'>Video still</span>, <span class='caption-dimensions'>Image Description: In this film still, a purple light casts over the corner of a bathtub. To the left of the bathtub is a vanity. Various medication bottles line the back of the vanity to the right of the sink. On the corner of the vanity there is a blue plate with a lit tealight candle, a lighter, and towels. On the ledge behind the bathtub sits a glowing salt lamp, a lit candle, and other small treasures, as well as an illuminated iPhone. Above the ledge, two vines fall down against the tiled wall. The captions read, “Water pouring into bathtub.”</span> — Stefana Fratila, Portrait of the Young (Crip) Artist at Bathtime, 2021, Video still, Image Description: In this film still, a purple light casts over the corner of a bathtub. To the left of the bathtub is a vanity. Various medication bottles line the back of the vanity to the right of the sink. On the corner of the vanity there is a blue plate with a lit tealight candle, a lighter, and towels. On the ledge behind the bathtub sits a glowing salt lamp, a lit candle, and other small treasures, as well as an illuminated iPhone. Above the ledge, two vines fall down against the tiled wall. The captions read, “Water pouring into bathtub.”

February 8 – April 1, 2022

#CripRitual

Works by Khairani Barokka, Ezra Benus, Sky Cubacub, Alexei Dymdymarchenko, Shannon Finnegan, Fran Flaherty, Stefana Fratila, Alex Haagaard, Danielle Hyde, Yo-Yo Lin, Leena Raudvee, RA Walden & Sara Prisma Williston
Curated by Critical Design Lab (Aimi Hamraie, Cassandra Hartblay and Jarah Moesch)

Co-presented with Tangled Art + Disability

Rituals are transformative: they change us and the world around us, whether through incantation or ceremony, private practice or public protest. Academic theories of ritual hold that rituals are embedded in cultural worlds, and that all cultures have rituals of world-building. With the phrase “crip ritual,” this exhibition puts these theories in conversation with disability culture, as understood by disability justice movements and disability studies. Artworks in the exhibition use ritual to foreground understandings of disabled, crip, d/Deaf, Mad, and Sick people’s experiences. #CripRitual highlights strategies for building crip power: the ceremonies, habits, celebrations, design practices, social scripts, and community agreements, grounded in disabled knowledge and experience, that undergird disability culture.

Classically, anthropologists define rituals as prescribed action that bring people together to recognize a change in social status through references to shared cultural symbols and an appeal to a higher power (the higher power in this sociological definition may be spiritual, performative, political, or administrative). Feminist activists use the word “ritual” in a different but related way, to recognize processes that harness intentional transformative potential. This exhibition seeks to make apparent the shared cultural meanings circulating in crip communities. It recognizes crip rituals as processes and events geared toward building power, strategies for surviving ableism that may be secular, spiritual, or in-between.

We invite visitors to the exhibition — at two galleries and online — to consider what kinds of crip rituals are represented in these works and resonate in their own lives. In these works we find rituals of activism, rituals of care, rituals for managing the way that others perceive you, and rituals of joy and celebration. What’s your #CripRitual?

#CripRitual is presented concurrently at the Doris McCarthy Gallery and Tangled Art + Disability. Works at Tangled Art + Disability by Cassidy Bankson, Faye Harnest, Earl LeBlanc, Dawn McLeod, Malcolm and Maria Corley, Margeaux Feldman, Maryam Hafizirad, Logan Quinn, Hanna Sheehan, and Jessica Watkin.

Visiting: In-person

The Doris McCarthy Gallery will be open to in-person visits with regular gallery hours beginning February 8, 2022.

Tangled Art + Disability will be open to in-person visits by appointment beginning February 23, 2022, appointments can be made through Tangled’s booking page.

Visiting: Virtually

Both galleries are offering virtual tours of the exhibition, so you can engage with the works from the comfort of your own home. Tours will be over Zoom, and will be auto-captioned. ASL and audio description are available upon request.

Virtual tours of the Doris McCarthy Gallery are offered on Fridays, appointments can be made through DMG’s booking page.

Virtual tours of Tangled Art Gallery are offered Thursdays – Saturdays, appointments can be made through Tangled’s booking page.

Stefana Fratila, Portrait of the Young (Crip) Artist at Bathtime, 2021, Video still, Image Description: In this film still, a purple light casts over the corner of a bathtub. To the left of the bathtub is a vanity. Various medication bottles line the back of the vanity to the right of the sink. On the corner of the vanity there is a blue plate with a lit tealight candle, a lighter, and towels. On the ledge behind the bathtub sits a glowing salt lamp, a lit candle, and other small treasures, as well as an illuminated iPhone. Above the ledge, two vines fall down against the tiled wall. The captions read, “Water pouring into bathtub.”

