Almost Live episode #173
Experience a descriptive tour of Speak No (emergency), by artist Persimmon Blackridge.
Speak No (emergency) is co-presented with Tangled Art + Disability, and marks artist Persimmon Blackridge’s first solo exhibition, which is currently on display at the Richmond Art Gallery. Through her practice, Persimmon, a queer and disabled artist, raises awareness of the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized communities, blending personal experience with broader social commentary.
The exhibition features 150 sculptures crafted from locally sourced materials, including wood and found objects from Hornby Island. These materials, which Persimmon describes as metaphors for disabled bodies, highlight the strength and grace found in what society often discards as broken. Despite the challenges of her progressive peripheral neuropathy, her work delivers a hopeful message about the power of community and collective action in bringing about positive change.
Host Amy Amantea will be joined by artist Persimmon Blackbridge to share insights into her artistic process and the themes of her work.
* Experience this exhibition in person! Speak No (emergency) runs from January 18 to March 23, 2025 at the Richmond Art Gallery. In order to make the exhibition as accessible to visitors as possible, there are audio artwork descriptions available and a new, touchable sculpture on display, allowing visitors more ways to experience and interact with the art. Visit the Richmond Art Gallery website or call 604-247-6383 for gallery hours + accessibility.
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Artist Bio
Celebrated as a Canadian trailblazer in socially engaged art, Persimmon Blackbridge has made queer, feminist, and disability art from the late 70s to today. Together with writer Sheila Gilhooley, she created the 1980s exhibition Still Sane, a then groundbreaking combination of sculpture and text and one of the earliest examples of first-person narrative art in Canada, as well as a pioneering exhibit of disability art. She was a member of the Kiss & Tell collective whose installation Drawing the Line was a potent intervention against censorship in the feminist “Porn Wars” of the 1980’s. In the 90s, Blackbridge collaborated with 27 former residents of BC’s large institutions for people with intellectual disabilities on the installation From the Inside/Out, which was instrumental in winning reparations for former residents of Woodlands Institution. From 2015 to 2020, her series Constructed Identities toured Ontario and BC, disputing the social construction of tragic disability.
