What I Know About Solid Comfort

Using the Invalid Chair as our inspiration, we reflect on gendered, radicalized, and classed lineages of (dis)comfort, stillness/movement, and care in the disability community. What tools make comfort and movement a possibility for our bodyminds? How do our care practices facilitate or limit movement? What conditions and social positions complicate our access to comfort, care, and movement?

In a light green gallery, Maggie moves forward, her hands tucked behind her back and looking over her shoulder. Mia sits behind her, reading from a blue notebook. A crowd of people of different embodiments are positioned around them, watching them.

Performed as part of Cripping the Galleries: Dance Performance at the Art Institute of Chicago in August, 2023, co-curated by Maggie Bridger and Sydney Erlikh.

Dancers: Mia Coulter & Maggie Bridger

Read Maggie quoted in Emma Cieslik’s “Disrupting Museum Behavior: An Exploration of the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Cripping the Galleries” and Irene Hsaio’s “The Art of Access” about the Cripping the Galleries performances.