In the words of The Sustenance Rite curator Lauren Fournier, “Justice Walz’s Anxiety Escape Kit (2017) imagines what an escape kit for people with anxiety disorders might contain. An emerging POC, queer, and mad-identifying artist, Walz integrates humour with somber subject matter and politicized impulses to create interdisciplinary work like Anxiety Escape Kit. A work of practical conceptualism, each kit comprises a suitcase and its contents, which include an escape plan, a disguise (hats, sunglasses, scarves, jewelry), and a set of distractions and coping mechanisms (games, teddy bears, candy, neck pillows, accessible books like children’s literature), or what Walz refers to as an “activity set.” The highly prescribed arrangement and organization of the activity sets implies a certain readiness or effortlessness, as though the contents can easily be packed when one needs to escape. Yet, as Fournier notes, this painstakingly methodical arrangement is at odds with the “chaotic and disorganized feelings that can characterize the lived experiences of those with mental health issues.” But the scrupulous assembly of the activity sets also suggest the capacity to exert agency and control over one’s current situation, while also offering a change of pace or moment of respite as the artist selects and organizes objects for each escape kit. There is also a certain playfulness and innocence to the objects—such as the teddy bear, the jumping rope, or the Archie comic book— recalling childhood and a yearning to escape to a simpler time.