Steacy Easton
February 1st – 7th, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 1st | 12 – 2 PM
Factory Media Centre (366 Victoria Ave. N)
Factory Media Centre is thrilled to present train/s, a culminating exhibition and participatory performance of communal tower building from our first 2025 &NOW Artist-in-Residence, Steacy Easton!
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 their own Autistic experience, and from watching friends’ children play, train/s investigates what an Autistic visual rhetoric looks like, negotiating and processing post mediation.
Through a participatory performance of communally building a tower of toys as tall as humanly possible, train/s aims to find ways where people can engage in collaboration and parallel play, and to recognize the ways in which parallel play can be a collaborative experience. The tower building seeks to find a small moment where participants can be together and play without ideology, while still acknowledging observation and viewing as part of that heritage.
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 &NOW Production Residency & Scholarship
Factory Media Centre annually hosts our &NOW Production Residency & Scholarship (PR&S) program each winter. This is a valuable 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. Selections are based on project originality, its potential for artistic growth, and the use and integration of FMC as a production location. Click here to learn more about our &NOW Residency Program.
About Factory Media Centre
Factory Media Centre is Hamilton’s not-for-profit artist-driven resource centre for film, video, new media, installation, sound art, and other multimedia art forms. Our mission is to develop and support a vibrant, sustainable, creative, and diverse community of Members and non-Members within Hamilton and its surrounding region.