Unwilling (A Companion)

Printed in conjunction with the exhibition Unwilling: Exercises in Melancholy March 23rd-April 27th 2018.

Unwilling: Exercises in Melancholy proposes a re-consideration of melancholia defined through our contemporary condition. Resisting the historical definition of melancholy as an affliction that creates disorder or inactivity, this exhibition reimagines passive sadness as powerful refusal, a conscious (or unconscious) “standing aside,” a willful production of generative failures and resistant potencies. Each of the contributing artists begins with the idea that outside the boundaries of “contentment” resides a potent flourishing. Unwilling is a resistance and a proposition: it responds to the profound cultural reckoning we are witnessing in this moment in time, as the boundaries and exclusions of state-defined citizenship become increasingly fraught.

Contributors include:
Billy-Ray Belcourt
Mike Bourscheid
Ginger Brooks Takahashi
Justine A. Chambers
Noa Giniger