Abstract

Abstract:

In the next decade, according the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we are going to see increasing climatic events with compounding and unprecedented economic, social, and political impacts which will affect livelihoods and ways of life. To borrow Margaret Atwood's declaration, we are no longer talking about climate change, we are facing "everything change" including how we practice as artists in various institutional contexts at home and abroad. It is plausible that in our lifetime we will see our venues, galleries, studios, audiences, and other platforms where we create, tour, and present affected. Therefore, we are in a critical time as practitioners to reconsider our capacities and voices, how we untether from our ways of conventionally working within and across institutional structures, and how we can adapt to the challenges ahead. This autobiographical essay reflects on my own pluralities of experiences for leaving Canada and rationale for staying abroad; and how through my practice a decade later, I am considering what returning might mean. My approach is to situate this reflection within a provocation that is speculative around being a practitioner in the future and how working across borders, disciplines, and orientations can prepare one to be adaptive and responsive in the turbulent times ahead.

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