Artist-led Workshops, Performances and Reception
Join us on Saturday, April 27 for a long overdue celebration + launch of the Alcove publication. Featured artists Amanda Chwelos, Nicholas Hertz, Alma Louise Visscher, and Riaz Mehmood will facilitate workshops and Cindy Baker & roses, a performance at our reception.
Alcove is a digital artist database, developed in partnership with the Film and Video Arts Society’s (FAVA) Arts Management System (AMS). In 2022, the project was beta-tested in a series of onboarding sessions with Edmonton-based artists. Participating artists were then invited to submit collaborative projects to the Alcove publication, which was finalized in spring 2023. We invite you to celebrate the belated launch of this publication, featuring collaborative workshops and a performance by artist duos, inspired by their work within the publication.
Event Schedule
12 - 2 pm: Zine making with Amanda Chwelos and Nicholas Hertz
Join artists Amanda Chwelos and Nicholas Hertz in a community zine-making workshop. In this workshop, you will have the opportunity to combine texture, text, and images to make exciting mini-zines. Chwelos and Hertz will guide you on an exciting adventure from folding to drawing. This informal conversation-based workshop is for everyone; all ages and skill levels are welcome.
3 - 5 pm: Materials for Continuing Workshop with Alma Louise Visscher and Riaz Mehmood
This workshop will explore themes similar to those in our collaborative project for the Alcove publication: sharing resources, sustainability, and spending time together. In this workshop, participants can make their version of a collage using natural inks, chine colle, paper, and fabric. Artists Alma Louise Visscher and Riaz Mehmood will guide participants in making 5 colouring sheets (loosely termed) with some prompts and the beginning of some drawings.
6:30 pm: Reception and Performance 'Tender Skins' by Cindy Baker and roses
In the evening, join us for food and drinks, and a brand-new performance piece by Cindy Baker and Roseanna Joy Nay.
Building on their performative essay for Alcove, Cindy and roses will present a new performance touching on the themes of intergenerational queer mentorship that run through their collaborative practice while focusing on the tattoo/erotica imagery that surrounds the original piece.
Performing a range of intentional sensory and reparative gestures with one another using a repertory of loaded objects, the pair develop a vocabulary based on shared histories of prairie queerness as they navigate the ongoing process of building trust and understanding.
Working with an array of ephemera tethered to places, and memory, and acting as signifiers of queer rurality, Baker and roses illuminate the queerness of their histories via the treatment of each others’ tattoos which allude to stories of their making. As they engage with their tattoos and their individual stories, they build a new shared history.