What does not belong?

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Artist: Brittany Ryan Year: 2014 Medium: Digital Collage Artist Statement: As Canadian Euro-centric institutions begin to adapt to include traditional healing practices, hospitals, mental health centres, and prisons have collectively decided that it is best to do so within existing dominant institutions. These institutions have had a leading role in producing social “facts”, and institutional racism continues to exists, whether or not they incorporate culturally specific programming. Placing these specific cultural objects within Western institutions like CAMH and the South Detention Centre prompts the viewer to ask why. Furthermore, adding the text “What does not belong?” compels the viewer to focus on the unfamiliar: the ceremonial objects. These collages allow the viewer to question the hegemonic discourse of Western organizations and how we have become familiarized with these institutions as if they have always been the one and only way of approaching madness.

Artist:  Brittany Ryan
Year:  2014
Medium:  Digital Collage
Artist Statement:  As Canadian Euro-centric institutions begin to adapt to include traditional healing practices, hospitals, mental health centres, and prisons have collectively decided that it is best to do so within existing dominant institutions. These institutions have had a leading role in producing social “facts”, and institutional racism continues to exists, whether or not they incorporate culturally specific programming. Placing these specific cultural objects within Western institutions like CAMH and the South Detention Centre prompts the viewer to ask why. Furthermore, adding the text “What does not belong?” compels the viewer to focus on the unfamiliar: the ceremonial objects. These collages allow the viewer to question the hegemonic discourse of Western organizations and how we have become familiarized with these institutions as if they have always been the one and only way of approaching madness.