Playing and Reality: A Discussion with Allyson Mitchell, Anne Sullivan, and Emilia White
Bringing together three artists and York faculty members whose work spans between performance, installation, textiles, comics and game design, this discussion will address the important role that play fulfills in each of their practices and world-views.
The Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery
Wednesday, June 11
3:00 – 4:30 PM
Free Admission
Register HERE
Dr. Allyson Mitchell’s individual and collaborative art practice uses sculpture, performance, installation and film to explore feminist and queer ideas. These articulations have resulted in a fat activist group called Pretty Porky and Pissed Off, a coven of lesbian feminist Sasquatch monsters and a room-sized Vagina Denata. For the past decide Mitchell has collaborated with Deirdre Logue. Mitchell and Logue presented Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House (Toronto, London, Los Angeles and Philadelphia). This project is an expansive and maximalist queer nightmare of epic proportions. Mitchell and Logue directed the F.A.G. Feminist Art Gallery in Toronto and satellite spaces from 2010-2020. Current they are developing FAR Feminist Artist Residency on 64 acres of conservation protected land in Ontario, Canada. Allyson Mitchell is an Associate Professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at York University.
Dr. Anne Sullivan is Assistant Professor in Computational Arts at York where she focuses on gaming. She has over a decade of software engineering experience, mainly with Electronic Arts (EA). Her research connects various fields and communities through a humanistic, artistic and technical lens, focusing on critical game design, co-creative AI and human-computer interaction. She examines and creates engaging, narrative-driven and inclusive interactive experiences for education, craft and gaming. An accomplished author, Sullivan has published over 45 peer-reviewed articles and has conducted design-based research on generative tools for tabletop games, playful storytelling for queer histories, and NSF-funded studies on teaching computational thinking to quilters. Her work, including the loom-controlled game system Loominary, has been featured in international exhibitions, such as at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Emilia White is a performer, theatre-maker, multi-media artist, and producer residing in Toronto, Ontario. Her extensive experience engaging with artists and audiences worldwide informs her commitment to dismantling elitism in art and fostering genuine, shared experiences between audiences and performers. Her work invites public participation through interactive performances that use humor and play to explore deeper social themes. Emilia’s work has been presented throughout Canada, the United States, and Indonesia, including Sweet Action Theatre, OCAD, and the Tranzac Club in Toronto; Espace Transmission in Montréal; Planet Ant Theatre, Jam Handy, Sidewalk Festival, Light Box, MOCAD, CMAP, and the Contemporary Art Institute in Detroit; Dixon Place and the Dumbo Arts Festival in New York City; the Chicago Women’s Funny Festival; the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.; and Lembaga Indonesia Perancis, Kinoki Film Forum, Gallery Salihara, Taman Budaya, and Galeri Nasional in Indonesia. She holds a BFA in Theatre & Original Works from Cornish College of the Arts, and an MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design. Emilia is an Assistant Professor of Integrative Arts in AMPD.
