Launch

photo by SAVANNA LEE

Cover Design Sama Al-Zanoon

Cover Photo Tracy Xie

Co-Editors in Chief Emma Cohen Emily Wood

Editors Sama Al-Zanoon Nara Monteiro Diyana Noory

Graphic Design Valentina Caballero Edward Kim Evan Simpson Tracy Xie

Editors’’Letter

Iconoclast exists to break barriers that stifle creativity, and cultivate unfiltered expression.

We want to bring together facets of Western’s diverse, interdisciplinary community in ways that don’t traditionally overlap. Iconoclast strives to be a place where the personal intersects with the political across all boundaries in order to draw out an untapped perspective. There are no unapproachable subjects; the personal cracks them open.

In this issue Caylen Walker undresses the heavily layered culture of the fashion industry, explaining its impact on kids whose closest interactions with designer threads are usually through their phone screens. Tara Magloire’s featured zine uses visual fragmentation to express her perceptions of love and hip hop, blending their abstract notions into a concrete comparison. Kayleigh Shield’s short story considers the intersection of form and content, using the traditional form of the triptych to explore connections between people through time and in art.

Our aim is to dispel the notion that we need to create passive, detached work in order for it to

be considered credible. This involves elevating personal experiences that can deal with complex and traditionally academic concepts. While these narratives can deal with theory, they don’t require institutionalized backing in order to be legitimate.

Iconoclast grounds itself in conversation. It is unpredictable in its multiplicity, and includes a unique range of voices. We want our publication’s pieces to speak to each other, and for the discussion to expand beyond the pages of the magazine. Although our publication represents our ideals, it cannot be the definition of all that we are as a collective. It would be impossible to fit everything that we are on a two-dimensional page.

Let’s “unpack social discourse”, but also loaf around listening to music that inspires us. Let’s drink lemonade at pop up shops full of our art and collaborate on new projects. Let’s spark an active movement of dynamic ideas.

Welcome to Launch.

Emily Wood and Emma Cohen Co-Founders and Editors in Chief Nara Monteiro, Sama Al-Zanoon, and Diyana Noory Co-Founders and Editors

My Name is

Love

it’s

Poetry

by SAVANNA LEE

photos by ADAM IBRAHIM

THE ROLE OF STUDENTS IN THE POST-FASHION WEEK CANADIAN FASHION INDUSTRY text by CAYLEN WALKER Toronto Fashion Week’s (TFW) biannual shows have been a highlight of Toronto’s fashion scene for the past 13 years. However on July 7th IMG pulled the plug on the city’s largest fashion showcase as a result of poor sponsorship interest, sparking a panicked flurry of debate within the industry. This news has brought about obvious problems for designers and buyers, but in the majority of the issue’s coverage there is an absence of consumer perspective. In particular, the consumers of our young, hip generation have been underrepresented. Of course the cancellation of TFW is going to affect designers, manufacturers, and retailers, but what about us?

TFW was prided for presenting start-up opportunities for young people breaking into the fashion industry. Unlike the international brands ruling the runways of London and Paris, Toronto’s catwalk was of completely Canadian origin. Economically speaking, the local designers of TFW presented garments with a much more reasonable price tag than the labels of other Fashion Weeks. I appreciated that I could buy a piece straight off the runway without having to pay an obnoxiously large amount of money; although not cheap, these pieces are friendlier to a student budget. Additionally, the shows were used as a part of many post-secondary fashion, arts, and journalism programs, filling the industry with eager new perspectives annually. Up-andcoming artists frequently drew inspiration from the latest Canadian fashion while student journalists submitted their critiques of shows at the same time as professionals in the industry, providing them with a taste of the real world as a fashion journalist. Some of the students in these

affected programs are undoubtedly our peers.

Representatives from Western’s own Volta Magazine made appearances in Toronto each season courtesy of the presenting designers, and would return to school inspired and ready to put together their next issue.

Losing the big white tents in David Pecaut Square will undermine Toronto’s credibility as a fashion hub and drive away the tourists that flocked there for Fashion Week. Unfortunately, Toronto isn’t the only Canadian city that has suffered fashion industry losses. Both Ottawa and Montreal have had to stop their shows and although this has not been overly detrimental to the cities’ reputations or economies, it’s still a disappointment for those who’ve watched the transition unfold. Now that Canada’s last Fashion Week city is out of commission, many fear that Canadian talent will move to other locations where the designers can display and sell their garments more conveniently.

It will be interesting to see what outsourcing Canadian brands will do to prices here at home. I

doubt the piece I bought locally last season will still cost the same amount. Import fees will become an added expense, and we all know that if shipping and handling fees aren’t an automatic deal-breaker for your student budget, you’ll at least think a little harder about what you are paying for. For patriotic designers that want to stay local, a shrinking Canadian fashion industry presents them with the problem of funding and producing shows at their own expense.

