JAN. 17TH - FEB. 9TH, 2018
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Artists Ben Liu and Dayna Danger, Queer & Peace Vernissage, photo credit Re: Productions.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Q&P CURATORIAL STATEMENT
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DAYNA DANGER
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DANIEL BARROW
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MICHEL DUMONT
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YUE FENG JIANG
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SELINA EDINGER BEN LIU
JENNIFER LYNCH
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KENT MONKMAN
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MONICA VICTORIA
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CATHERINE OPIE CHRISTIAN WICK
THANK YOU
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The House of Manny, Queer & Peace Vernissage, Photo Credit: Re: Productions
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A DAWSON STUDENT UNION & DAWSON COLLEGE PEACE CENTRE COLLABORATION
QUEER & PEACE
Dawson College is located on land which is the unceded traditional territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka. This land has also served as a gathering place for Abenaki, Anishinaabe and other nations. As uninvited guests, it is our responsibility to honour the stewards of this land by educating ourselves about the histories and contemporary realities of First Peoples, and by contributing to the important work of reconciliation and decolonization. Queer & Peace explores the perspectives of LGBTQ + artists on the themes of peace & resistance, social justice & inequity. While there have been recent legislative and judicial gains for LGBTQ + communities’ members’ civil rights, there are still many public spaces, systems and institutions where their voices are silenced or misrepresented or underrepresented. Queer & Peace is about acknowledging the diversity of communities’ within the LGBTQ + community, sharing the voices of these members through artistic expression as well as showing support to our students, staff and broader Montreal LGBTQ + communities. Each artist in Queer & Peace honours and embodies this long held tradition of activism, politics and artistic expression meeting to clap back at socio-economic, racial and institutional discrimination. The artists are challenging audience members to push past expected norms to resist inequity, resist miscarriages of justice and resist the silencing of communities. Queer & Peace was purposefully curated to include professional, emerging and student artists to highlight the need to break expectations and normative structures. Art meets politics. Dialogue meets respect. Dialogue cannot happen in silos. Dialogue can only be germinated through a reciprocal equitable relationship. In addition to the art exhibition a series of panels, workshops, training opportunities and speakers were invited to Dawson College to spark the conversation from the gallery space into classrooms and hallways.
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DANIEL BARROW
Winnipeg-born, Montreal-based artist Daniel Barrow works in projection performance, installation, video, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He has presented his projection performances at The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), The International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s TBA festival, and the British Film Institute’s London Film Festival. Barrow is the winner of the 2010 Sobey Art Award – Canada’s largest prize for young Canadian artists – and the 2013 Glenfiddich Artist-In-Residence Prize.
ARTIST STATEMENT, 2007 VIDEO, 5 MINUTE LOOP // VARIABLE DIMENSIONS All of the work I create, including sculpture, installation and performance, centers itself on the practice of drawing. Drawing has, since childhood, been my primary mode of expression to pictorialize internal visions and grapple with the external world around myself. I typically use obsolete technologies to present pictorial narratives by merging the methods and cultural histories of cinema, comics, animation, and magic lantern shows. I am best known for creating and adapting comic book narratives to “manual” forms of animation by projecting, layering and manipulating drawings on overhead projectors. In the video, “Artist Statement” I describe, but also parody, my personal approach to art making. I used Amiga/Commodore software (a veritable antique, by technological standards), and a computer mouse to illustrate and animate my “gratuitously honest” personal manifesto.
