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Undeliverable is a continuation of artist Carmen Papalia’s curatorial practice. Envisioning curation as a form of care, the exhibition brings together six artists from the Mad, Deaf and disability community, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Chandra Melting Tallow, Jessica Karuhanga, jes sachse, Aislinn Thomas, and Carmen Papalia with Heather Kai-Smith, re-envisioning the museum around the demands and desires of the disabled body/mind. Presented across two spaces—Tangled Art + Disability and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery—the exhibition features ambitious new work that challenges institutional structures and centres mutual accountability.
A photo of a person standing in front of a white gallery wall sliding a pair of black headphones over their ears. Lit by a single spotlight, they are wearing white high-tops, distressed blue jeans, a red hooded sweater, and a blue surgical mask. A photo of a monochromatic orange pastel drawing from Heather Kai Smith’s series “Open Access: Claiming Visibility”. The piece shows a pair of hands, string woven around the fingers into an intricate figure like those from a game of cat’s cradle.A photograph of a white gallery wall displaying black text that reads, “THE POSSIBILITIES OF CARE AS A SCULPTURE”. Beneath the text is a screen displaying a still from a video of a person signing in American Sign Language. Beside the screen is a sheet of paper with text and a QR code.A photo of a framed piece from Vanessa Dion Fletcher’s series “Relative Gradient”. The piece features tightly woven porcupine quills, arranged in a thin circle and dyed various shades of orange, yellow, and brown.A photo of a stack of white papers printed all over with orange ink. On the topmost sheet, white text is visible which reads, “OCCUPY A POINT OF ORIENTATION THAT IS BASED IN COMPLEX EMBODIMENT”.A photo of a sheet of white paper printed with a text box surrounding blue text that reads, “Open Access is a temporary, collectively-held space where participants can find comfort in disclosing their needs and preferences with one another. It is a responsive support network that adapts as needs and available resources change.” Smaller text beneath the text box reads, “Excerpt from Carmen Papalia’s Open Access manifesto, 2015; Carmen Papalia & Heather Kai Smith, 2021”.A photo of an informational poster titled “Fragrance Free at the RMG and Tangled Art + Disability” which features information on creating access for those who need fragrance-free spaces.
The full text of the poster reads,
“Fragrance Free at the RMG and Tangled Art + Disability
ongoing, collective effort and learning in appreciation and humble recognition of bodily complexity, permeability, and vulnerability, as well as the interdependent nature of our survival, our thrival
OR
fragrance-free sculpture piece (in which we imagine and co-create toxicant free access and fragrance-freedom as a fragile, dynamic, invisible sculpture co-created by the efforts of everyone who is present and everyone who maintains this space)
by Aislinn Thomas
ongoing, collective effort is Aislinn Thomas’ contribution to the exhibition Undeliverable. The project seeks to support the RMG and Tangled Art + Disability to uphold the gallery’s fragrance-free policies, imagining it as an invisible sculpture created by the labour and attention of all those who are present. The hope is that this collective effort makes possible the participation of people who encounter barriers from common toxicants that are present in so many public, private, and commercial spaces.
What follows is a resource intended to help you co-create this sculpture and point of access alongside the other visitors, staff, volunteers, artists, and community members at RMG and Tangled Art + Disability. Please reach out if you need support or have any questions.
This resource is based on a text by mia susan amir.
https://www.miasusanamir.com
We are trying to make this gallery space as accessible as possible for community members, staff, and artists. This includes upholding our Fragrance-Free policy to ensure that people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), and others who react to fragrances, are able to be present at the gallery without injury or illness. This is a living project that would not be possible without your help. We ask for and sincerely appreciate your participation, and we welcome your questions and feedback.
If you are new to creating fragrance-free access, cultivating these practices can require time, effort, and economic resources. It can be difficult to give up fragrance even temporarily because of the important roles it plays in many of our lives. If you encounter barriers to helping us create fragrance-free access, please contact: Leila Timmins, Senior Curator at the RMG: ltimmins@rmg.on.ca or Sean Lee, Director of Programming at Tangled Art + Disability: sean@tangledarts.org
We will work with you to make your participation possible.
Thank You!
Like many access measures, creating fragrance-free access requires collective and ongoing effort. Unlike many access measures, this effort is required of everybody who is present–not just an access coordinator or a department within an institution. We deeply appreciate the work that you are doing to make this space as accessible as possible.
What is Multiple Chemical Sensitivity?
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (also known as Toxicant Induced Loss of Tolerance, Environmental Sensitivity, and Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance) is a medical condition that affects multiple organ systems.
