Praise for Discord: Collaborations in Talking Back

As an artist, I interrupt spaces with installations that invite community members to make zines or letterpress print together, to act out dialogues or to eat hot pot. I could frame all the artworks of my period of study at Emily Carr as attempts to define this tendency: discovering self and agency by embedding myself holistically in my community. Share My Lunch is an example of a series of community events that cater to the interpersonal connection often taken for granted by social superstructures. BACKTALK is a curatorial project behind which hours of collaboration took place to thoughtfully represent the voices of individuals in a collective call out of institutional racism. The Centre for Polite Dissent is both a physical and imaginary space where those who do not inhabit a norm (or don’t quite inhabit a norm) can be praised for their acts of denial as diversity work. Creating these spaces means understanding their separation from the bureaucratic work of altering infrastructure. These projects can ignore institutional oversight and methods of sustainability while presenting physical and conceptual interruptions for deeper connection, community strength and refusals of silence. But their realistic inefficacy doesn’t belittle their power. I use theory-driven social frameworks to imagine new possible worlds free from restrictions, walls, and hierarchies that limit the creation of necessary support structures. I propose that an art practice can flourish in the middle ground between imagining new realities and instigating institutional change. Framed by the inner workings of personal relationships and social experiences, this thesis support document showcases different projects that attempt to tread this middle ground by carving out community spaces that prioritize connection and solidarity.