Constructed Identities, a major show of new work by Persimmon Blackbridge, uses mixed media wood carving with found objects to question how disability is framed as a fracturing of ordinary life rather than a normal, expected part of it. Her exploration of the figure begins in disability, but necessarily complicates itself as our embodied identities intersect and overlap.

For the past 45 years, Persimmon Blackbridge has worked as a sculptor, writer, curator and performer, as well as being an editor, cleaning lady and very bad waitress. She has consistently made art on themes of disability since the late 1970s, as well as art, writing and performance on institutionalization, censorship, queer identity, generational alcoholism, feminism and war. Her latest exhibit, Constructed Identities, has been shown across Ontario and makes its’ westcoast debut in Vancouver.

Image: Persimmon Blackbridge, thermo (constructed identities); mahogany, bloodwood, thermostat, doll part