With

Cassidy Bankson, Faye Harnest, Earl LeBlanc, and Dawn McLeod

This collection of images by Cassidy Bankson, Faye Harnest, Earl LeBlanc and Dawn McLeod adapts the “exquisite corpse” game into a habit of drawing with one another as an access practice. The artists share a collaborative drawing as a way to anchor themselves in time and space, avoid the culturally omnipresent mode of socializing through screens (often inaccessible), and build social relationships. Bankson writes: 

“The seeds of this piece came from weekly conversations between me and my friend Faye. For over two years we spoke on the phone every Friday afternoon. We sent each other pictures of our drawings. Perhaps inevitably, we found that we were affected by, and were responding to, each other’s drawings. Earl and Dawn joined us for the creation of ‘With’ offering the possibility of expanding the practice and adding an element of mystery and surprise. We are all members of the Brain Injury Society of Toronto. We connected because we were artists that felt estranged from our original art forms and were looking for new ways to create. Living with an acquired brain injury (ABI) is isolating. We cautiously manage our symptoms and evaluate the cost of light, sounds, human interactions, routine shopping and appointments etc. on our well-being. Acquired brain injuries are often termed an “invisible injury” because the struggles felt by survivors are not evident to the outside world. ‘With’ is a ritual of connection. It brings its participants into the playful and potentially transformational power of collective art making.”

Thus, this work mobilizes an artistic practice as a vehicle for social togetherness. The work references the role of art-making as a kind of Crip Ritual in itself, and points to the creativity and speculative innovation that disabled people employ to find strategies for survival and the cultivation of social personhood in spite of disabilities that prevent participation in normative social interactions in the dominant culture.

Installation view written image description

[images of WITH installed at Tangled Art+Disability coming soon]:

Here are 20 drawings on paper arranged in four columns across and five rows down. The images in each column are connected by a vertical wire.

One is immediately struck by the variety of aesthetics in these pieces. Each of the four contributing artists have used a different medium. Cassidy Bankson’s drawings are mixed media; Faye Harnest’s are digital; Earl LeBlanc’s are pastel; and Dawn McLeod’s are collage.

Upon closer inspection, patterns and thematic connections appear, including:

-tearing, shattering, fractures and fragments

-getting caught, being controlled by an outside force, and breaking out

-wolves, snapping, biting 

-wide eyes looking outward

-and abstract use of vivid colours and movement

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In the Deep

Faye Harnest

2020. Digital.

Written Image Description:

There are two ovals side-by-side with white on the inside and black on the outside, almost as if one were looking through oval shaped binoculars. Within each oval is a tableau with a giant octopus and a woman in a black bathing suit. In the left oval, the octopus has two arms wrapped around the woman and is lifting her into the air. In the right oval, the octopus is laying limp while the woman is standing over it. She has one foot on an octopus arm and is holding a large knife pointed down at the creature. The drawings are black on white with broken turquoise lines across the images, like water streaks on glass.

Written Image Description:

20 painted canvases are hung up on a white wall, with four columns of five rows of various artworks.

First column:

1) Looking down – By Faye Harnest

Two high top sneakers are side-by-side at the center of the image. We see them from above, as though about to put them on. The image is formed by clusters of little black squiggles of varying shapes offset against a white background.

2) Night Air – Cassidy Bankson

A big round red light is suspended above two white lines, suggesting traffic lanes. At the periphery to the right, a large green light also shines. The darkness surrounding the lights is filled with a multitude of scrambled stamped letters consisting of: S. T. O. P.

3) Why Did You Forget? – Earl LeBlanc

An abstract profile appears midst amorphic pastel blocks of yellow, orange, red, purple, peacock blue, teal, pale blue, and light green. There is a sense of play and movement in the use of colours and shapes. At the centre-right of the image is a large question mark.

4) Friendenemy – Dawn McLeod

A human mouth screams behind a pack of demon wolves which are being led by a fire demon.  There is a human hand with marionette strings connected the fingers and stretching towards the wide-open mouth, but the strings are broken. The wolves have glowing red eyes, mouths and nostrils, as if they are burning from the inside, and are running towards the viewer. The fire demon, emerging from a fireplace, has a wolf head and a body of flame and appears to be moving with great agility and speed.

5) Feed It to the Wolves – By Faye Harnest

Three white wolves with sharp teeth are devouring a pile of papers in a snowy mountainous place. The wolves and paper are drawn in solid black lines and are surrounded by pastel pinks and blues. The mountains are wispy lines in the background. The papers are covered with red and rust colours, suggesting being coated with blood. Tiny swiggly lines surround the papers, as if the writing on them is falling away. 

Second column:

6) Fractured Word – Earl LeBlanc

A pastel drawing of a man’s face fills the page. He has a peach coloured oval face, purple and red hair parted in the middle, high cheekbones almond-shaped eyes. He is expressionless and stares directly outward toward the viewer. A hand-written poem titled, “Fractured World’”, overlays the face. Some of the letters in the title are written backwards. It writes, “The boy at the yacht club/ He was curious why I was there/ On  a bright summer day. Met by his mistrustful glare/ Sneaking glances/ Not once/ Taking no chances/ Looking again./ Set off by 100,000 boats or more/ Another glance as he swaggered away/ Entrenched in Daddie’s kingdom/ Already trained to hate/ Injuries taught me compassion/ Taught me pity and love/ Taught me art.”

