The Ford Foundation Gallery’s online exhibition, curated by Jessica A. Cooley and Ann M. Fox, is a multi-module exhibition series that rolled out over the course of 2020 – 2021. Drawn from some of the leading artists and scholars addressing the lived experience of disability today, Indisposable addresses the urgent questions of our moment where pandemic and demands for racial justice intersect.
Next up (Wednesday, June 9th from 6:00 to 7:15pm) ~ Indisposable: Structures of Support After the ADA, Chapter 5 ~ Melancholy as Medium. What to do with the ways we’re being undone? Chapter 5: Melancholy as Medium brings us together for an activist wake that refuses to move on. The evening unfolds a ritual of mediumship to conduce our outraged grief as catalytic for the uprising and care work of living with more than one virus, amidst more than one pandemic, carrying our as yet unaddressed losses into the battles we’re still waging in the name of supports for the thriving of Black, Brown, Indigenous, crip, queer and trans vitalities. Register for this Free Event.
If you missed the first 4 Chapters, you can catch up below.
Indisposable: Structures of Support After the ADA, Chapter 4. Raisa Kabir critically examines how global structures of production create a hierarchy in which value and care are assigned to laborers that can adhere to eugenic and capitalist expectations of “useful” and “functioning” bodies.
Indisposable: Structures of Support After the ADA, Chapter 3. FRONTLINES OF ALL KIND is a new video commission documenting artists Navild Acosta and Fannie Sosa endeavors and challenges during the pandemic. The filming occurred during the rehearsal period of the Black Power Naps opera “Choir of the Slain” slated to premier at a Berlin theater in the fall of 2020.
Indisposable: Structures of Support After the ADA, Chapter 2. How does disability create knowledge essential to surviving a global pandemic? One answer: joy. As an act of pleasure activism and self-care during the pandemic lockdown, Schalk began posting images of herself on social media with sparkly new hairstyles, outfits, and facemasks. The act of dressing up to handle ordinary tasks such as walking the dog or taking out the trash sparked delight and connection with strangers and friends. In her words, “joy begets joy begets joy.” Schalk’s #QuarantineLooks embraces the lushness of her “fat Black femme” body; challenges what depression looks like; and interrogates what it means to look well or unwell.
Indisposable: Structures of Support After the ADA, Chapter 1. The first chapter of the series will begin with a performance by actor/playwright Ryan J. Haddad, who will serve as MC. The event will feature a poetry reading by scholar/writer Ellen Samuels and feature a new film by Alex Dolores Salerno.
Exhibiting artists have included:
- Navild Acosta and Fannie Sosa
- Indira Allegra
- Kevin Quiles Bonilla
- fierce pussy
- Jill Casid
- Ryan J. Haddad
- Pato Hebert
- Allison Leigh Holt
- Heather Johnson
- Raisa Kabir
- Jina B. Kim
- melannie monoceros
- Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad
- Raju Rage
- Sami Schalk
- Alex Dolores Salerno
- Ellen Samuels
- Pamela Sneed
- Mandy Harris Williams
- Kiyan Williams
Indisposable: Structures of Support After the ADA, an online exhibition from September 17, 2020 through August 14, 2021, presented by Ford Foundation Gallery, 320 East 43rd Street, NYC. Curated by Jessica A. Cooley and Ann M. Fox, it will culminate in a physical exhibition to open in the gallery at a later date.