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Vol. 12 No. 1 | July 2020 VANCOUVER BC CANADA
zine
DARE TO BE CHALLENGED. RISK BEING CHANGED.
01
qafoNline.ca
Visual Art •
Table of Contents Dance •
Performance
• Literature •
rt is ti c D irec to r 1 ur Theatre • Music
A rt y! Curator To
2 A rt Pa • Media Art •
su al Ar ts Ex hib ition Literature •
d: Curated Vi
rtists 5 Wicke 16 - Sun Jul 26 Visual Art Workshops
Curated Visual A Thu l Ju
ramme
36 Event Prog esque
Indigenous Burl
Fr i Ju l 17, 7PM PST ess with bombastic burlesque
Too Spirited
36 brace your too-muchn Nation.
Em babes of Virago
the badass
by
brought to you
s with VIVO
Sun Jul 19,
38 Media Night
Sat Jul 18 & g Wed Jul 22, 7
PM PST
7PM PST Media
Art rytellin
cent 42
A Night of Sto
e (Jun 18) Re ngs
Rupture Prob rm at ive Literary Readi an, readings by
local, national,
ts ru pt ur e no Da nny Ra m ad
queer shor , and Curated by
nder, pleasure nal writers.
notions of ge So do m N or th and internatio
tu rn to l 23,
activism. Re
) 90 s Queer Video
Out
n d A b so lu te Fiction Thu Ju
Undergrou
(J un e 19 with
. Time travel
edia 44 7PM PST Speculative The
& Uncensored atre
r Qu ee r m ired
the Vancou ve
un k-concert, insp
w ho ra ge d back against An im m er si ve play-meets-p
tt en by
artists ion ome theatre.”
Wri
t and suppress by the Polish “h d by Queer Ar
ts
the malignmen re al iti es an d
an d co -p ro du ce
of qu ee r liv ed An ai s W es t e.
ns of desire. Cu ia
rated e Frank Theatr
representatio M ed Festival and Th
p with VI VO
in partnershi Arts Centre. ce
Drag Performan
Fr i Ju l 24, 7PM PST e- nding non-
ensored 48 perience the unexpected with genrrlings: Continental
be
Th e D ar lin gs , U nc Ex e Da
Th
rag collective, China.
binary avant-d Bu tch, and Maiden
, Ro se
Breakfast, PM
entorship
C onve rs at io n on Queer M
T Lunch Discou
rse 50 A
Sat Jul 25, 12PM PS re the
Hiromi Goto and Er
ica Isomura explo
ip as 53 This Crazy
Show 26, 2PM PST
T Sun July
erational mentorsh
en
nuances of interg Sat Jul 25, 7
PM PS
queer POC writers.
ance
Dance Perform porary dance
legend Noam
Song, contem and
In his Swan between pain
Pride in Art
gn on sash ay s the fine line ething glamor
ous
Community Exhibition Ga
in a fetishization of som tified.
pleasure onster beau
Thu Jul 16 - Sun Jul 26 ly twisted: a m
and beautiful
Visual Art
Jul 26 4PM PST til late Closing Binge
Glitter is Forever: Pajama Party Sun Queer Arts Festival
and binge-watch the entire
Get your dress jammies on, grab a drink 1
ct surp rises and special prizes.
with us (take it all in!!). Expe
2 3
Avram Finkelstein 6
8 Christopher Lacroix
Dayna Danger 10
12 Elektra KB
Flash Collective 14
16 Love Intersections
Michael Morris 20
22 Joseph Liatela
Kama La Mackerel 24
28 KUNST
Shawna Dempsey 30 & Lorri Millan
Tom Hsu 32
34 Xandra Ibarra
4 5
6 7
Christopher
Lacroix
Christopher Lacroix (Canadian,
b. 1986) holds a BFA from Ryerson
University, ON (2012) and an MFA
from the University of British
Columbia, BC (2018). His work
has been exhibited at The Polygon
Gallery (Vancouver), window
(Winnipeg), Georgia Scherman
Projects (Toronto), and Forest City Facing page, top:
Christopher Lacroix,
Gallery (London). Lacroix was the
2018 recipient of the Philip B. Lind Head forward,
Emerging Artist Prize. He currently strong core, pedal
lives and works in Vancouver, BC. backwards, 2019
Artist
Statement
Perversions come in all size (2019) considers issues
of shame, endurance, melodrama, and eroticism as
they relate to queer subjectivity. The project centres
around a machine custom-built for my body that I used
to feed myself one cookie for every person I have had
a sexual encounter with. The machine requires my
body to be in a constant state of awkward tension when
operated; either pushing my weight back to crank the
first conveyor belt or pedaling backwards to move the
second conveyor belt towards my mouth. In borrowing
aesthetics from gym equipment and fetish furniture,
the machine suggests a blurring of the boundaries Christopher Lacroix, Cradle.