7) FRACTURES GRAPHITE – By Faye Harnest

A large piece of graphite is drawn in detail with thin black lines on white paper. It appears brittle, as though sections might break off. The middle portion of the graphite has eroded to create the illusion that there is a top rock and a bottom rock mirroring each other. The top portion of the graphite is coloured with red, blue and purple, while the bottom portion is black ink on white paper.

8) re-becoming – Dawn McLeod

Two people with tree root bodies and heads are dressed in fancy gowns and having tea. They are sitting in the middle of the winding road at the top of an escarpment. Their table is a tree trunk table and its mass of roots extend and weave below, around and above them. It is a sunny day and mountainous terrain is in the background. Beside the root people is a fault line that has separated one side of the cliff from the other, creating an abrupt end to the road.

9) Carving Space – Cassidy Bankson

A person stands with their arms spread open and reaching for the sky. They are wearing a waist length jacket and a long full skirt and they are spinning like a whirling dervish. Above the figure, in mid pour, are two different teapots pouring tea into two small teacups. The sky is bright yellow and the figured is surrounded by blue and pink as if the figure was gliding on water.   

10) Define This: I Dare You – Earl LeBlanc

A non-representational pastel drawing. A deep blue rectangle formation in the lower half, surrounded by rapidly applied strokes of red, orange, salmon pink and yellow that create movement and depth. The colours have been layered, crosshatched and applied inconsistently across the page, creating indistinct forms and the impression of a landscape.

Third column:

11) Underground – Cassidy Bankson

Four women are in a sparsely furnished basement room. A frightened looking woman is in bed under the covers; a menacing one is under the bed; one is sitting curled up on the floor, behind the door; and the fourth woman is crouched behind small wooden table, peering over wide-eyed. An inquisitive racoon is watching through the ground level window. A door opens to the outdoors that reveals an ascending staircase. A crescent moon is visible in the night sky. The scene has been drawn in graphite, though watercolours create a fracturing affect, breaking the image into eight separate sections resembling stained or broken glass. One of the fracture lines cuts through the woman at the table, severing her head from the rest of her body. Some sections are tinged with rose pink, the others are tinged with dark grey.

12) In Deep at the Sunday Blowout – Dawn McLeod

In a forest of leafless trees, a woman is kissing a man’s neck. Her head has been shattered into multiple pieces which are dispersing through the trees, like leaves blown by the wind. Below the man and the woman, a large octopus tentacle moves through water creating waves and a  distant small boat teeters on a wave cap. At the bottom right, two large skulls have washed ashore.

13) In the Deep – By Faye Harnest

There are two ovals side-by-side with white on the inside and black on the outside, almost as if one were looking through oval shaped binoculars. Within each oval is a tableau with a giant octopus and a woman in a black bathing suit. In the left oval, the octopus has two arms wrapped around the woman and is lifting her into the air. In the right oval, the octopus is laying limp while the woman is standing over it. She has one foot on an octopus arm and is holding a large knife pointed down at the creature. The drawings are black on white with broken turquoise lines across the images, like water streaks on glass.

14) No one Knows What its Like Behind These Eyes – Earl LeBlanc

An oil pastel drawing of an abstract, bright, multicoloured face with eyes looking out of the corners, off to the left. The eyes appear set back, as though peering out from behind some protection. Surrounding the eyes are blocks of colours create a maze of amorphous forms. The medium has been applied in layers with smudging, blending and reapplication creating rough textures and the white of the paper is exposed at the edges.  

15) Into Technicolour – Cassidy Bankson

A dappled cobalt blue shape draws the eye to the centre of this nonrepresentational watercolour. Watercolour blooms, colour bleeding, and stippling techniques fill the page with yellow, blue, red, orange, pink and green paint.

Fourth column:

16) At Full Speed at the Hippodrome – Dawn McLeod

At the base of this collage is a woman sleeping on a bed. She is at the edge of a river with a suspension bridge at sunset – the sky and the reflections on the water are deep orange, reds and yellows. Her dream depicts an erupting volcano, a sprawl of axons (the brain’s transmission cables), a figuring looking out of their third eye, a baby-headed clown riding a griffin, and a reaching hand with long curling fingernails that has been caught in the griffin’s tail.

17) Musical Inspiration and Concussion – Earl LeBlanc

A pastel portrait of a man with a diamond shaped face, multi-coloured shoulder-length hair, big eyes, and a goatee and handlebar moustache. The man stares directly forward towards the viewer. At the top of the page, suspended behind the man’s head, are musical notations suggesting music passing through his mind.

18) Rebound – Cassidy Bankson

Vibrantly coloured circles and curved stripes are suspended against a black background. Some are smaller and appear far away, while other are larger and appear close.  The circles and stripes are yellow, red, pink, oranges, purples, greens, and blues. Drawn with oil pastel, some shapes are smooth and solid in colour, and some have rougher, layered textures and streaks of white.

19) All of It – By Faye Harnest

Two disembodied arms and hands, wearing long black sleeves, fiercely grip coloured circles and curved stripes. The arms emerge from the black background. The circles and stripes are vibrant solid colours including green, yellow, pink, orange and red. Some shapes are smaller and appear far away, while other are larger and appear close.

A pregnant goddess-like-creature stands on a stage surrounded by twinkling lights. There are deep red curtains above her and to her sides. Her fallopian tubes stretch outside of her body like long tentacles. An egg is dropping out of a fallopian tube onto a large pile of babies in various stages of birth. The babies are all curled up in fetal position with their eyes closed tightly. In the upper left corner is magician dangling upside-down while casting a spell on the babies and birthing process.