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DAYNA DANGER
The cornerstone of Dayna Danger’s artistic philosophy is reciprocity. In Dayna’s world this is a particular system dependent upon relationship building and consent with the people they photograph. In a very real way this very simply means that Dayna treats the featured individuals in every work of art as living breathing people who do not metaphorically die once the piece has been created. The individual(s) in their (Dayna)* works of art are not consumable objects devoid of life like a taxidermy deer head over the trophy hunter’s mantel. Dayna Danger operates from a position where they are able to destabilize the traditional power dynamics between artist and the individual(s) being photographed. The individual(s) in their works are not consumable objects, nor subjects, nor models rather they are individuals, they are human beings. Dayna’s creation and showcasing of their art exemplifies how to replace the traditional dynamic of an artists’ ‘power over’ with power sharing with the individual being photographed in order to create art that gives the individual featured in the piece autonomy and agency. To this end, Dayna asks the consent of each individual featured in their artistic works before displaying any piece in any show. In addition, they have a strict signage policy in Big Un’s, that requests audience members not to photograph the art during this particular exhibition. This is not about money; this is an extension of Dayna’s consent policy. The individuals featured in these pieces have only consented to have their image displayed in a particular circumstance, not to be consumed and proliferated beyond the physical walls of the gallery or museum exhibit. This policy also extends to online publications. Dayna prefers not to provide copies of their work for online publication because they feel that the agency and autonomy of the featured individual in the works becomes lost. Due to the fact that it is not possible to contain how content is proliferated and used online the principle of consent becomes easily lost and the foundation of Dayna’s artistic principles of reciprocity become negated. Lastly, when in the process of creating their art, Dayna ensures to create a safe space and flexibility for dialogue between themselves and the individual they are photographing. Dayna assesses the needs, comfort level of the individual, that person’s safety in the space, and is open to discussion about the content of the artwork. For example, in Big Un’s, featured in the Queer & Peace exhibition, Dayna would often allow the individual to select the antlers or horns they wanted to use or allow the individual to swap out for another type if they were not comfortable with the initial selection. Consent and relationship building to achieve reciprocity also requires the rejection of one of the core tenets of art; regarding the individual posing for the piece as an ‘object’. The ‘object’ is there as a mouthpiece for the artist to engage with the audience rather than being an active participant in the artistic message or statement. The ‘object’ is a consumable good that can be purchased and displayed anywhere the ‘owner’ chooses. In this traditional capitalist approach to art there is no reciprocity, relationship or consent. The individual featured in the work, who they are as a living breathing human being, is largely treated as irrelevant. Dayna’s approach is not only revolutionary and unique in the professional art world but it is reflective of contemporary Indigenous worldviews, feminist and queer theory. Perhaps this is simply an appropriate extension of their art, which embodies the latter in new and innovative artistic ways. *Dayna Danger identifies as a 2Spirit artist, who uses the pronouns they/them/their but sometimes she/her in self-reference. .
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MICHEL DUMONT 10
Michel Dumont was born on the North shores of Black Bay on Lake Superior which helped develop his style as a Metis artist. He currently resides in Thunder Bay. He enjoys breathing new life into discarded vintage tile by making mosaic pieces, and outfits for the local drag community, and has taught as an elder to two-spirited teens. He is a self-taught artist and occasional teacher whose mediums also include acrylic, wearable art and quilting. Over the last two years he has collaborated with fifteen different projects as a member of the Definitely Superior Art Gallery in Thunder Bay. He exhibited pieces at Queen’s Park with Queer Landscapes, Queer Journeys in 2015 as well as their 2017 show, Queer Landscapes, Queer Intersections. This fall he exhibited at Nuit Blanche, Toronto. Between his faux taxidermy, dressmaking, and painting; his work has been across Ontario with shows in Ottawa, Toronto, London and Thunder Bay. He adopted a child 15 years ago and has been engaged to a wonderful man for 3 and a half years.
TWO SPIRIT BEAR, 2017 TAXIDERMY // GROUT, GLASS // 2 X 1.5 X 2 FEET As a queer two spirit artist the themes of peace, resistance, social justice, and inequity resonate deeply as they do with most of my generation of queers. Two Spirit Bear is a vintage taxidermy bear that I made as an attempt to heal. Combining symbols from the Northern Woodlands School of Ojibwe art (the bear paw, the black outline, or formline) and the colours of the LGBTQ flag, the bear is testament to the multifaceted identities that many queer people inhabit.
ICE PRINCESS: A DRAG QWEEN DRESS, 2017 JINGLE DRESS DEER, 2017 TAXIDERMY // GROUT, GLASS // 2 X 1.5 X 2.5 FEET
I recently made a draq queen dress in a response to a rejection to be allowed in a Thunder Bay art gallery fashion show. I was told I could only enter the costume contest, so I made an angry dress with spikes. I wanted to grab attention with it - lighting up with LEDs - and it did.