<span class='caption-artist'>Ezra Benus</span>, <span class='caption-title'>Sun/Moon</span>, <span class='caption-year'>2020</span>, <span class='caption-medium'>Acrylic on canvas</span>, <span class='caption-dimensions'>Image Description: Seven canvases are hung directly next to each other, forming one large horizon line of paintings. Each has one main background color, from left to right: pink, blue, orange, yellow, sage green, maroon, and grey. The palette of the background colors mixed and used throughout the canvases create colorful compositions with a variety of triangles painted on them, giving an impression that they are floating and crashing all over, spilling onto the edges of the neighboring canvases.</span>

Ezra Benus, Sun/Moon, 2020, Acrylic on canvas, Image Description: Seven canvases are hung directly next to each other, forming one large horizon line of paintings. Each has one main background color, from left to right: pink, blue, orange, yellow, sage green, maroon, and grey. The palette of the background colors mixed and used throughout the canvases create colorful compositions with a variety of triangles painted on them, giving an impression that they are floating and crashing all over, spilling onto the edges of the neighboring canvases.

<span class='caption-artist'>Shannon Finnegan</span>, <span class='caption-title'>Do You Want Us Here or Not?</span>, <span class='caption-year'>2020</span>, <span class='caption-medium'>Baltic birch, poplar wood, plastic laminate</span>, <span class='caption-dimensions'>Image Description: A bright blue bench with hand-lettered text that reads, “Museum visits are hard on my body. Rest here if you agree.”</span>

Shannon Finnegan, Do You Want Us Here or Not?, 2020, Baltic birch, poplar wood, plastic laminate, Image Description: A bright blue bench with hand-lettered text that reads, “Museum visits are hard on my body. Rest here if you agree.”

<span class='caption-artist'>Leena Raudvee</span>, <span class='caption-title'>Precarious Gestures</span>, <span class='caption-year'>2021</span>, <span class='caption-medium'>Video still</span>, <span class='caption-dimensions'>Image Description: Two black and white images are side by side in a split screen. In the image on the left, we look up towards the ceiling of a big white room. A woman, on the right, in dark clothing, lies on the floor looking up at a stool. There is a white column on the left, with long lines drawn on it. In the image on the right, a woman peers out over dark round glasses from under a metal stool. Her foreshortened body in a dark shirt almost fills the picture frame.</span>

Leena Raudvee, Precarious Gestures, 2021, Video still, Image Description: Two black and white images are side by side in a split screen. In the image on the left, we look up towards the ceiling of a big white room. A woman, on the right, in dark clothing, lies on the floor looking up at a stool. There is a white column on the left, with long lines drawn on it. In the image on the right, a woman peers out over dark round glasses from under a metal stool. Her foreshortened body in a dark shirt almost fills the picture frame.

<span class='caption-artist'>Alex Haagaard</span>, <span class='caption-title'>Shitty Alt Text</span>, <span class='caption-year'>2021</span>, <span class='caption-medium'>Digital print</span>, <span class='caption-dimensions'>Image Description: An Instagram post, viewed on a smartphone. White text in a system font centred a square the colour of light reflecting dully off an ebonite pipe stem. The text reads, “Ceci η N’est Pas Une Pipe.” This is the alt text autogenerated by Instagram in November 2021 for René Magritte’s painting, “The Treachery of Images.”</span>

Alex Haagaard, Shitty Alt Text, 2021, Digital print, Image Description: An Instagram post, viewed on a smartphone. White text in a system font centred a square the colour of light reflecting dully off an ebonite pipe stem. The text reads, “Ceci η N’est Pas Une Pipe.” This is the alt text autogenerated by Instagram in November 2021 for René Magritte’s painting, “The Treachery of Images.”

<span class='caption-artist'>Sara Prisma Williston</span>, <span class='caption-title'>In Search of Resolution</span>, <span class='caption-year'>2020</span>, <span class='caption-dimensions'>Image Description: The soft golden brown background of this painting shimmers in the light, while a large swoosh of deep sky blue bursts at the top half of the canvas. At the bottom left of this wide gestural sweep is a red eye shape with a blue tunnel of dried paint, which encases an iridescent faux pearl. On the right side under the blue stroke is a small autumn leaf that could be perceived as a second eye. Painted gold with blue splashes, it has a grass green center. Slightly under this leaf is a bold primary yellow spot which smears down, becoming a translucent overlay that could be interpreted as tears. There is a sketched line extending horizontally just past the middle of the canvas. Some may see this as an expressionless, blank mouth expression with a slightly sad curve. This piece redirects the viewer upwards, visually displaying an uplifting flow of hope in the future after resolution.</span>

Sara Prisma Williston, In Search of Resolution, 2020, Image Description: The soft golden brown background of this painting shimmers in the light, while a large swoosh of deep sky blue bursts at the top half of the canvas. At the bottom left of this wide gestural sweep is a red eye shape with a blue tunnel of dried paint, which encases an iridescent faux pearl. On the right side under the blue stroke is a small autumn leaf that could be perceived as a second eye. Painted gold with blue splashes, it has a grass green center. Slightly under this leaf is a bold primary yellow spot which smears down, becoming a translucent overlay that could be interpreted as tears. There is a sketched line extending horizontally just past the middle of the canvas. Some may see this as an expressionless, blank mouth expression with a slightly sad curve. This piece redirects the viewer upwards, visually displaying an uplifting flow of hope in the future after resolution.