Coddle. Carry. 2019 (bottom, left)
of indulgence and discipline, ecstatic deviance thank you v v much I feel better already and u? , 2019
and self-flagellation. (bottom right)
8 9
Dayna
Danger Artist
Dayna Danger is a 2Spirit/ Statement
Queer, Metis/Saulteaux/Polish
Bad Girls is inspired by
visual artist raised in so-called scandalous and intriguing
Winnipeg, MB. Using photography, women throughout history.
sculpture, performance and video, My catholic upbringing has
Dayna Danger‘s practice questions impressed onto me the idea
the line between empowerment and of an acceptable woman–
objectification by claiming space with what they act like, what they
her larger than life scale work. look like and how they are
Danger’s current use of BDSM and portrayed. By referencing
beading leather fetish masks explores the renaissance genre of
history painting, I create
the complicated dynamics of sexuality,
mythological and allegorical
gender, and power in a consensual images of women throughout
and feminist manner. Danger is history, but with a rebellious,
currently based in Tio’tia:ke. sexual twist. These women
Danger holds a MFA in Photography fascinate me because their
from Concordia University. Danger stories portray them as “bad
has exhibited her work in Santa girls”. These images ask the
Fe, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, viewer the question: “Why
Peterborough, North Bay, Vancouver, are these specific women
Edmonton and Banff. Danger perceived to be ‘bad’, why
is a woman owning her
currently serves as a board member
own sexuality considered
for the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective a malfeasance?”
(ACC/CCA).
By using allegorical stories
and myths, I use archetypal “female” characters
throughout history to present a new type of history
image, one where the central figure is empowered, in
control, and blessed by a baroque stream of light. Digital
photography itself informs my work, the idea of truth in the
photograph is subverted, through digital editing, to create
an alternative truth, a pluralistic narrative. I reinterpret
this genre of photography and the characters I portray. Sex,
sanity, religion, gender, bondage and wickedness are themes
Dayna Danger, Goldilocks, 2011 (top); Red, 2011 (bottom) I am exploring.
10 11
Elektra KB
Elektra KB is a Latinx immigrant
artist, living and working in Brooklyn,
NY. They graduated with an MFA
from Hunter College in 2016 and
received a DAAD award, pursued at
UDK-Berlin with artist Hito Steyerl.
Artist
Their work engages corporeal
sickness and disability, with utopian
Statement
possibilities and alternative universes. Due to the rise of systems
KB investigates: gender, migration, of oppression via the
transculturality, and abuse of power. nation state, the rebels of C.A.T. STATELESS
Their work entangles mutual aid, the Theocratic Republic
political action, and communication, of Gaia —the Catharas— GENDERLESS PASSPORT
often with a documentarian-sci-fi-like have created the Stateless Description: Stateless and genderless passport.
hybrid approach, exploring utopia and Autonomous passport. With
dystopia. Across: photography, textiles, this document you renounce Medium: Letterpress and gold foil printed on
to any involuntary forced paper, stamp and ink pad.
video, installation and performance.
common identity imparted
KB’s work has been written about in: CAT - Cathara Autonomous Territory
because of the nation state
Art Forum, Artnews and The New York and commit to the erasure
Times. Recent shows include: ‘Nobody of imaginary lines forced
Promised You Tomorrow’ at the upon humans in the world;
Brooklyn Museum. through blood, war
and genocide. You are choosing to become a de facto
When you sign the Cathara global citizen by your own personal
Autonomous Territory authority with the support of the
passport, you declare Cathara Autonomous Territory as
yourself stateless. You issuing source.
