The Future is LoadingListen to this text: Your browser does not support the audio element. Please click here to download the file View the Shape Open 2020: The Future is Loading exhibition, featuring the work of 25 marginalised artists! "2020 has been a paradigm shift for many, a year like no other. A time of raw hardship and sudden turmoil in the midst of which we have witnessed gestures of care and support capable of reminding us: we need each other. For many disabled and marginalised people, familiar with adversity, witnessing the world come to a halt in a matter of days has paradoxically generated hope. Hope that, for once, the world might take greater heed of what it means to be shut away, impoverished and excluded. For people who are marginalised in the present day, facing discrimination and barriers to access, imagining the future can be an act of radical defiance. As the crisis has evolved and its shockwaves travelled, we find it acting as a catalyst for many other significant conversations, in the home, the workplace, or whilst, in the case of the Black Lives Matter movement, taking to the streets in an assertion of grief and outrage. In this time of reflection and learning, a plurality of realisations has occurred. With this, widespread unrest and demands for change have arisen. More than our lives, entire structures have been thrown into the air by what we are living though, revealing the outlines of a starkly unequal world. In the process, a pandemic of health has radicalised mainstream debate, and we are no longer shying away from discussing the pre-existing pandemics of racism, of gender discrimination, barriers to inclusion and advancement, of gaping inequality, isolation, and disenfranchisement. The list goes on. Set against this uncertain and restless backdrop, where risk of greater exclusion battles with unique opportunities for change, we at Shape are looking to the future as an act of hope. For people who are marginalised in the present day, facing discrimination and barriers to access, imagining the future can be an act of radical defiance. It is the act of making a claim to a space that is otherwise denied – and for once, marginalised people have the agency to place themselves at its centre." The Shape Open is our annual exhibition of artwork by disabled and non-disabled artists created in response to a disability-centred theme. The Open provides a space where disabled and non-disabled artists can discuss and exchange views and ideas about issues and topics which are often sidelined within artistic debate. The Future is Loading / Shape Open 2020 Curated and creatively produced by Shape Arts About the Exhibition Content Notes and Access The Exhibition Artist Profiles Exhibition Zine Resources Shape Open The Future is Loading: Trigger Warnings and Access Welcome to The Future is Loading... Before viewing this exhibition, you may want to read our this list of Trigger Warnings and access information. You can read a full exhibition blurb, too, where you will learn more about the curation of the show. You can view the exhibition in full on our website. You can also view this exhibition on our Instagram. All works in this show have been audio described. You can find these descriptions alongside each work. Where possible, British Sign Language support has also been embedded. Together with Able Zine, we are designing a zine for this exhibition which is available for pre-order. This zine includes a collaborative resources list, full of a variety of materials gathered by the curators and contributors during the production of this show. You can also purchase campaign t-shirts through PrintSocial. If you would like more information, please email [email protected] Listen to this text: Your browser does not support the audio element. Please click here to download the file Trigger warnings This exhibition is intended for persons 16 years of age and above. Some of the films and the pathyouwalk website contain sexual swear words. For Parts, a film by Panteha Abareshi, contains flashing images and stroboscopic light and sound effects. Not Better Yet, a film by Panteha Abareshi, contains flashing images, stroboscopic light and fast-changing sound effects. There are images and sounds referencing trauma and distress Visitors to www.thepathyouwalk.com a website created by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, will encounter flashing images and light effects. There are images and text referencing trauma and distress. An Ode to Marge Simpson, a film by Laura Lulika, contains flickering images and references distress. Transitions : A movement in Spirit, a filmed performance by Tobi Adebajo, contains flickering images and references distress. Cripple, a film by Christopher Samuels, contains descriptions some may find distressing; it also contains flickering text. Call Me By Your DWP Number, a film by WHINEGUMS + BABEWORLD, contains descriptions some may find distressing; it also contains flashing images. If you would like further information before experiencing the exhibition, or sharing it with others online, please contact [email protected] and we will get back to you as quickly as we can during the exhibition run; if you can provide us with specific queries this will be helpful. Access Shape’s approach is to strike a balance between making accessible to all audiences the aesthetic of the works whilst conveying key information; accordingly in order to do so some details are emphasised in different ways across the different access formats. Where we have been able to embed the access we have done so, and with the exhibition being hosted online, some access formats are available in linked locations during the exhibition run. This includes British Sign Language support and audio description. There is a text only version of www.thepathyouwalk.com with interactive links. A zine booklet will be made available in printed and digital format to support the exhibition as well. If you have questions regarding access during the exhibition, please contact [email protected] and we will get back to you as quickly as we can; if you can provide us with specific queries this will be helpful. Banner image and all Future is Loading branding designed by Kirkwood Brothers. 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