Jingle Dress Deer is more in the spirit of reconciliation - my mother went to “indian school” and ojibway was not allowed, she hated her heritage. This piece is my attempt to honor the ojibway women in my family from smashed pieces of tile, I honor the culture with the carefully polished tile of the jingles then the satin applique of the Deer’s neck which are in turn inspired from the flower forms on its head.
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SELINA EDINGER 12
Selina Edinger is a 22-year-old Anthropology and International Development graduate. Despite not majoring in poetry or English, her Anthropology degree taught her the importance words can carry for both culture and individuals. As a result, she is continuously engaging in poetry, both personally and culturally, as a way to express herself.
THE FIGHT WITHIN a 4 part, free verse poem, exploring the journey of peace and resistance within oneself, when facing my sexuality in a world convincing you it is something to fight.
OTHERS when others speak of peace, of our social justice and our equity they speak of resistance as protest in streets but never of the resistance in oneself fought in the comfort of our own bed sheets protest in books but never of the resistance in oneself when our eyes cannot help to wander and look protest in action but never of the resistance in oneself when faced with feelings of infatuation protest in art but never of the resistance in oneself against our very own hearts
THIS WORLD because this world never gave us love without guilt justice without toughness and pride without a fight so on cold and dark nights where no warmth is felt in bed sheets where eyes only wander alone in the dark where feelings are lessened by the concept of heteronormativity this world fooled us into thinking the toughest most lonely fight is to be fought from within
THE FIGHT so alone fist first against our own hearts where true love only feels like a sin because the warmth you feel when looking at your best friend is a game with fire you are taught not to play despite its potential to melt all the frost formed inside away because the places your eyes lie when looking at a body that is built like yours is an impulse as natural as breathing yet suffocating when caught
because the feeling you feel when confronted with what you truly desire feels more like a home than the prison of your own skin so you are left alone cold chocked and broken trying to fight the very own love your heart creates
PEACE but then you meet someone and it is right you will turn into a match struck by a chemical that is scientifically proven c8h11no2+c10h12n2o+c43h66n12o12s2 and you realize this world’s friction of hate, injustice and prejudice is not part of the equation because all it can take is two eyes meeting and a fire can be lit creating light in the darkness of your body
because all it can take is touch that doesn’t feel lonely and cold creating warmth making bed sheets into a home you will turn into a fire that burns down the fight in your heart and instead shines light on what really matters because love always wins
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YUE FENG JIANG 14
As a gay man who lived in China until the age of 15, the age of discovering and solidifying one’s identity, l abandoned my natural habitat wishing for a better life and a new home when I crossed the Pacific Ocean and arrived in Canada. Through time I found out that I am constantly shifting between different identities, in order to cope with my Chinese roots and my new North-American self. At the same time, I am dealing with how far away these two worlds are when it comes to treating homosexuality. I tend to hold a romantic view towards being able to speak three languages and understanding different cultures, accepting the fact that I will never truly belong to just one side. In the process of slowly morphing myself to adopt the dynamics of Canadian life, I learned to use my identities to label and to express myself artistically, which make “culture” and “self-discovery” the dominating themes of my works.
FRAGMENTS OF IDENTITY, 2017 OIL ON CANVAS // 22 X 28 INCHES The piece Fragments of Identity is a visual representation of my reality; the clash of two realms, and the clash of family tradition and ‘self-interest.’ I combined old childhood photographs (recreated with brushstrokes) with gay symbols and a flamboyant colour palette to create a not so harmonious composition. I also put in many elements and details that revolve around gay culture, such as marriage, gay rights, sexuality, etc.
