Carmen Papalia (born 1981) is a blind artist from Vancouver, British Columbia. His practice focuses on "creative wayfinding", the use of alternative modes of navigation without visual cues. Papalia is known for his performances. This includes a performance in Santa Ana, California where Papalia was guided only by a marching band playing predetermined audio cues for physical obstacles and navigation. [1] Papalia also conducts non-visual walking tours for sighted people. [2] In 2015, Papalia proposed an anti-policy approach to accessibility "rethinking of the terms on which all of us care for and coexist with one another" [3] [4] in his Open Access conceptual framework.
Papalia filed a complaint against his landlord through the BC Human Rights Tribunal. His complaint involved his right to use cannabis for pain relief in a non-smoking household. The landlords objected due to their own disability, asthma. In December 2023 the BCHRT found the landlords did not discriminate. The panel found that this was a "disability on disability" matter and the landlords did not have to risk their own health to accommodate Papalia. [5] [6]
Papalia holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and a Master of Fine Arts from Portland State University. [7]
Papalia has exhibited at the Whitney Museum, [8] Craft Contemporary, the Grand Central Art Center, the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College, the Portland Art Museum, [9] the Columbus Museum of Art, the Vancouver Art Gallery [10] and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.[ failed verification ]
He has been artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Model Contemporary Arts Centre in Ireland. [2]
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