I have been represented by a modelling agency in Toronto for two years, and during this time I experienced the pleasure of walking in Toronto Fashion Week. Amidst the chaos backstage, I noticed that there were two demographics present: the veterans, and the newcomers.

The veterans were very comfortable in their element and have been working on producing Fashion Week for many seasons, some since it began 13 years ago. The latter group was a young demographic of models, hair stylists and makeup artists working under the direction of their experienced counterparts. Unfortunately, I suspect that the people who decided on behalf of their companies not to financially support TFW is a group that falls outside of those present at the tents. The financial sector does not see artsbased industry as credible unless it profits them handsomely.

I think our graduates will one day prevent the undervaluing of credible art programs. Much of our generation is very dedicated to liberal arts and expression, and as such we will be the most affected by the dwindling presence of Canadians in the fashion industry. However, there may be a silver lining to the situation. We might see the outdated concept of seasonal fashion presentations disappear with the tents. Today’s consumers don’t want to wait months until runway trends are made available to the public, and without a scheduled runway system the industry will have to adapt to the quick demands of consumers. In a few international fashion houses, this is already a reality; Burberry and Tom Ford have forgone their traditional Fashion Week shows to instead present their collections simultaneously with in-store availability. Gucci has also adopted an

unorthodox method by combining womenswear and menswear presentations into a single show. If such large labels can successfully adopt this kind of business model, I think it may be wise for new individual designers to begin their careers with a similar strategy right off the bat.

I don’t doubt that our Canadian designers will remain supported throughout the process of upheaving traditional fashion presentation structure; the end of one tradition could mark the beginning of another. Aspiring industry professionals will have to rebuild the foundation of the Canadian fashion industry but in doing so, they will be able to help reshape it into a modernized system compatible with the demands of our generation. This means the Canadian student will experience firsthand the rebirth and expansion of our country’s fashion movement, and where there once was failure there is now an opportunity for students to make a change. There is only one group of people I would fully trust to devise a creative solution to the problem of breathing new life into the Canadian fashion industry: young artists.

photos by D

IYANA NO O

RY

photos by MOHAMMED MIAN

photos by DIYANA NOORY

Looking At It text by EMILY WOOD Before things mattered she was less literal, more star strung and out like a bulb through soil during the month of May. More rawness, and pleasure in pain rather than eating up what’s left and being thankful there’s not more. Visits to parents less like a walking sadness and more like the comfort of being back in baby skin. The day moving up and down her spine without complaints.

The mystical way you look into her eyes not really cutting it anymore.

After all, it is with a backwards push we are forced to be our own mothers in the way they were to us as toddlers. Caretaking of the self a forgiveness and threat to what we have not managed to shake. What we cannot is a bandaid. An abstract wound seeping with the pus of our good and bad mystery days, all at once.

photo by STEF ELEOFF

art by CHANELLE RUTHERFORD

Margarine poem by LAUREN SCRATCH

s truffle oil leaves a residue for day grease a smooth-talking character I cease to wonder where he is me: a timepiece on his wrist her: a showpiece on his waist. my skin has seemed to unfastened an exhibitor of shoulders sharpened like vinegar a permanent pungent perfume my signature a tangy angry rage we’re similar

itself

he insulates the inciter ba ely say the name I can bar marjorie stupid french invented butter and margarine the night is full of revolutionary marches on like it was ’81 and we were living margins lately it’s been cold. lately when it rains it snows.

apples

poem by CAMILLE INTSON

the daughter i’ll never have left her paper doll out in the sandbox after i said hypothetically you’d better come in, they’re forecasting apples (but! i want to play!) but — !apples! !out on the patio! so i’m cutting dead flower parts in the garden i don’t want and i take my scissors and i pass by the sandbox and i thought i was cutting an open bud but turns out it was flesh — instead and i think where’s the blood i should be thumb deep in blood little bloody body blood and where the legs hung, another cut and i scatter her paper guts round and round the yard bury them sand deep i watched Law and Order once, although they’d hardly put up a fuss about a sandbox murder ((paper clothes, she deserved it the tree t borne slut)) one paper tit in the grass, one labia by the tire swing, two pasty shaven legs to the birds, the dress in my mouth now coursing through my digestive tract and the uterus too, it burns like hell like scissor sweat bu only then, the Sky threw an apple at my left nipple left cores in my shoes, in my eardrums kid says, (mommy! you’d better come in, they’re forecasting apples!) mommy’s asleep in the sandbox mommy (but it’s raining apples!) dolly’s asleep in the sandbox (but —) forever (it’s raining —) she won’t be back (apples!) (go back to sleep, honey you shouldn’t be so scared to bleed, but to exist — ?