BEN LIU
Made in China in 1985, Ben Liu currently lives in Montréal, Canada. Ben begins to publish his artworks and constantly wins art competitions at a very young age. Recipient of a scholarship in 2006, he arrived in Québec to pursue his studies in Multimedia Arts. In addition to his integration with intensive French learning, Ben expresses his transcultural vision throughout various artistic languages: painting, design, photography and cinema. The art and culture columns those he writes and illustrates for both Canadian and Chinese presses; builds a bridge among different communities. Ben’s work embraces the warmness and diversity of the world, with a touch of humour and traditional Chinese philosophy. His panda BENDA, a pacific ambassador, is recognized worldwide due to his numerous collaborations with Louis Vuitton, Microsoft, Journal Métro and Make-AWish Children’s Foundation among others.
SHADES OF MONTREAL, 2014-17 INK DRAWING, DIGITAL COLOURING AND PRINT // 12 ELEMENTS // 24 X 18 INCHES // TEXTS 5 X 5 INCHES Montreal is a museum of magic. You and I drift, encounter, then exchange. We are all pieces of movable art, sometimes stylish, thoughtful, monotone, and always full of colors. The unique shades of our auras contribute to the society. Each aura has a surname and tells a message, not coded by CMYK, but LOVE.
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JENNIFER LYNCH
Jennifer Lynch is a Montrealbased artist who is currently studying graphic design at Dawson College. She works with several mediums, but primarily with photography. Her goal as an artist is to educate and bring awareness to misconceptions in our society.
BISEXUALITY: THAT ISN’T HOW IT WORKS, 2017 14 X 11 INCHES This work discusses the misconception that when a bisexual person is involved with someone, their sexuality is altered based on the partner’s gender and/or sex. A girl who dates a girl doesn’t ‘become gay’ and if she dates a guy, she doesn’t ‘become straight’; she is still bisexual.
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JEN-BI, 2017 DIGITAL PRINT // 14 X 10.5 INCHES A poster celebrating and recognizing the fact that queer women do not have to conform to certain stereotypical traits and behaviors. This piece explores the concept that the sexuality of women who dress and act feminine is just as valid as that of women who are more masculine.
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KENT MONKMAN
Kent Monkman is a Canadian artist of Cree ancestry who works with a variety of mediums, including painting, film/video, performance, and installation. He has had solo exhibitions at numerous Canadian museums including the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. He has participated in various international group exhibitions including: The American West, at Compton Verney, in Warwickshire, England, Remember Humanity at Witte de With, Rotterdam, the 2010 Sydney Biennale, My Winnipeg at Maison Rouge, Paris, and Oh Canada!, MASS MOCA. Monkman has created site specific performances, documented in Super 8 film versions, and won numerous awards for his short film and video works internationally. His work is represented in numerous public and private collections.
STUDY FOR APOLLO AND HYACINTHUS (SEPIA), 2008
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WATERCOLOUR ON ACID FREE PAPER // 20 X 17 INCHES
STUDY FOR APOLLO AND HYACINTHUS (SERIES OF SIX), 2008 GRAPHITE ON ACID FREE PAPER // 20.5 X 22 INCHES Both these drawings are preparatory studies for Apollo and Hyacinth, a limited-edition print Monkman made in 2012. Based on a Greek myth of jealousy and unrequited love, Monkman reimagines the young mortal Hyacinthus as bearing a likeness to his signature identity: Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. In the myth, Apollo was passionately enamoured with the young mortal Hyacinthus, and accompanied him on all his hunting, fishing and sporting activities. One day Apollo heaved a discus, and Zephyr, who was also in love with Hyacinthus, directed it to fatally strike the head of Apollo’s young paramour.
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CATHERINE OPIE
Catherine Opie (b.1961, Ohio) lives and works in Los Angeles. Recent notable solo exhibitions include Empty and Full, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA (2011); Figure and Landscape, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2010); Catherine Opie: American Photographer, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (2008); Catherine Opie: Chicago (American Cities), MCA Chicago, Chicago, IL (2006); Skyways and Icehouses, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA (2002); Catherine Opie, The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2000). She has participated in group shows in the Brooklyn Museum, The Istanbul Biennale, and the Whitney Biennial (2004).
