Undeliverable

[En anglais]

Entering Undeliverable, a group exhibition curated by Carmen Papalia, is to be within and without a space, to act and be acted upon, to discern and desire — to “occupy a point of orientation that is based in complex embodiment,” as Papalia suggests in his “Open Manifesto.” Papalia is an artist and disability activist who is concerned with curation as a form of care. For Undeliverable, he collaborated with six artists from the mad, deaf, and disability communities who have created works that “[re-envision] the museum around the demands and desires of the disabled body/mind.”

The first thing you see when you enter the Tangled Art + Disability gallery is a padded bench upholstered in a pink velvety fabric. Two small plaques facing in opposite directions have been placed on top of the pile. They read, “I need a minute.” This work by artist, writer, and performer jes sachse speaks to another collaboration with Papalia, Provisional Structures, which was exhibited at the MacKenzie Art Gallery from June to October 2021. At one of the entrances to the MacKenzie — calling to mind the traditional “donor wall” — is a series of more than eight hundred “I need a minute” plaques. Here, sachse is asserting their body, insisting on the consideration and compassion that other bodies might expect.