Struggle and the Politics of Self Care: A Curatorial Perspective

“Take Care of Your Self” is a research-creation project that explores the potential for transcultural dialogue and engagement through the concept of “Care-full curation.” To explore these ideas through research-creation I organized a week-long exhibition and series of events held during the summer of 2017 in Montreal titled “Take Care of Your Self: A Transcultural Art Event”. The exhibit, in which I was both participating artist and curator, featured work by 27 artists of colour, or “othered” artists from diverse communities. The exhibit sought to explore how notions of self-care, self-determination and healing have conceptually informed artists from a wide range of cultural orientations who are dealing with complex issues of personal, social and political struggle. Through care-full curation, my intention was to foster counter-narratives to the existing structures perpetrated by mainstream media that keep our diverse struggles separated, and to create a safe space illustrated by artworks and conversations on the subject of self-care and struggle. In this paper, I draw on the concept of self-care as it is articulated and practiced in Black feminist thought and contemporary social movements. I explore how empowerment can be integrated into an approach of critical curation and intersectionality. I also locate the exhibit and series of events in the larger framework of self-care and art as a method of transformative transcultural convening. I position my own practice as an artist-curator through both theory and method by highlighting the process, goals and outcomes of the exhibition “Take Care of Your Self”