Exposure to fragrances, petrochemicals, smoke and other everyday toxicants cause short and long-term symptoms for those with MCS including: headache, migraine, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, vomiting. chest pain, respiratory distress, muscle pain, dermatitis, cognitive impairment and more. These symptoms can last for hours, days, or even weeks after exposure, and can further sensitize a person.”Two framed orange pastel drawings from Heather Kai Smith’s series “Open Access: Claiming Visibility”, one hanging above the other. Each piece features two pairs of hands, working together to create intricate string figures in the space between them. In each piece, one pair of hands stretches the loops of thread taught while the other pair pinches threads between two fingertips, as when moving from one position to the next in a game of cat’s cradle. A still from Carmen Papalia and Heather Kai Smith’s animated video “Open Access: Claiming Visibility”. A black screen overlayed with three white rectangles, two with red line drawings on them, while the one in the middle is blank. The drawing on the left shows a crowd walking together in front of a building. The second shows a group of people, in silhouette, standing in a circle. A caption beneath them reads, “It was a matter of survival.”A photograph of a V-shaped chrome grab bar affixed to a white gallery wall. Above it, large blue text reads “Undeliverable”. Smaller text below reads “Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Jessica Karuhanga, Chandra Melting Tallow, Carmen Papalia with Heather Kai Smith, jes sachse, Aislinn Thomas. Curated by: Carmen Papalia. Presented in partnership with Tangled Art + Disability”. From the time disabled people were invited into museums, their access was imagined for them by non-disabled decision makers, a trend that not only continues today but has shaped the access that disabled artists, curators and cultural workers have within the visual and performing arts. The first museum programs that were meant for disabled visitors, such as the talks that the Metropolitan Museum of Art offered blind school children in 1913, reflected the patronizing service provision models for care and participation that have created harmful power dynamics between disabled people and their non disabled counterparts. Like many of the so-called ‘accessible programs’ that followed, they promoted the
privileged visual art experience and reinforced the standards that disabled bodies, minds and behaviours were measured against in medical settings.
In these early examples of public outreach, art, and art history was approached in a way that reflected the culture of the time: from a colonial perspective that operated under the premise that white, cis, non-disabled experiences were the norm. These beginnings set a predetermined route for the broader disability community within the
field, one where they lacked the agency and decision-making power to self-define and participate on their own terms.
Undeliverable is a collective effort to re-envision the museum around the demands and desires of the disabled bodymind. In this exhibition, artists Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Chandra Melting Tallow, Jessica Karuhanga, jessachse, Aislinn Tomas, and Carmen Papalia take up space where they and their communities are severely underrepresented on account of traditions of ableism, racism, gender-based discrimination and colonialism. Each artists’ contribution was a response to an invitation to produce work that they either have not previously had the support to realize or could not realize due te the limited context for disability culture and artistry within the wider contémporary art landscape. Together, their offerings center disability experience in is wholeness and serve as an invitation to, as disability artist and curator Eliza Chandler says, “dwell with disability.”
Presented in partnership with Tangled Art + Disability and Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology, and Access to Life.Four long dresses with wide sleeves (one red, one black, one white, and one blue) hang in front of a gallery wall, each covered in intricate beading and needlework. A close-up of a red dress, affixed with a pattern of leaf- and v-shaped appliques, each the same red as the dress. The appliques are adorned with tiny red and white beads.A close-up of the neckline and arms of a blue dress, with a lace of blue flowers dripping from the neckline. On the bodice are five pale blue diamond-shaped appliques, each stitched with tiny beads in blue, red, and white. A white gallery wall displaying three large rings woven from porcupine quills and dyed in shades of orange, yellow, and brown. The rings on the right and the left are whole. The center ring, made from two concentric layers, is split in half, the outer ring pulling away from the inner circle in waves and loops. A gallery space filled with pieces from the exhibition “Undeliverable”. In the foreground, three large mirrors are arranged in a half circle around two wooden benches. Behind these is a wall featuring woven circles from Vanessa Dion Fletcher’s series “Relative Gradient”, partially hidden by the mirrors.A white wall covered in dozens of small metal plaques that read “permission”. The plaques closest to the camera are sharp while those further away are blurry and illegible.A close-up of the neckline of a white dress from Chandra Melting Tallow’s series “Blood Count”. The round neck is trimmed in white lace and draped with a string of delicate floral beads in red, pink, and white.A close-up of a piece from Vanessa Dion Fletcher’s series “Relative Gradient”. Two lines made from porcupine quills, tightly woven and coloured with natural dyes, cross the frame. One arcs across the top left corner, while the other zig-zags across the center.
Images by Michelle Peek. Photography courtesy of Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology & Access to Life, Re•Vision: The Centre for Art & Social Justice at the University of Guelph. Artwork byVanessa Dion Fletcher, Chandra Melting Tallow, Jessica Karuhanga, jes sachse, Aislinn Thomas, and Carmen Papalia with Heather Kai-Smith from the Undeliverable exhibition curated by Carmen Papalia at Tangled Art + Disability and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery.
