BLESSED ARE THE DIS-IDENTIFIERS
Curated by Vivek Shraya & Latitude 53
June 8–July 20, 2024
Closing event: Astrology workshop with Salem Zurch | Saturday, July 20, 4-6:30PM
Image credit: Marsel Reddick, WANT, Stop-motion animation (video still), 2024
FEATURED ARTISTS
Arielle Twist
Eish Van Wieren
Frankie Elouise
Friday Smith
Kama La Mackerel
Marsel Reddick
Hollis Hunter (window display)
BLESSED ARE THE DIS-IDENTIFIERS playfully challenges assumptions about “what is trans art” and what it means to defy gender expectations as a direct response to the hyper-identifying and targeting of trans and non-binary people in this province by the government and the media. Curated by Vivek Shraya and Latitude 53.
Curatorial Statement
By Vivek Shraya
According to Collins Dictionary, an identifier is “a person or thing that establishes the identity of someone or something.” When I hear the word, I think of criticisms I hear about marginalised people—that we are obsessed with our identities. All the jokes about “woke culture” and pronouns imply that we are obsessive identifiers.
And yet, when we look at the media and government’s insistence on invoking and attacking trans lives and rights into their agendas to polarise and divide, it would seem that the opposite is true: they are obsessed with our identities, who we are, how we should and shouldn’t live. They are the identifiers.
My experience of being hyper-identified and surveilled started in my childhood, in Edmonton, where I was born and raised. I never had the experience of getting to learn who I was or wanted to be. Instead I was told over and over again who I was, namely, a “faggot,” and that being a faggot was abominable, punishable.
It took me decades to embrace my faggotry, my gender nonconformity, my difference. This path was paved primarily through artmaking, and secondly through absorbing the art of others. I have experienced first-hand the power of art as a tool for restoration and defiance.
When the UPC announced their proposed anti-trans legislation early this year, I was initially hit with a wave of helplessness and hopelessness. But then I remembered art. I wondered how art could be mobilised, once again, not only as a response to the legislation, but also as a form of communal comfort in Alberta.
I’m honoured to co-curate Latitude 53’s disarming new group exhibit, “Blessed Are the Dis-identifiers.” Through the alien textile creature from Eish Van Wieren (Toronto), the unpredictable, vibrant embodiments seen in Marsel Reddick’s (Calgary) animation and Frankie Elouise’s (Calgary) paintings, this exhibit aims to playfully challenge assumptions about “what is trans art” (and underlying assumptions about trans and non-binary people), and what it means to defy gender expectations.
The value of dis-identifying. Of dismissing fraught labels like “woman” as written in Arielle Twist’s (Halifax) pensive self-portrait. Of disowning settler boundaries of cities or states and their arbitrary rulings, as depicted in Kama La Mackerel’s (Montreal) otherworldly portraits. Of dispersing the hurt and harm we experience into a source of strength, as seen in the hypnotic cycle of tears in friday smith’s (Edmonton) video.
Additionally, Hollis Hunter (Edmonton), the recipient of this year‘s VS. Arts Grant (a funding opportunity I launched in 2019 to support marginalised artists), has created an installation that provocatively declares “Free Trans Health Care Here” in Latitude’s large front windows.
It is my hope that these artists and this exhibit will inspire more dis-identification, more disruption, and maybe even a little discomfort (for those who need it).
The title “Blessed Are the Dis-identifiers” is a line from the late trans femme artist Mark Aguhar’s poem, Litanies to My Heavenly Brown Body, as a tribute to her work and ongoing legacy.
Hollis Hunter, FREE TRANS HEALTH CARE HERE —>, Vinyl letters, acrylic on canvas, buttons in collaboration with the QUILTBAG and local queer and trans artists, 2024
Hollis Hunter’s window installation at Latitude 53 highlights how frustrating it can feel to find appropriate care in this province. An organization like our gallery cannot directly offer care, but we’ve looked at some alternate sites and resources that someone seeking care might pursue. View here.
