Gloria and I went to see Wasteland, (Wasteland.com), at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on King Street. There is SO much going on there that Gloria and I are considering getting memberships so to be able to see movies and exhibits for less. It would be a way to reinforce my taking off a day a week to sustain my own wellbeing – and a step up from Farmville!
The movie follows a Brazilian artist who transforms people’s lives as together they turn garbage into art that represents their lives, capacities and dreams.
Afterward, in the exceptionally well designed café that serves the Lightbox, Gloria recorded my words:
“What struck me was that after all the years, as the camera man said, the people who were the garbage pickers were able to lift themselves out from where they were when they saw themselves as artists.
When I became an artist it was that – it didn’t happen all at once, but it happened like that. The process of realizing ever so slowly that I am an artist has given me a place to be, to look at all the other stuff – I’m not trapped being an advocate, fighting to be an advocate. Do you remember how angry and frustrated I got saying over and over again that there is no disability? Saying I am not disabled over and over again created the being of disabled. You can’t ever get out of it.
What if God created art so we can have a place to be so that we can get out of our traps?
When I’m at Laser Eagles and see how the other artists improve in their lives – I realize it’s a wonderful moment when you discover you’re an artist.”
There is a powerful moment when one of the pickers teaches the significance of each moment, each bit of garbage, each person. He is teaching that it is important to recycle not just most cans but ALL cans. He says: “99 is not 100.”
I saw myself in the pickers. I saw the pride, the integrity and the trap. Even to this day I live in a world that sees different capacity as “trash”. I saw that art provided them with a different place to stand and a different perspective wherein they could exercise their natural power.
Can my exhibit provide such a transcendent place?
I am struggling within myself to find images and themes that will open such a powerful space that real life will be present and the rigid hierarchical structure of the ROM will not be able obliterate it. How can such a static, ephemeral moment as walking through an exhibition of my art on the way to the dinosaurs cause a transformative encounter with Inclusion?
There were other pleasures in the experience today. Most of the Lightbox spaces, and also the café within it, are simple and welcoming and also use light and sound to create intimate, comfortable and welcoming ambiance. At the end of the movie I was dancing – for the second time this week!
On another note I added Advil back into my pain management mix today and I have sat up for ten hours! I am hopeful that I have found another clue.
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