#CripRitual

Doris McCarthy Gallery and Tangled Art + Disability
January 21 – April 1, 2022
cripritual.com

Works at Doris McCarthy Gallery by Khairani Barokka, Ezra Benus, Sky Cubacub, Aleksei Dymdymarchenko, Shannon Finnegan, Fran Ledonio Flaherty, Stefana Fratila, Alex Haagaard, Danielle Hyde, Yo-Yo Lin, Leena Raudvee, RA Walden, Sara Prisma Williston

Works at Tangled Art + Disability by Cassidy Bankson, Faye Harnest, Earl LeBlanc and Dawn McLeod, Malcolm and Maria Corley, Margeaux Feldman, Maryam Hafizirad, Logan and Hannah Quinn, Hanna Sheehan, Jessica Watkin

Curated by Critical Design Lab (Aimi Hamraie, Cassandra Hartblay and Jarah Moesch)

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.

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?

Maryam Hafizirad, The Story of My World, 2020.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

#CripRitual programs will take place over Zoom, and will be captioned. All programs will be offered with ASL interpretation and image description, more access features available upon request. All programs are free and open to the public, registration required.

Introduction to De’VIA: Art & the Deaf Experience with Maryam Hafizirad
Thursday, February 24
1 – 2 pm
Register: cripritual-deviatalk.eventbrite.ca
Artist and Doris McCarthy Gallery Educator-in-Residence Maryam Hafizirad presents a talk on Deaf View/Image Art (also known as De’VIA) which examines and expresses the Deaf Experience from a cultural, linguistic, and intersectional point of view.

Panel discussion: Negotiation and Resistance
With Fran Ledonio Flaherty, Alex Haagaard, and RA Walden
Tuesday, March 1
1 – 2 pm
Register: cripritual-artistpanel-march1.eventbrite.ca
Join #CripRitual artists in conversation with disability arts expert Eliza Chandler. This panel explores themes of resisting and negotiating ableism as a ritual familiar to many disabled people, here explored through Flaherty’s artwork, a commentary on negotiating service dog entrance to public spaces, Haagaard’s project Shitty ALT text, which highlights crip resistance to subpar accessibility technology, and RA Walden’s Primer, a resource negotiating care and improved inclusivity within feminist / activist communities.

No-Sew Fashion and Performance workshop with Sky Cubacub
Tuesday, March 8
7 –8 pm
Register: cripritual-fashion-workshop.eventbrite.ca
This workshop led by #CripRitual artist Sky Cubacub explores Radical Visibility, a Disabled Queer dress reform movement based on highlighting the parts of us that society typically shuns, using a no-sew method of designing, tying together scraps, yardage and old clothing, which works best to promote creativity and imagination. This is hands-on dress up time for all ages!

Panel discussion: Repetition and Pace
With Leena Raudvee, Jess Watkins, and Sara Prisma Williston
Thursday, March 17
1 – 2 pm
Register: cripritual-artistpanel-march17.eventbrite.ca
Join #CripRitual artists in a conversation with disability art critic, curator, and scholar Amanda Cachia. This panel explores themes of repetition and pace in relation to experiences of disability and ableism. Artists on this panel will discuss their artworks in the exhibition, including Raudvee’s exploration of speed and the repeated act of getting up after falling, Watkin’s ritual of knitting as a repetitive action to facilitate focus while listening to audiobooks, and Williston’s practice of daily painting and use of bright colors as a crip ritual.

Details around further public programs, including a workshop around artmaking as crip ritual and a closing Remote Access Dance Party with DJ Who Girl (Kevin Gotkin), will be announced on the #CripRitual website and gallery websites – stay tuned!

VIRTUAL EXHIBITION TOURS

Let us bring #CripRitual to you! 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 Tangled Art Gallery are offered Thursdays – Saturdays, appointments can be made through Tangled’s booking page.

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

Stefana Fratila, video still, Portrait of the Young (Crip) Artist at Bathtime, 2020.

VISITING THE GALLERIES

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 21, 2022.

Doris McCarthy Gallery
University of Toronto Scarborough
1265 Military Trail
Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4
416.287.7007
dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca
dorismccarthygallery.utoronto.ca

Tuesday and Thursday, 11 am to 4 pm; Wednesday, 11 am to 7 pm; Saturday, 11 to 5 pm. Admission is free. Open to the public. The gallery is wheelchair accessible. Virtual tours available by appointment, Friday, 11 am to 4 pm.

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Tangled Art + Disability
401 Richmond, Suite 124
Toronto, Ontario M5V 3A8
647.725.5064
info@tangledarts.org
tangledarts.org

Tangled is currently closed for in-person viewings. Virtual tours are available by appointment, Thursdays-Saturdays, 12 to 5 PM.

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Image Descriptions:
1) Purple square with the #CripRitual handwritten logo text (by Shannon Finnegan) in white.
2) A collection of colourful ceramic hands with fingers glazed in gold, some outstretched and some forming ASL handshapes.
3) A purple light casts over the corner of a bathtub. To the left of the bathtub is a vanity with various medication bottles, blue plate with a lit tealight candle, a lighter, and towels. On the ledge behind the bathtub sits an iPhone, glowing salt lamp, a lit candle, and other small treasures. Above the ledge, two vines fall down against the tiled wall. The captions read, “Overflow drain swallowing water.”