Factory Media Centre is thrilled to announce that Steacy Easton will be joining us as our January – February 2025 &NOW Artist-in-Residence!
Over the last decade, one of the aspects of my visual practice has been attempts to reclaim and aestheticise clinical interventions against Autistic people. I am interested in the material cultures of clinical spaces, how these spaces observe people, and how Autistic culture resists these interventions. These reclamations include using clinical materials, like the WISC intelligence test, in video and live performances; creating name tags with levels of communication requested (a common practice in Autistic circles); and a recreation of occupational therapy in a filmed panopticon. I am curious about continuing these practices; through performance and film, especially activating the full space of Factory Media Centre.
From its infancy, Autistic visual culture has been determined by the clinics—how Autistic people create visual meaning, is told via the clinical report, the case study, reported on instead of reported by. Using visual archival material from very early clinical studies in Autism, from observing my own Autistic experience, and from watching friends’ children play, I want to find out what an Autistic visual rhetoric looks like, to negotiate and process post mediation.
This will include rephotographing and resizing photographs of toys used in clinical spaces, and to promote clinical spaces, large text work based on receipts of toys that were photographed, and a performance of communal tower building inspired by time (in person and via video message) spent with my nibling, who at four, builds beautiful structures.
About the Artist
Steacy Easton is a writer and visual artist, originally from Edmonton, who has lived in Hamilton for almost nine years.
They have written on gender, sexuality, and country music for publications including Slate, NPR, and the Atlantic Online. Their book Why Tammy Wynette Matters, from the University of Texas Press, has been covered by the New York Times, Nashville Scene, and No Depression, among others. They have also written a memoir for Coach House, Daddy Lessons, and a book for Bloomsbury, as part of their 33 ⅓ series about Dolly Parton’s White Limozeen.
Their visual practice includes performance, photography, and printmaking—often about the problems of observation, disability, queerness and vernacular forms. They have worked over the last decade on an ongoing project about Autism and rhetoric. This includes performances for the Quiet Parade, at Mt St Vincent in Halifax, film work shown in Toronto, and Hamilton, and a filmed performance this year for Factory Media, Physical Exercise.
Their printmaking has been shown at Center 3, the vitrines at Tangled Arts in Toronto, at Monastiraki in Montreal, among others. They have shown photographs in New York, Toronto, Edmonton, and are in public collections throughout North America. Their work is in public collections in Edmonton, Burlington, and Hamilton; plus in the library of the National Gallery of Canada.
They were the 2022 Artist in Residence at the Martha Street Studio in Winnipeg.
About the Project
Using visual archival material from very early clinical studies in Autism, from observing my own Autistic experience, and from watching friends’ children play, I want to find out what an Autistic visual rhetoric looks like, to negotiate and process post mediation.
The residency work will include rephotographing and resizing photographs of toys used in clinical spaces, and to promote clinical spaces, large text work based on receipts of toys that were photographed, and a performance of communal tower building inspired by time (in person and via video message) spent with my nibling, who at four, builds beautiful structures.
About the Residency
FMC’s &NOW Production Residency is an opportunity for artists and creators to utilize the space and resources at FMC to produce a new work or continue a developing body of work.