N AL-ZANOO art by SAMA

Follow her anywhere.

photo by EVAN SIMPSON

hotblink

photos by EVAN SIMPSON

White Papers, White Writers text by DIYANA NOORY

My first year as an English major taught me a lot more about the Bible than I ever cared to know. I spent a lot of my childhood being spoon-fed unwanted religious education, so I appreciated choosing my university path of study.

Although the biblical teachings of the English literature curriculum are secular, they prove how critical this religious text is to a large body of European works. These works are, of course, what compose the majority of required readings in introductory level English literature courses.

required history class did not do justice to the history of Canada’s aboriginal people. European or white history is considered the default history – that is, the most “relevant” history to us as Canadians. All other narratives are lumped under the “world/global” categorization.

As such, all of my introductory education on global and diversity issues, feminist and queer theory, and nonWestern history was self-taught, proving that the education system neglects to properly address subversive topics.

No matter what you choose to study in university, your intro courses will be general overviews of the subject. The problem with first year English studies is the narrow scope of literature that these “overview” courses present. The perspective we are taught is largely of white, cisgender, heterosexual men. In turn, the colonial narrative is emphasized while the voices of oppressed people are rarely acknowledged.

If subjugated groups are mentioned, their inclusion is only used to compliment the white patriarchal narrative. Lack of diversity is excused because of the inherent Eurocentrism of the Western canon, and minimal efforts are made to introduce students to texts from outside of this body of work.

Despite the fact that some first year English courses are titled as general introductions, their syllabi reveal a focus on Western literature as opposed to providing a relatively comprehensive introduction to literature written in English.

If students never developed cross-cultural capabilities through past institutionalized education, then the Eurocentrism of their first year studies won’t help advance their knowledge. It would be more accurate to call these courses introductions to European and North American literature as opposed to including a couple of texts by people of colour as a side note, or excluding us completely.

Excuses are made for the lack of works on syllabi authored by women and people of colour; women did not publish as much, and “world” (non-white) literature does not fall under the umbrella of Western writing. Prioritizing the work of white cishet men and some white women devalues works by people of colour, and erases our histories.

This type of rhetoric is reminiscent of the high school curriculum which emphasized inapplicable concepts like “reverse racism” in my sociology class, while my

It gets frustrating to hear your professors oversimplify intersectional issues in the texts they teach, presenting instances of discrimination as the norm and failing to critically analyze them. Oftentimes if they touch on these topics it is from a detached, systemic point of view that gives you the sense they can’t wait to move on to “unpacking” the syntax of the novel instead. Should you choose to delve deeper into an anti-establishment idea an essay, you may be faced with a close-minded TA that grades your paper according to their personal politics.

Fellow Iconoclast editor Sama was told not to turn her essay into a “political manifesto” when she did a queer feminist reading of Katherine Mansfield’s “Carnation”, a poem that can easily be analyzed through a queer lens. Similarly, a professor told one of our classes that he feels essays on the role of women in literature are “overdone”; a term he never used to describe our nonstop required analysis of Biblical references in texts.

Although I am not a morning person, this semester I’ve been more than willing to take an 8:30 am class to study global literature. Saleem Haddad’s Guapa, which I was intrigued to read during the summer before the semester started, is now one of my favourite novels because I could relate to its reflections on dual Western/Middle Eastern identity so strongly. Obviously not every book on the syllabus is going to have such a profound impact on every student, however the fact that none of my first year readings were even close to being as engaging as Guapa speaks volumes.

There must be a canonical survey to acquaint English students with important texts during first year, but it is also important to present works from non-Western cultures in order to explore new viewpoints. This is not an expectation that all students hold, however those of us who live politicized existences will always struggle with reconciling identity with academia.

In an ideal world, university students would seek academic excellence for the purpose of broadening their worldview as opposed to just to get good grades.

While some professors encourage this romanticized notion, the reality is scholarships and graduate school prospects are main motivating factors for students to succeed in the university business. To keep my grades up in first year, I often resorted to selective reading and skimming Sparknotes to vaguely acquaint myself with texts. Try as I might, I couldn’t get past certain archaic storylines and convoluted language. Furthermore, I found it difficult to relate to stories that I can’t connect to my life at all. I’m not asking to be coddled, but it is difficult to listen to professors rave about the excellence of a text while barely acknowledging its problematic nature. The issues within a text need to be dissected before it can be fully appreciated by individuals who find themselves impacted by its flaws.

First year studies are crucial to the rest of a student’s educational career. Many of my disillusioned would-be

English major friends switched to different subjects; they pursued psychology, gender studies, and even finance instead of English. Lack of English curriculum diversity is not a problem limited to Western. In 2015, students at University College London then the University of York launched the "Why is My Curriculum White?” campaign that challenges the lack of diversity in British university reading lists. Similarly this year, undergraduates at Yale’s English department began a petition to “decolonize” the introductory curriculum.

