Alexis Bulman

After undergoing spinal surgery a student is no longer able to participate in gym class. The phys-ed coach sits the student at a desk, places 12 red cups in front of her and presses play to a VHS tape about the sport of competitive cup stacking. For three semesters the student sits alone and stacks 12 red cups in different sequences in varied levels of complexity and clumsiness. No ever competes against her, or checks her technique.

Up-Stack Down-Stack is a video-documented performance piece that pulls from the artists gym class story and lived experience with disability and medical care & testing.

The repetitive process of receiving medical care (waiting rooms, examinations, tests, ticking clocks, beeping machines..); is mirrored through a loud and clumsy performance that allows the interior struggles of an invisible disability to be played out through outer terrains of competitive cup-stacking.

Exhibited:

Third Shift Festival, Saint John, NB (Juried) 2019

Centre[3] for Print and Media Arts Residency Group Exhibition, Hamilton, ON (Group) 2019

The Body Electric, Exhibition and International Conference on Resident Education presented at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Halifax, NS (Juried) 2018

Sick Theories, A Trans-Disciplinary Conference on Sickness & Sexuality, University of Toronto, ON (Juried) 2018

VIBE: Transforming able-ism through the arts, exhibition symposium, Concordia University, Montréal, QC (Juried), 2018

Photophobia Contemporary Moving Image Festival, co-presented by The Art Gallery of Hamilton and Hamilton Artists Inc. Hamilton, ON (Group) 2018

Slut Island Festival, Montréal, QC (Juried) 2018

Morbus, Kelvin Gallery, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, UK (Group) 2018

People become patients upon entering the examination space.

Patients bend forward with feet together, arms hanging limp and knees extended until the back becomes horizontal. The examiner assesses from behind and slowly runs a finger down the patient's spine.

The comfort and trust of being "traced" by the hand of a fellow patient replaces medical jargon, medical equipment and the notion of the body as an object of analysis.

Following proper doctor etiquette, patients leave the examination space as people with lollipops in hand.

Exhibited:

The Images In Our heads, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa ON. 2016

Support by:
 
Canada Council of the Arts, Cultivate Professional Development Grant
 

Scoliosis exaggerates the straight walls that surround my body.
I bend down, cover my hands with blue pigment, and jump as high as I can by propelling my interior hardware upwards, expanding the space between each vertebrate, elongating the spine and slapping the wall with my blue hands before landing back on my feet to absorb the compression.

Exhibited: 

Centre[3] for Print and Media Arts Residency Group Exhibition, Hamilton, ON (Group) 2019

Lumière First Night, Sydney, NB (Juried) 2018

Nuit Rose, Toronto, ON (Juried) 2018

Vancouver Outsider Art Festival, Vancouver, BC (Juried) 2018

Photophobia Contemporary Moving Image Festival, co-presented by The Art Gallery of Hamilton and Hamilton Artists Inc. Hamilton, ON (Group) 2017

The Images in our Heads, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, ON (Group) 2016

Color it blue
Erase the blue
Color it blue
Erase the blue
Color it blue
Erase the blue
Color it blue
Erase the blue

Exhibited:  

Luminous Bodies Artist Residency, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto, ON. 2015

Support by:

P.E.I.C.A. Professional Development Grant. 2015

 

Life Lines was performed in collaboration with Curvy Girls (a Scoliosis support group), and curated by Eyelevel Gallery for Nocturne art festival.

The performance was based on a physical examination performed to assess spines for Scoliosis; called The Forward Bend Test. To perform this test, a person bends forward with feet together, arms hanging limp and knees extended until the back becomes horizontal. The examiner assesses from behind by running their finger down the person’s spine, feeling for a curvature. 

Throughout Nocturne, festival goers entered the gallery and assumed the position to have their spines traced. While tracing, the performer drew a corresponding line on the gallery wall.

Over the course of the performance the individual lines became layered, and grew into one sprawling drawing. An examination that marked significant moments in each of our lines became a ritual we were proud to share.

Butterfly closures are white adhesive strips applied across minor lacerations in a manner which pulls the skin on either side of the wound together.

The surface of a wall is carefully examined for paint chips, cracks, nail holes etc. With each discovered wound the performer opens a butterfly closure package, allows it’s wax backings to flutter to the ground, applies the butterfly closure to the area and presses it gently to ensure a good stick. The performance occurs in silence, and ends once every wound on the wall has been tended to, and the ground is covered in the accumulated wax backings of the butterfly closures.

Importantly, the Tending To performance is not concerned with fixing the wall, but demonstrating the act of thoughtful attention and care.

——————————————————————————————

Tending To was projected as an installation at Artspace, as part of Bulman’s solo exhibition MAKE/SHIFT. Tending To was projected in Gallery 2, an exhibition space located at the end of a narrow corridor and atop a flight of yellow-painted stairs. Visitors’ access to this work was barricaded from behind a yellow and black safety belt. In the space a pre-recorded audio description of the Tending To performance played out loud, and on the wall beside the stairs black text (plucked from the audio description) read “LOOK PLUNGE PEEL FLUTTER ADHERE PRESS REPEAT” .

An audio described, un-obstructed video of the Tending To performance was posted on the Artspace website during the MAKE/SHIFT exhibition.

Exhibited:

MAKE/SHIFT, Artspace, Peterborough, ON

Third Shift Festival, Saint John, NB (Juried)

Lumière Art Festival, Sydney, NB (Juried)

Support by:

MAI Alliance, the Government of Québec and the City of Montréal as part of l’Entente sur le développement culturel de Montréal

Canada Council of the Arts, Concept to Realization: Explore and Create Program