About the Artists
Arielle Twist’s (b. 1994, George Gordon First Nation and Sipekne'katik First Nation, Cree) interdisciplinary practice blends poetics and visual modes of creation to explore the realities and legacy of Indigenous and Trans* life and grief. Exploring and experimenting through mediums such as textiles, painting, performance, literature and language. Recent exhibitions include Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self Determination since 1969, Hessle Museum of Art, New York; Indigenous Joys, Neutral Ground, Saskatchewan; Twist has received awards from Writers Trust of Canada, Indigenous Voices Awards, Arts Nova Scotia for her debut poetry collection Disintegrate/Dissociate (2019, Arsenal Pulp Press).
Artist Statement
I am lost in translation, which is to say I am lost and do not know the translation.
Iskwêhkân, one who lives/acts as divine sweetness.
Iskwêhkân, one who lives/acts as mirror.
Iskwêhkân, one who lives/acts as legacy.
I am the soft and exposed belly of womanhood; untranslatable, lost in language.
I have no tongue, no talk, no sound sitting on my jaw.
Iskwêhkân, you are one who lives, one who acts, this is true.
but you live, with integrity, with love, with joy.
and you act, with care, with fear, with grief.
and yes, you are woman, but you are also so much more.
Iskwêhkân, you are lost in translation
and in the gap between tongues, is anything you can dream.
In honor and in reference to Aiyyana Maracle and her legacy; I hope to find my mirror too.
Eish Van Wieren (they/them) is a trans-nonbinary trans-disciplinary performer, playwright, costume designer and independent producer from Calgary and currently based in Tkarón:to/Toronto. They hold an MFA in performance creation, are part of Factory Theatre’s Playwriting TEPS cohort 2023/2024 and an IATSE 873 permit in the costume department. Eish is an alumni of Playwright’s Workshop Montreal Young Creator’s Unit 2021-2022 and the Nightwood Innovators 2022-2023.
As a mask/object based creator and playwright, Eish immerses themself in building and developing theatrical works with full-face masks and show-related objects. The wonders of plants, animals and magic, along with the horror of their dysmorphia, inform their creation of creatures, stories and masks. They enjoy using mess, bizarreness, poetry and design to explore queerness, transition, relationships, alcoholism, family, queer temporality and more.
Their work has been supported by the Canada Council, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Theatre Outre, Buddies in Bad Times, Playwright’s Workshop Montreal, Canadian Stage, Swallow-a-Bicycle, Nightwood Theatre, Factory Theatre and more. In August 2023 they studied mask making and physical theatre with Berlin based company Familie Flöz with generous support from the Canada Council. You can find Eish on Instagram @splatbonfitz_productions.
Artist statement
Woahhhh Weird is a textiles creature creation birthed from reworked clothing and fabric. Part visual art, part performance Woahhhh Weird is an ode to weirdness. While the suit and mask are made to be worn on a human, today it is displayed for you, void of body. Something, therefore, is incomplete.
With anti-trans and 2SLGBTQIA+ legislation cropping up in Alberta, across the country and around the world, we as Trans folks are left out of the conversation yet put on full display for our human rights to be debated.
Transformation is at the centre of this suit. These pieces were made with the intention of transforming old and discarded fabrics into new wearables, transitioning the body into a piece of art in the process. Masks have provided safety and anonymity to me as a Trans artist, allowing me to create characters while controlling how my body is perceived.
What you see on display here today is incomplete without a body to wear it. A person is left out of the suit, out of the conversation.
Pick up, transition, rebuild.
Frankie Elouise (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in tattooing and painting, currently based in Mohkistsis (Calgary, AB). Over the past five years, Frankie has carved out a place for herself in the tattooing world, crafting unique contemporary designs and establishing a safe, queer-run space for her clients. She has showcased her talents as a guest artist in major cities across Canada and in New York.
Driven by a passion for self-discovery and artistic growth, Frankie recently refocused her attention to her painting practice. After a year and a half of research and experimentation, she now creates large-scale paintings featuring distorted figures and vibrant palettes. Self and community-taught in both disciplines, Frankie's work transcends conventional boundaries, offering a fresh perspective that challenges norms.
