TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image is debuting its largest in-person installation in years this fall. ‘If We Never Get Better’ comes in collaboration with The Photographer’s Green Book (PGB) and is curated by PGB’s Editor-in-Chief Sydney Ellison. The exhibition features work from lens-based artists and focuses on a variety of topics such as healthcare, collective grief, disability, illness, and healing as components of their practices.
“When I began working with PGB early in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, health and disability were undercurrents in nearly all of the conversations we were having as an organization,” said Ellison in a statement. “I wanted to highlight the subjects in this exhibition because it was a gap I had noticed in the lens-based art community. At the same time, I was inspired by the work in adjacent artistic communities exploring health, disability, life, and art with incredible nuance and care, most notably from artist collectives Sins Invalid and Disability Visibility.”
As a release states, the artwork invites the viewer to consider: What if these circumstances aren’t pitied or ignored but instead viewed as a place for the study and cultivation of new skills that allow us to relate to others differently? The new exhibition also examines health and disability as intersectional experiences and how ableism and access to healthcare are directly impacted by systemic racism, sexism, and homophobia.
In total, ‘If We Never Get Better’ features nine different artists who explore how ableism and access to healthcare are directly impacted by systemic racism, sexism and homophobia. Artists involved in the exhibition include Anique Jordan, Ari Golub, Clifford Prince King, Debmalya Ray Choudhuri, Frances Bukovsky, Jaklin Romine, Jenica Heintzelman, Shala Miller and Shanna Merola.
As a release states, these artists will expand on preconceived notions of these topics while highlighting principles of Disability Justice, a framework coined by a collective of Black, brown, queer, and trans activists, including Patty Berne, Mia Mingus, and Stacey Milbern. Together, the works featured in ‘If We Never Get Better’ facilitate a nuanced understanding of how the public is impacted by these systems at different levels and how art can be used to challenge that reality. He new exhibition opened on Sept. 8 and will be on display in TILT’s Main Gallery through Dec. 10.
For more information on TILT (1400 N American St., Unit 103) and ‘If We Never Get Better’, visit tiltinstitute.org
