Curatorial Overview:

Wounded Habits of the Mind exhibition addresses the exclusion and barriers people with disabilities face in their daily lives. Defined as the discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities or who are perceived to have disabilities, ableism has set discourse, behaviours, and structures that installed a false idea of normalcy in society. Whether it is visual or invisible, many who have disabilities feel the need to assimilate to normative culture due to disability stigmas. Our exhibition Wounded Habits of the Mind will feature 4 Canadian artists (Jessica Leung, Persimmon Blackbridge, Nancy Ogilvie, and Judith Shaw) who have navigated through these unwelcome spaces with different types of disabilities ranging from physical disabilities, mental illness and hearing impairment. In doing so, they reject a single narrative of disabilities that have accepted and recognized in society which is usually the wheelchair user. The works chosen reflect the artist’s relationship with their identity as they face inaccurate stereotypes associated with their disabilities. 

We decided to exhibit at Tangled Art + Disabilities gallery, a space dedicated to promoting and showcasing artists with disabilities. Located in 401 Richmond Street, this space challenges the problematic and commonly accepted ideas about disabilities through art. In doing so, Tangled cultivated a safe space to open discussion on disabilities and its stigmas. Not only that, but the space is also accessible friendly as it is located on the first floor near the accessible entrance. We curated our exhibition to respond to the inaccessibility from traditional galleries. By practicing universal design from the Accessibility Toolkit: guide to making art spaces accessible, we built an accessible and inclusive environment for everyone. We also made a conscious choice to use a white cube design as a way to recreate a traditional gallery setting. As tradition galleries often ignore or incorrectly design accessibility, our recreation of an accessible white cube can aspire to work toward a more inclusive and accessible art and culture sector.   

Entering the gallery, the viewer first noticed two sculptures by Judith Shaw in the middle of the gallery. There is enough space between each sculpture and gallery for wheelchair users to navigate through the space. Further behind Shaw’s sculpture is a freestanding wall. Persimmon Blackbridge’s installation work will be displayed on that wall as well as to the right side of the gallery. Jessica Leung’s work will be sharing the space on the right wall as well as the right side of the gallery entrance. On the opposite side of the gallery entrance will have our exhibition title Wounded Habits of the Mind and a curatorial statement: 

‘Wounded Habits of the Mind’ explores artists with visible and invisible disabilities and their lived experience. In Canada’s ableist society where people with disabilities are often disenfranchised and forgotten, there are systemic barriers that only present a single narrative of disability. In doing so, disability-identified people are often physically unable to access the space or left unnoticed. As these four artists (Jessica Leung, Persimmon Blackbridge, Nancy Ogilvie, and Judith Shaw) navigate through unwelcome spaces with unique experiences, this exhibition wants to normalize disabilities while practicing inclusive design to make art spaces accessible.

on the wall. The text will use a legible Sans Serif font type in a minimum 100-point font size with American Sign Language (ASL) videos mounted above the text while braille is below. All displaying works are hung 107 cm from the floor to the bottom of the artwork, displaying at an accessible height. Artwork labels will be designed for accessibility for all labels, meaning the label can have Braille, large print, audio description, symbols and line drawing at an accessible height. There will also be sufficient light on labels to ensure readability.

Curatorial Statement: 

“‘Wounded Habits of the Mind’ explores artists with visible and invisible disabilities and their lived experience.  In Canada’s ableist society where people with disabilities are often disenfranchised and forgotten, there are systemic barriers that only present a single narratives of disability.  In doing so, disability-identified people are often physically unable to access the space or left unnoticed. As these four artists (Jessica Leung, Persimmon Blackbridge, Nancy Ogilvie, and Judith Shaw) navigate through unwelcomed spaces with unique experiences, this exhibition wants to normalize disabilities while practicing inclusive design to make art spaces accessible.”

Floor Plan

The Exhibition is curated in such a way that allows for assessable flow throughout the show. Each artist is given their own respective space, although are in conversation with each other, with sculpture in the middle of the square-ish room, so wherever you are in reading the ex, most of the artworks are in view. 

Accessibility Toolkit: guide to making art spaces accessible:  https://tangledarts.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Accessibility_Toolkit-1.pdf 

The Accessibility Toolkit is a guide to making art spaces accessible, created by Humber College in partnership with Tangled Art + Disability.  It offers an introduction to and recommendations for incorporating accessibility features into aspects of exhibition design, such as: exhibition content; label design and text; lighting; image description; audio description;  transcription and captioning; language usage; and access symbols.

We believe that accessibility is important by upholding the proper guidelines set for inclusivity. By using the Accessibility Toolkit, we curated our gallery to make the art spaces accessible by building an accessible and inclusive environment for everyone. We also made a conscious choice to use a white cube design as a way to recreate a traditional gallery setting. As tradition galleries often ignore or incorrectly design accessibility, our recreation of an accessible white cube can aspire to work toward a more inclusive and accessible art and culture sector.  

Stated in our curatorial overview, we plan on: 

“The text will use a legible Sans Serif font type in a minimum 100-point font size with American Sign Language (ASL) videos mounted above the text while braille is below. All displaying works are hung 107 cm from the floor to the bottom of the artwork, displaying at an accessible height. Artwork labels will be designed for accessibility for all labels, meaning the label can have Braille, large print, audio description, symbols and line drawing at an accessible height. There will also be sufficient light on labels to ensure readability.” 

Slideshow: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1K1GUZO00Qd_Yj7jXhMj8tfQzGQXxM22noJj7LSwp9Ow/edit?usp=sharing