It is vital that first-year students be exposed to a diverse range of thought so they will gain knowledge in many different areas, then choose to look into specialized approaches during their upper years.

Fully appreciating literature requires knowledge many different areas, as the texts we learn about are laden with varying references. This interplay of subjects proves that studies in English literature have the potential to be intersectional and interdisciplinary. It’s high time that the study of general “English Literature” expands to mean “Literature in English”, incorporating global perspectives as opposed to mainly Western literature.

photos by ALEX LAM

T R I P T YC H I. She sits in cold, dirty bathwater. She soaks in the grime, surrounded by scummy tile. Her arms are wrapped around herself, and she pretends that her mother is holding her (her mother, for the record, never held her).

She hears him pacing outside. She had thrown one of her potted plants at him before drawing a bath. She picks at a flack of mold. A dappled moon flirts with frosted glass. He knocks. She glares, squeezing the shampoo bottle.

“If you don’t talk to me, I have to assume the worst.”

“I need to see you.”

“It’s because I care.”

“I really do.”

“Alright, I am coming in.”

She giggles and smears the shampoo all over her face, creating peaks and valleys and craters before destroying and remaking them. She looks ridiculous. She squeezes out some conditioner, a more reliable medium. She smears and smoothes, exaggerating the shape of her nose. She looks up at him for approval.

He kneels down beside her. He glops some conditioner onto his palm, considering it. She reaches out a hand, and takes some onto her fingers. They look at each other, object/muse burning into subject/ artist. The woman evaluates his face for a few seconds, and then draws a straight line across his brow.

“A unibrow? Really?” he groans, scooping conditioner off her cheek and giving himself a moustache.

text by KAYLEIGH SHIELD

II. One night, she turns to him. They have been fighting for weeks. Over the brand of coffee he buys, the overripe bananas that she lets sit on the table. Tonight, he refused to clean the toilet bowl until she cleaned the fridge (which should have been cleaned a week ago).

His face immediately relaxes when she is midway through reminding him that she is going through an episode and that he is the one who needs to compromise for a change and that she really hates it when he tells her to just do something because she doesn’t work like that.

She yells and rages and pouts, caving into herself. It hurts, the moment she sees him resolve to ice her out.

He goes on a walk while she showers. He hears her sobs from the living room, and goes to bed. She lies down next to him. He feels the mattress shift under her weight, pulling him towards her. His hip curves towards her knees. His eyes remain closed, but he begins to speak.

“Do you think I have never been hit before?”

The question throws her.

“You haven’t thought of that before,” he says flatly.

“You never brought it up.” She shifts closer.

He sort of sighs, before he speaks. “I know it’s hard for you, to feel others’ pain when you are in so much of your own. It hurts to watch you spiral, and that I wish I could be more understanding and empathetic and feel your pain so that you weren’t alone.”

He says this as he rolls over, so that she faces his back.

He stops talking after that.

III. Five years later, he is married with two kids.

Fifteen years later, his son finds a few books written by a woman his father has tried to write about for the last ten years.

It is a routine. His father reads each new book obsessively, and the woman on the cover looks very serious. She prefers to wear black, and sometimes adds hoop earrings to her monochromatic outfits.

This woman and his father went to the same school, and were the same age.

They both teach at respected institutions.

The key difference between them is that she creates, whereas his father analyzes.

No one really accounts for the critic in the artist/muse relationship.

In taped interviews, she talks about being difficult in the calmest voice. She claims that she is a hysteric in her writing because a hysteric cannot connect, and this is both a symptom and perhaps the cause of her depression. Politically, the hysteric is a position of nonsense. The hysteric can scream or be catatonic, but no one bothers to listen before she is validated in death.

In one memorable interview, she says she feels more like Cassandra than Helen or Athena.

His father catches him reading her first book of poetry. In the introduction, she explains it was written before she began her dissertation, during one of the darkest periods of her depression.

His father’s left eye twitches when he sees the book’s cover, and he moves to the next room.

There is one highlighted line: The Prince looks up at the eagle just as it casts its shadow over him, and he feels as if he were once again in her shadow In the margin is a tiny asterisk and “U” shaped drawing, which the son originally thinks may be a horseshoe, but begins to see as recognition. As in, “it really is you”, perhaps accompanied by a relieved sigh, or a grunt, or even a moan.

The boy flips back to the dedication: To the grime between the tile and the slime in my fridge.

HERE COMES THE NIGHTTIME photos by TRACY XIE

FALSE VISION art by VERONICA CHEUNG

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