Reciprocal Measures, performance, duration: 40 minutes, 2021 -performance stills. Documentation Credit: Yuula Benivolski
Carry/Comfort
Amber Helene Muller St Thomas
Sat 18 April
11:00am - 1:00pm (Hidden Gardens)
1:00 - 4:00pm (Gurdwara Car Park)
4:00 - 7:00pm (Hidden Gardens)
Info: Durational, Drop-in, un-ticketed (suggested donation)
Access Key: AP
Carry/Comfort is an eight-hour durational action that intertwines endurance with self-soothing rituals.
Throughout the day, the artist will repeatedly lift, carry, and gently sway with locally gathered rocks, gradually increasing the load until their body reaches its safe limit. Between lifts, they will rock, hum, and stim — movements and actions central to their autistic self-regulation. This cyclical score of strain and comfort renders an invisible disability publicly legible while challenging cultural assumptions about autistic bodies.
On the morning of the performance, the rocks will be collected on foot. Viewers may encounter the artist en route and witness both the gathering and the central action. After the performance, every rock will be returned to its original spot, ensuring minimal environmental impact and leaving only the memory of the event.
Inspired by autistic special interests (such as collecting and repetitive motion), and informed by contemporary disability theory that foregrounds access and agency – Carry/Comfort invites audiences to come and go freely. They can witness the slow calibration between what the artist’s body can carry and what it needs to self-soothe, opening space to reflect on capacity, resilience, and care for both bodies and place.
Credit:
Devised and performed by Amber Helene Müller St. Thomas.
Info:
This work is an un-ticketed durational performance, that will take place around the Hidden Gardens and Gurdwara Car Park, audiences are welcome to drop in and watch however much they would like.
We hope that you’ll consider supporting BUZZCUT’s presentation of this work by donating via paypal. You can read our Sliding-Scale Guidance for more info on a Suggested Donation.
Carried Objectives, 2022, duration: two hours, -performance still. Documentation Credit: Young Dong Yu
Amber Helene Müller St. Thomas is a Canadian artist who lives and works in Toronto. Their artistic practice centres on performative actions that incorporate touch and queer gestures. They primarily work in performance, lens-based media, and textiles. They are interested in communal interaction and exchange, and in the potential for objects to function as both symbols of self and surrogates for intimacy.
Müller St. Thomas completed their MFA in Visual Art at York University in 2017. In 2016, they were awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Scholarship. They participated in the 2018 Hamilton Supercrawl Arts Festival and the 2020 Venice International Performance Art Week. In 2022, they took part in the NARS Artist Residency in Brooklyn, New York, with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2023, they completed a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, supported by the Liz Crockford Artists Fund Award. In 2024, they were an artist in residence at MASS MoCA. In 2025, they had a solo show at the NARS Foundation in Brooklyn, New York, and attended the Cleaning the House workshop with the Marina Abramović Institute in Greece.