Working on Garden of Future Follies, 2016
Hadley works from the position of a white, queer, trans, artist and scholar, based in Tkaronto. Their research interests in abolitionist aesthetics, (counter-)monument and art in urban spaces is informed by their professional experience creating public art and their extensive international exhibition history as a visual artist working in research-rich, site-responsive and multimedia installation. Hadley works with methodologies of translation and storytelling to configure artworks in collaboration with and response to people, places and histories. Through a critically engaged research practice, community outreach initiatives, and innovative production techniques, their artwork highlights the divergent journeys that inflect our interpretation of past, present and future histories.
Since 1999, Hadley has been exhibiting, publishing and performing at international venues including the 4th Marrakech Biennale, the 19th Biennale of Sydney, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, Kunstwerke Berlin, Witte de With Rotterdam, Art Metropole, and Le Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble. Hadley’s first permanent public commission, Garden of Future Follies, was commissioned by Waterfront Toronto and installed in Toronto’s Canary District in the spring of 2016. Since then, they have been dedicated to seeking out methods of working collectively, collaboratively, or in service to community groups, collective projects, anti-oppression movements and decolonizing initiatives.