playing WITH - playing OUT

Upcoming Exhibtion: arc.hive artist-run centre, 2516 Bridge Street, Victoria, BC

March 4, 5, 11, & 12, 2023, 12pm - 4pm.

For information about the research associated with this exhibition, please click here.

Previous Exhibition: A. Wilfrid Johns Gallery at the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, November 4 - 18, 2022

After participating in the Anti-Violence Project’s Understanding Consent Culture Workshop, Caroline Boileau and I developed a series of objects and artistic propositions, which are presented in the playing WITH – playing OUT exhibition. These artworks are invitations for folks to engage in playful artistic actions, collaborations, dialogues, and/or individual contemplation focused on consent* and boundary development. Grounded in participatory art practices, the exhibition will grow, shift, and develop new connections with each new interaction. We hope to stimulate thinking and dialogue about consent, with the intention of promoting consent culture on campuses and in the wider community. We are also interested in exploring how art and art spaces can be employed to address pressing social issues and difficult knowledge.

*“Consent is clear, communicated, enthusiastic, the responsibility of the initiator, ongoing, and can be renegotiated or withheld at any time. It means listening to each other, respecting each other, and bringing mindfulness to all our interactions. Practicing consent is an important step in creating a culture we want to live in. A culture in which people are respected and have autonomy, choice, agency, to decide for themselves what is best for them” (www.antiviolenceproject.org).

This work is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. IMPACTS: Collaborations to Address Sexual Violence on Campus; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnership Grant Number: 895-2016-1026, Principal Investigator and Project Director, Shaheen Shariff, Ph.D., James McGill Professor, McGill University.