KATE (FROM THE GIRL-FRIENDS SERIES) 2008 C-PRINT // 20 5/8 X 27 3/8 X 2 INCHES
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Catherine Opie has been photographing the American social and geographical makeup for nearly three decades. Studying first at the San Francisco Art Institute and then at CalArts, Opie’s work has consistently explored notions of community and identity, and the ways in which they shape one another. The ‘Girlfriends’ series marked Opie’s return to a queer body of work, and also an investigation of what it means to be butch in an age of transgender transitions. She states, ‘I was thinking about how butch [is] being lost and what does it mean to maintain that … So many butches are mainly boyfriends, and not really girlfriends. I really wanted to bring back an old school conversation of “you’re my girlfriend vs. my boyfriend” and not in any way to shake up the transgendered community at all.’
IDEXXA (FROM THE GIRLFRIENDS SERIES) 2008 C-PRINT // 39 7/8 X 52 ¼ X 1 ¾ INCHES
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MONICA VICTORIA
Monica Victoria is a queer filmmaker and photographer from the unceded Indigenous lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka people, also known as Montreal. Monica Victoria works primarily within non-fiction and experimental forms and techniques. She has recently finished her BFA Specialization in Film Production as she attempts to connect her passion for photography and image with her desire for social change. Monica Victoria participates in a variety of activist work and community efforts to resist oppression and support people in need. www.mvviiv.com
COMMUNION I, 2017 DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT // 15 ¾ X 21 3/4 Communion is a photo series that explores intimacy outside of heteronormative boundaries, and the plethora of ways in which it manifests. The photos capture intimate relationships between spouses, friends, lovers and ex-lovers. Within our society we are told who to love, but also how to love. The series examines queer love and intimacy, intimacy between lovers, between friends. It shows how intimacy comes in many shapes and forms and that sometimes it is difficult to categorize the relationship people share by their affection. Love and intimacy in my queer community is fluid and has no boundaries. This is how we resist, how we grow and how we love.
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COMMUNION II, 2017 DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT // 15 ¾ X 21 3/4
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CHRISTIAN WICK 26
Born and raised in Montreal, this artist uses the name Chris Wick. Wicker is a Dawson College student in their final semester of the threeyear program, Illustration and Design. They draw inspiration from the macabre; although the featured piece has more gloom. They enjoy both traditional and digital rendering.
ALONE, 2017 DIGITAL PRINT // 24 X 20 INCHES Sadness, isolation, a new hell on earth: consequences no one should dare live with. Why should there even be consequences? It is like punishing somebody for breathing. In this work we see a figure enveloped by gloomy, dark, claustrophobic surroundings. Looks like a forest? Take a closer look. The darkness runs on for miles, when will it stop? Will the sun shine again? Will I stop being attacked? A life asking questions about your sanity is no life. No life anyone deserves.
Featured: Daniel Barrow Artist Statement video, Monica Victoria Communion I & II Black & White Photography, Catherine Opie: GirlFriends Series Idexxa & Kate Full Colour Photography, photo credit Re: Productions THANK YOU To all of our participating artists for their brilliant pieces and support of this project: Daniel Barrow, Dayna Danger, Michel Dumont, Selina Edinger, Yue Feng Jiang, Ben Liu, Jennifer Lynch, Kent Monkman, Catherine Opie, Monica Victoria, Christian Wick. THANK YOU To our speakers and trainers: Andie (SaĹĄa) Buccitelli, Kama La Mackerel, Jodie-Ann Muckler, Olivia Dumas, Estelle Davis, Kelsey Smoot, Farha Najah, Karine Myrianie Jean-Francois, Arshad Khan, Donald Boisvert, Manny Cortez Tuazon, Ken Antonio Rillo, Jules Johnson, Root Kamoso-Bagaragaza, Kimberly Manning and Dalia Tourki.
Dawson College Peace Centre
SPECIAL THANKS To Anthony Williams, Rhonda Meir, Dayna Danger, Karina D’Ermo, Don Corman, Lucy Segal, Re: Productions, Alex D. Zimmerman, the Dawson Student Union, Plant & Facilities, student volunteers, the Office of Academic Development, funding support from SSAP and the entire Dawson Community that made it possible.
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