About This Commission:
For Emilie Gossiaux, her encounters within ableist society have left her feeling mistreated, as though expendable and without agency, similar to the ways some mistreat animals. Deeply conscious of the interspecies, collaborative bond she shares with her Seeing Eye dog named London, Gossiaux’s animal-human hybrid sculptures reflect her mixed feelings of anxiety and hope for how this parallel between anti-disability and anti-animal prejudices can be better understood and counteracted. She describes her bond with London as maternal, spousal, emotional, and practical—feelings that most people with disabilities share with their service animals and that transcend the traditional relationship between pet and owner. Made from a combination of materials including ceramic, epoxy resin, and papier-mâché, her sculptures are surreal and abject, but also romantic and playful, echoing powerful images from myth and reconfiguring viewers’ own relationships to animals and to those they may consider the human other.
A group of 50 interdisciplinary reviewers and panelists—from the visual arts and music to theater, dance, and performance—came together to review more than 1,500 proposals in May and June of this year.
Launched as part of The Shed’s inaugural year program, Open Call is a large-scale commissioning program for early-career NYC-based artists. For its second iteration, 27 new artists have been selected by interdisciplinary leaders and professionals in their fields, including other artists and members of The Shed’s staff, to present work in 2021 and 2022. Selected artists will each receive a commissioning fee of up to $15,000 depending on the scope of their projects, robust production support, and resources to further nurture their practices and expand their audiences.