In this interview, (SPAN) member Jacqueline Bell is in conversation with artist Carmen Papalia. This podcast is a part of a new series, (SPAN) North, which features interviews with Canadian artists.
Born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1981, Carmen Papalia is a social practice artist who makes participatory projects on the topic of access as it relates to public space, the Art institution and visual culture. His work has been featured as part of exhibitions and engagements at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the L.A. Craft and Folk Art Museum, CUE Art Foundation, Grand Central Art Center, the Portland Art Museum, the Columbus Museum of Art and the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2011 he was awarded a residency at Mildred’s Lane, where he developed a site-specific rendition of Blind Field Shuttle that traversed the sonically stunning natural landscapes of Beach Lake Pennsylvania. In 2012 he served as the Mellon Tri-College Creative Resident and offered a series of improvisational Blind Field Shuttle walks for students and staff at Haverford and Bryn Mawr College.
Papalia is the recipient of the 2013 Wynn Newhouse Award for artistic merit in contemporary art. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Simon Fraser University and a Master of Fine Arts from Portland State University. He has presented on his work at the University of Sunderland (UK), the California College of the Arts, Portland State University, the Pacific Northwest College of Art, the University of Michigan, York University, and at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. His recent writings can be found in the “Publics” issue of Art21, Stay Solid: A Radical Handbook for Youth (AK Press, 2013) and in the “Museum Experience and Blindness” issue of Disability Studies Quarterly.
Papalia’s upcoming projects include the production of an imposing Loud Cane that will allow him to occupy the sonic environment, and a series of actions in which he will coordinate community members to conduct independent accessibility audits of museums—where the terms of the audit are based in their very subjective perceptions regarding what is accessible. In January of 2015 he will head to London to serve as the Victoria & Albert Museum’s artist-in-residence through the Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary.
You Can Do it with Your Eyes Closed on Art21
Short documentary by the CUE Art Foundation about Blind Field Shuttle
Short documentary about Mobility Device at Grand Central Art Center
Photo: Carmen Papalia, Long Cane, 2013. Performance, duration varies. Photo by Kristin Rochelle Lantz, courtesy the artist.