Birdie Gerhl: The Poetry of Welcome to my Regulated Body

Wednesday, April 20, from 7:00-8:30pm via Zoom

Hybrid starfish, worms, and flowers appear from wormholes extending into our world from others unknown. Wormholes are portals that bridge distances between embodied experiences and physical spaces.

Recent works by Hamilton-based artist Birdie Gerhl, entitled Welcome to my Regulated Body, emerge as part of the “crip horizon”—a term coined by curator Sean Lee​​—an ever-moving landscape that imagines potential futures for disabled people. Within the realm of this work, the crip horizon is punctuated by wormholes that allow the human body to travel outside normative constraints that limit its agency.

In Birdie’s textile and video works, a multitude of wiggly, fleshy sculptures invite touch and invoke notions of care and intimacy. Their interconnected forms are made from fabric objects with complicated attachments, such as an ex-girlfriend’s t-shirt. These tactile experiences are echoed by audio description contained in the video work that takes the form of a poetry performance. Together, tactile sculpture and audio description are employed as integral artmaking strategies against oppressive conceptions that similarly medicalize transness, disability, and madness.

Please join us on Wednesday, April 20 from 7:00-8:30pm via Zoom to meet the artist and learn more about the poetry of Welcome to my Regulated Body. Birdie will discuss the use of poetry to unpack ideas about objectivity in audio description practices. This event will include an artist talk, poetry reading, and audience Q&A. This event is free and open to all.

This event represents the culmination and celebration of Birdie’s long-term residency and internship at Hamilton Artists Inc. between 2020-22, funded in part by Young Canada Works. Welcome to my Regulated Body, curated by Noor Alé, is currently on exhibition at the Art Gallery of Windsor until May 22, 2022. Birdie's video work of the same title was produced during Centre[3]’s Emerging Artist Residency and will be exhibited at Centre[3] in Hamilton in May 2022, accompanied by Sensual Softies: Storytelling with Soft Sculpture, an open crafting workshop facilitated by the artist.

Accessibility: ASL interpretation, auto-generated closed captioning, chat and non-verbal communication tools will be enabled in zoom.

Register for the Zoom 

 
Hamilton Artists Inc. is pleased to co-present this event with Art Gallery of Windsor, Centre[3], and Tangled Arts + Disability.

The Art Gallery of Windsor (AGW) is a non-profit public art gallery serving the southwestern Ontario region and the international border community of Windsor, Ontario, Canada and Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Art Gallery of Windsor harnesses the power of art to open minds and hearts to new ideas, perspectives and ways of thinking that inspire people to grow emotionally and intellectually.

Centre[3] for artistic and social practice is a not-for-profit, charitable artist-run centre that connects, educates, and collaborates with people on local, regional, national and international levels. We are a place for artists to create, produce and exhibit art work; a platform for artists to engage and empower students through art education; a space for artists to collaborate with our community in a creative experience. Integrating art, education and community, Centre[3] helps establish a progressive identity for our community, while enriching quality of life through art and culture.

Tangled Art + Disability is boldly redefining how the world experiences art and those who create it. We are a not for profit art + disability organization dedicated to connecting professional and emerging artists, the arts community and a diverse public through creative passion and artistic excellence. Our mandate is to support Deaf, Mad and disability-identified artists, to cultivate Deaf, Mad and disability arts in Canada, and to enhance access to the arts for artists and audiences of all abilities.