Image Description: A black-and-white headshot image of two overlapping-yet-offset portrait photographs of the same person, a light-skinned man with dark hair wearing a black polo shirt and standing in front of a brick wall. He is shown twice; on the left, he is smirking at the camera and, on the right, he is looking off-camera.
Aquil Virani is an award-winning Ismaili Muslim visual artist of Indian and French heritage, living fabulously with disability. “He could not be more Canadian,” says Éric Clément in La Presse. His collaborative art projects often combine painting, drawing, filmmaking, photography, writing, graphic design, installation, and participatory art processes. He is grateful for financial support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, and other community organizations and institutions. He aims to create artwork aligned with his political values – a personal contribution to broader social movements that drive empathy and intercultural understanding, while promoting a more nuanced and responsible representation of marginalized groups and communities “on our own terms.” He's excited to share more work at a show at Tangled in 2027. Learn more at aquil.ca.
Accessibility and visibility are both at the core of these dual photographs. The idea of “Absence” is to highlight the presence and absence of disabled people in different places and contexts. In these photos, I’ve focussed on natural spaces. Framing the photographs are fragments of a communal poem exploring acquired disability, built from crowdsourced submissions responding to the prompt: “When your body doesn’t work like it used to…”
When we see photos on social media from vacation spots, outdoor scenes, and natural vistas, do we wonder whether these spaces are accessible, physically or otherwise? Do we question whether or not disabled people are present? In the context of vacation, do we ask who gets to take time off and spend time (and money and energy) to travel? Is this experience afforded to those on disability benefits? This artwork asks us who can access these spaces and why that matters. The photographs also highlight the phenomenon of being simultaneously hyper-visible and in-visible as a disabled person.
Absence #1
This photograph features a seaside beach with calm blue water stretching out to the horizon under a clear, blue sky. The wet sand and pebble beach stretches beyond the sides of the square image, and is topped with thick bands of seaweed, twigs, and debris. In the distance, a thin spit of land stretches along the horizon, dotted with small buildings or houses. At the centre of the scene, a barely visible mobility walker with wheels stands on the beach, casting an equally translucent shadow. Around the outer edge of the near-square image is stencilled text in uppercase letters, which reads:
“A COLLABORATIVE POEM ABOUT BODIES WITH CROWDSOURCED LINES FROM THE PUBLIC. WHEN YOUR BODY DOESN'T WORK LIKE IT USED TO: PICK A NEW BODY OUT FOR YOUR NEXT RUN. MAKE LEMONADE. EMBRACE THE”
Absence #2
This photograph features a serene seaside beach with calm, blue water stretching out to the horizon under a clear, blue sky. The wet sand and pebble beach stretches beyond the sides of the square image, and is topped with thick bands of seaweed, twigs, and debris. In the distance, a thin spit of land stretches along the horizon, dotted with small buildings or houses. Around the outer edges of the near-square image is stencilled text in uppercase letters, which reads:
“MESSINESS. WHEN YOUR BODY DOESN'T WORK LIKE IT USED TO: CELEBRATE ALL THAT IT HAS DONE AND ACHIEVED FOR YOU. THANK IT FOR WHAT IT CAN DO: A HUG WORKS: EMBRACE THE WONDERS IT CONTINUES TO ACHIEVE."
This photograph is identical to its companion piece, Absence #1, save for the mobility walker found in that image, and the phrasing in the border text.
Absence #3