Artist Statement
My artwork serves as a visual exploration of my personal journey through gender and identity, drawing from both introspective discovery and social observations. In my paintings, I depict physical elements, objects and spaces that have played significant roles in my own experiences of gender euphoria and dysphoria. I question what girlhood is to me and how this construct is informed by societal norms, capitalism, and the collective queer experience. I experiment with texture, layering, and distortion of figures and spaces, to emphasize feelings of loneliness, self-reflection and childlike wonder. Ultimately, my goal is to prompt viewers to critically reflect on their perceptions of gender and its intersectionality.
‘Training Wheels’ and ‘Hair Care’ explore the complicated relationship between gender dysphoria and girlhood. Finding balance between challenging gender norms while embracing femininity and searching for acceptance. The makeup in these paintings serves as an important reoccurring theme in my work and is applied in a similar manor that I have explored makeup, highlighting its personal significance. The mirrors present in both paintings, have become important in my work as well, focusing on themes of self-reflection and perception from others. ‘Training Wheels’ shows the early stages of developing ones identity, and the difficulty expressing vulnerability during that stage of exploration.
friday smith is a settler living and working on Treaty 6 territory. Part diary part fantasy, their practice spans textiles, painting, and animation. friday is interested in the play between abstraction and legibility—and what can be learned from the inbetween. friday graduated from MacEwan University with a diploma in Fine Art in 2021, and has since shown work at Latitude 53’s Schmoozy, AGA’s Sidewalk Cinema and more.
artist statement
Gender non conforming people are punished for existing in ways that aren’t legible within colonial & white supremacist understandings of gender. In a world that is intent on neat categorization, I'm excited by the illegible & the unexplainable. I’m interested in what inhabits the spaces between, across and outside of these categories.
In my work, I try to push symbols in and out of abstraction. My view of the world is shaped by the aesthetics of fantasy, sci-fi and internet culture—playful, speculative & juicy worlds. Through my work, I hope to invite this same sense of play and curiosity to areas outside of our knowledge. I want the confusion to be a site of play, instead of something to be scared of.
Hollis Hunter (he/him) is an emerging visual artist in Treaty 6 Territory, Amiskwaciwâskahikan (“Edmonton”), Alberta. Hunter completed his Bachelor of Fine Art in Art and Design at the University of Alberta in 2020.
The artist uses Painting and Sculpture disciplines to visualize concepts from his studies in Sociology, Queer Theory, and Trans Epistemology. 2SLGBTQAP+ representation, rights, and political activism are at the forefront of his work.
Hunter’s artistic practice is informed by his experiences as a queer and trans man. The subject matter in his art references the people, environments, objects, and narratives found in his everyday life. Hunter believes that art is inseparable from community, and uses art-making in community spaces as a medium to foster connections and meaningful change.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The overwhelming transphobia of the current political climate frequently smothers my sense of community, power, and passion. Reading Vivek Shraya’s call for this exhibition reminded me that I am not the only one feeling this way and that I can create an art installation that reconnects our community with trans joy.
Free pin buttons and postcards are available as part of this artwork. The buttons feature artwork by local queer and trans artists, courtesy of The QUILTBAG. Display and share these generously. You are not alone, and everyone is welcome to share in the joy and struggles of gender-diverse persons, lives, and communities
FREE TRANS HEALTH CARE HERE —> is a tribute to iconic interventions by the HIV/AIDS activist art coalitions ACT UP, Gran Fury, and the Silence=Death Collective. Our activist predecessors passed us a voice so that we may be empowered to respond to the ongoing, global legacies of the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics.
The lives of people who are trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse are inordinately medicalized, pathologized, and politicized. Clinic waiting rooms are a salient challenge for anyone who does not cleanly fit into cis, heterosexual, and dyadic definitions of gender, sex, and sexuality. Access to gender-affirming and trans-specific health care is scarce due to limited specialists and practitioners, 1–3 year-long waitlists, and exclusivity to residents in urban centres.
While I cannot offer actual free trans healthcare at Latitude53, I can demand an urgent response to the systemic discrimination of 2SLGBTQAP+ identified patients within Alberta Medicare.
