Carmen Papalia

For the third part of *A New Path to the Waterfall*, artist and disability activist Carmen Papalia introduced Ms. Persoon’s grade 6/7 class at Lord Strathcona Elementary to *Open Access*; the model of five guiding principles for accessibility he produced in 2015. In a weekly program that included exercises ranging from running with eyes shut to staging a solidarity march for *Open Access* on school grounds, the group engaged in a dialogue about their subjective access needs leading toward a new model for mutual support.

Join them on March 1 as they share points in their process and reveal their collective statement for accessibility in the classroom.


A photograph of a piece of white cloth on a wall of a classroom. A phrase, '"open access is..." is printed in the middle of the cloth, and other handwritten ideas, including "not being judged" are written in the margins. 

thumbnail_20180301-183818-FE1_web.jpg

20180301-183818-FE1_web.jpg

Carmen Papalia: Open Access: Practicing Accessibility Together

A New Path to the Waterfall

Carmen Papalia and Joulene Tse Parent will discuss issues of cultural accessibility and human rights in the city, including Tse’s ongoing research on the history of Indigenous workers on the waterfront, as well as Papalia’s projects leading up to and including his recent conceptual work *Open Access*, a new, relational model for accessibility that sets a precedent for considerations of agency and power in relation to the disabling social, cultural, and political conditions in a given context.

This event is part of The Foreshore, presented in partnership with the multi-disciplinary artist collective Other Sights for Artists’ Projects. The Foreshore hosts a series of roving discursive events held at community centres throughout the city of Vancouver, aiming to generate questions and confluence inspired by the conditions of the foreshore, the land along the edge of a body of water that is repeatedly submerged and revealed by the tide. In Vancouver, the term conjures specific histories of trade and exchange, habitation and nourishment, resistance and violent erasure. It might similarly evoke our contemporary lived situation in this city. Considering the potential of this zone as both a metaphor and physical site, year two of The Foreshore initiative pairs together returning speakers and guests of their choosing to deepen a generative and cross-disciplinary conversation around the following questions: Can there be land that is not property? How do we bring the centre to the edge? What is, as yet, unseen?

### Biography 

Born in Vancouver in unceded Coast Salish Territory in 1981, Carmen Papalia is a social practice artist and non-visual learner who makes participatory projects about access to public space, the art institution and visual culture. His work has been featured at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge; Tate Liverpool, UK; and locally at Gallery Gachet and the Surrey Art Gallery. Papalia is the recipient of the 2014 Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary and the 2013 Wynn Newhouse Award. His current work includes the multifunctional acoustic mobility device produced with Sara Hendren’s Investigating Normal Lab at Olin College of Engineering and *Let’s Keep in Touch, a collaboration* with curator Whitney Mashburn that sets a precedent for haptic criticism to become a viable practice within contemporary art.

Joulene Tse Parent’s maternal lines come from the Indigenous Dene Nation of Northern Saskachewan, and paternal lines from a father who was a working immigrant from Canton, China. Most of Joulene’s childhood was raised in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, the unceded territory of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She is an active Union Member of the International Longshore Warehouse Union, and currently holds a two year Executive position for Local 500 Vancouver. She also sits on the Vancouver District Labour Council, as a Delegate and Co-Chair on the Women’s Committee.


A photograph of Carmen Papalia speaking into a white megaphone on a street. 

thumbnail_Speaking into bullhorn.jpg

Speaking into bullhorn.jpg

Carmen Papalia and Joulene Tse Parent: Dignity and Access

The Foreshore

In conjunction with *For A New Accessibility* (November 20-22, 2015), a convergence of artists and activists meeting around the theme of organizing for accessibility and mutual aid produced in partnership with Gallery Gachet and artist Carmen Papalia.

Amanda Cachia, Carmen Papalia, Cheryl L’Hirondelle and Margaret Dragu: moderated by Cecily Nicholson.

The social condition of disability — in which a group or individual is disempowered by the systems that they are in relation to — is an epidemic that effectively marginalizes entire communities with diverse and complex needs. Locally, this oppression plays out in schools, hospitals, cultural institutions, policing, and through various arms of government, making the effort to claim agency a strategic, high-stakes intervention.

The panel will consider a series of propositions as we think/move towards a new accessibility:

- How do we collectively change a/this system of oppression?
- How can we provoke institutional entities to evolve?
- How does our negotiation of access alter our environment?
- What are the tenets of an open model for access?

###Biographiess
Amanda Cachia is an independent curator from Sydney, Australia and is currently completing her PhD in Art History, Theory & Criticism at the University of California, San Diego. Her dissertation will focus on the intersection of disability and contemporary art. She held the position Director/Curator of the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada from 2007-2010, and has curated approximately 30 exhibitions over the last ten years in various cities across the USA, England, Australia and Canada.  

Margaret Dragu works in video, installation, new media & performance art. Dragu's performances span relational, durational, interventionist & community-based works. Her 45+ year practice encompasses writing, dance, theatre and a body/movement teaching that includes dance, aerobics/yoga and personal training specializing in Clinical Exercise. Margaret is also a one-woman TV Station (VERBFRAUTV). a 2012 Laureate of the Canadian Governor-General's Award for Visual Art and Media, the recipient of City of Richmond's Most Innovative Artist Award, Ethel Tibbett's Woman of the Year Award for The Arts, Richmond Women's Centre's Inspirational Woman Award & Mall Peepre Award for Outstanding Fitness Leader. She is an internationally famous cleaning lady.

Cheryl L’Hirondelle is an Alberta-born mixed blood (Cree/Metis/German/Polish) community-engaged multi / interdisciplinary artist and singer/songwriter, who has been presenting and exhibiting her work since the 1980’s. Her creative practice investigates a Cree worldview (nêhiyawin) in contemporary time-space. L’Hirondelle uses song, voice, audio and more to develop endurance-based performances, interventions, site-specific installations, participatory projects while she keeps singing and writing songs wherever and with whomever she can. Currently Toronto-based, Cheryl has performed and exhibited her work widely both in Canada and abroad, and her previous musical efforts and new media work have garnered her critical acclaim and numerous awards.

Carmen Papalia is a Social Practice artist who makes participatory projects on the topic of access as it relates to public space, the Art institution and visual culture. His work has been featured as part of exhibitions and engagements at: The Solomon R. Guggenheim museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the L.A Craft and Folk Art Museum, the CUE Art Foundation, the Grand Central Art Center, the Portland Art Museum, the Columbus Museum of Art and the Vancouver Art Gallery.



A close up view of a hand drawn poster, which has ART AS ACTIVISM written on it and a drawing of two figures, one is seated in front of an easel and crossed out, while the other holds a protest sign. 

Carmen Papalia

Talks & Events