Derailing Dignity

Derailing Dignity reflects on the experience of migrant workers who deliver food using bikes in Toronto. The intent of the work is to zoom in on the particular intersection of both gig work and migrant labour, holding room for the many ways in which dignity is far removed from the very hands of those that feed us.

This disconnect takes shape through exploitative labour practises, migratory policy, and increased sentiments of racism and xenophobia. The installation + sound piece aims to reflect on what we collectively lose (sight/site of) when we consent to the practice of fragile and unsustainable labour systems that are veiled as means of bringing comfort to our lives.

Join Krish at the Derailing Dignity Opening Reception on Friday May 16. 

Presented with Whippersnapper Gallery. This project was developed through Mayworks’ Labour Arts Catalyst and informed by research with migrant rights activists and Gig Workers United. 

Krish Dineshkumar is a cook, composer and sound artist. He has worked on a range of audio productions as a sound designer and archival researcher. Krish has contributed to art installations by the Tamil Archive Project that have been exhibited at InterAccess, The Public Studio and Lakeshore Arts. In his own musical practice, he’s drawn to archiving forgotten histories and engaging with narratives that hold complexity. Cooked Until Tender is a project through which Krish offers catering services and food-related programming across the city of Toronto. The aim of Cooked Until Tender is to teach people how to cook and facilitate discussions around food insecurity, communal care, gender equity, and food ethnography.

Whippersnapper Gallery is an artist-run centre committed to the cultivation of inclusive spaces for emerging visual and media arts, community arts, and experimental forms of exhibition making. We provide artists and cultural producers with a flexible platform and exhibition space to expand the parameters of their professional practice. Whippersnapper is structured to encourage peer-to-peer mentorship and promote success by the artists’ own standards. Through critical and diverse programming, Whippersnapper initiates new relationships and unexpected conversations.