This work includes free take-away pinback buttons featuring artworks by Jasper, Vaughn McKay, Dilan Janes, and Sef Salham.
Kama La Mackerel is a Mauritian-Canadian multilingual writer, visual artist, performer, educator and literary translator who believes in love, justice and self and collective empowerment. Their practice blurs the lines between traditional artistic disciplines to create hybrid aesthetic spaces from which decolonial and queer/trans vocabularies can emerge. At once narratological and theoretical, personal and political, their interdisciplinary method, developed over the past decade, is grounded ritual, meditation, ancestral healing modalities, auto-ethnography, oral history, archival research and community-arts facilitation.
Kama is a firm believer that artistic and cultural practices have the power to build resilience, to heal and to act as forms of resistance to the status quo. With wholehearted engagement in ocean narratives, island sovereignty, transgender poetics and queer/trans spiritual histories, their body of work challenges colonial notions of time and space as these relate to history, power, language, subject formation and the body.
Kama has lectured, performed and exhibited their work internationally in museums, galleries, theatres and universities. In 2021, they were awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Joseph S. Stauffer Prize for emerging and mid-career artists in Visual Arts. Their award-winning book ZOM-FAM (Metonymy Press) was named a CBC Best Poetry Book and a Globe and Mail Best Debut. Kama lives and loves in Tio’tia:ke, also known as Montréal.
Artist statement
My work aspires to articulate languages of decoloniality through inter-textual and inter-textural artistic practices.
My life’s work emerges from a concern for justice and an imperative to heal from colonial pasts. I reimagine and reformulate languages of the self in order to offer “a countermemory, for the future” (Gordon). I explore ancestral loss— as the loss of bodies, histories, cultures, languages, genders, knowledge systems and spiritual practices— in order to rewrite the marginalized and silenced voice in contemporary contexts of global imperialism. I draw from the past to interrupt the present, and offer possibilities of being for the future, as a “reacquisition of power to create one’s own i-mage” (Philip).
My work is not constrained by the boundaries of disciplinarity or language. I work in French, English and Kreol and across live performance, literature and the visual arts to shape a multiplicity of aesthetic and political voices which individually and collectively enunciate a decolonial poetics. The act of storytelling expresses itself not only across different media but also in the interstices between these media. Through multilingual interdisciplinary practice, I create a range of hybrid spaces that collectively offer a kaleidoscopic view of my subjectivities as they relate to space, time, history, kinship and the body. In the creative act of transgressing genres, locations, tongues and temporalities, I open up a network of interstitial passages to disrupt dominant colonial narratives, epistemologies and pedagogies.
It is across multi-year, archival, educational and community-engaged research that I develop the core of my practice. The storytelling in my work emerges from personal stories, family histories, auto-ethnography, grassroots collective knowledge, archives (both formal and informal), community-based research and critical theory.
Marsel Reddick is an artist and writer based in Moh'kins'tsis whose research explores identity, divination, materiality, trans history, magic, intuition, and affect. In their practice, they consider the ongoing entanglements of the self and the other through a variety of media such as claymation, sound, zines, performance, and installation. To demonstrate the tenuousness of selfhood, they attempt to facilitate experiences that challenge automatic distinctions between self and other, offering alternate modes of moving through the world. Marsel is an MFA candidate in the department of Sculpture at Concordia University, beginning their studies in fall of 2024.
Artist Statement
WANT is a stop-motion animation made using scrap plasticine from past animations. The process involved self-imposed struggles, beginning with instructions to make a set from leftover clay and characters from the leftovers of the leftovers. The animation was made using an old Canon digital camera, which would shut off at random, dictating cuts. The animation was filmed in the artist’s kitchen, with a time constraint based on the changing light of the sun. Where the process was not dependent on external disruption, the modelling and movement of the clay was based on notions of childhood play and interpretation, for example, it looks like a star! and now it’s a butterfly!
The title denotes desire and frustration, which are present in the process and appear to come through in the animation as the characters appear and disappear, consumed by and consuming their world. With this trans-focused exhibition in mind and ideas of psychoanalytic/surrealist interaction with materials, I found after editing that the video seems to depict a melancholic desire to be.
