CANT/WONT

Deirdre Logue and Allyson Mitchell (Toronto)

The first installation of the FAG Satellite @ Access presents work by Deirdre Logue and Allyson Mitchell co-founders of the Feminist Art Gallery. Logue and Mitchell have aligned development and artistic goals in order to operate FAG on its own terms. Logue is currently the Development Director at Vtape and Mitchell works as Assistant Professor in the School of Women’s Studies at York University. Both have prolific international art practices.

CAN’T/WON’T is a series of four banners that display the following text:

WE CAN’T COMPETE, WE WON’T COMPETE, WE CAN’T KEEP UP, WE WON’T KEEP DOWN

Due to the following circumstances [list umpteen statistics about how gender/”race” and class operate in the art world] we propose these slogans and ask the following questions: “Why would you want to be a winner in this hierarchal structure?” and “How do we both resist and reconcile our participation in this oppressive system?”

CAN’T/WON’T is an acknowledgement of the dilemmas of feminist and queer cultural participation.

We can’t compete so we won’t compete. Instead we will: collaborate, nurture, cultivate, feed, enable.