abandon your alliance to: Be aware of other stateless citizens
nation borders and gender holders of the CAT passport,
borders, chauvinism, we are everywhere.
patriotism, and fascism. You
declare that these concepts You are here therefore,
don’t define the true liberated and are the sole ruler
existence of the individual of your body in space.
and are not a marker for To get your stateless and genderless passport during
human value. QAF 2020 WICKED: go to https://qafonline.ca/elektra-kb/
13
12 13
Flash
Collective
Avram Finkelstein x QAF Wicked • The Flash Collective
In July 2020, the Queer Arts Festival
(QAF) will support a visual art exhibition
curated by artist, activist, and community
organizer Jonny Sopotiuk on the festival
theme of Wicked. Sopotiuk’s curation Prior to the festival
includes a single-day workshop for a group on June 16 2020,
of emerging and early career local artists Finkelstein guided a
with New York-based artist and seminal group of 9 2SLGBTQ+
HIV/AIDS activist Avram Finkelstein, identified local artists
known as a Flash Collective. Originating through a pre-
in his HIV/AIDS activism of the prescribed 6-hour Flash
Collective workshop. As
1980s, Finkelstein’s Flash Collective
a short-term collective,
is an experiment in political art-making participants will
wherein he leads a group of artists imagine alternative
to answer the call to collective action. models on activating
The artists form a collective of limited social spaces through
On the subject of PLACE, duration intent on producing a single reflection on the history
the Vancouver-centric Flash intervention in a public space; a result- of queer activism—a
Collective promises a uniquely oriented exercise aimed at collective dynamically charged
prescient opportunity: Participating Artists: action by focusing on collective subject given the
collaboration between the Alex Gibson, Avram Finkelstein, impact marginalized
decision-making within a surgical
QAF and Finkelstein has communities are
Chhaya Naran, Claire Love and fast-paced format intended to
been irrevocably altered by experiencing under the
the COVID-19 pandemic and
Wilson, Jackson Wai Chung Tse, cut directly to the point of the pallor of the COVID-19
the marginalized artists the Jeff Hallbauer, Joshua Lam, work-its content. pandemic and the era
workshop aimed to serve Kyla Yin, Shane Sable, of social distancing.
are now grappling with the Tajiliya Jamal The product of the workshop is negotiated by the collective
complexity of a post-pandemic with artist selection based on their unique contributions,
future in real time. including interest in or experience with activism, graphic design,
photography, and animation. In his role as convenor, Finkelstein
will bring together the first ever online flash collective where
Flash Collective will be shown at the grunt gallery’s Mount Pleasant artists will explore community and collaboration during a
Community Art Screen (MPCAS) through the festival and beyond pandemic by producing a single intervention in public space.
14 15
The Haunting of Huli jing
Love by Love Intersections (David Ng, Jen Sungshine)
Intersections In collaboration with Kendell Yan.
Videography by Eric Sanderson
David Ng is a queer, feminist, Jen Sungshine speaks for a living, but
media artist, and co-founder lives for breathing art into spaces,
of Love Intersections. His places, cases. She is a nerdy queer
current artistic practices Taiwanese interdisciplinary artist/
grapple with queer, racialized, activist, facilitator, and community
and diasporic identity, and mentor based in Vancouver, BC, and is
how intersectional identities the Co-Creative Director and founder
can be expressed through media of Love Intersections, a media arts
arts. His interests include collective dedicated to collaborative
imagining new possibilities of filmmaking and relational storytelling.
how queer racialized artists Jen’s artistic practice is informed
can use their practice to by an ethic of tenderness; instead of
transform communities. calling you out, she wants to call you
in, to make (he)artful social change
with her. In the audience, she looks
for weirdos, queerdos and anti-heroes.
In private, she looks after more than
70 houseplants and prefers talking to
plants than to people. Love Intersections, Hulijing still 4 - Lair, 2020
Artist Statement (Kitsune), Korea (Kumiho), many realities. The fox spirit
There is no creature quite as (similar to “slut”). It is important Vietnam (Hồ Ly Tinh), and in emerges from underground
alluring and sinister as the to point out that the nine-tailed the West (Succubus). and transforms its animal form
9-tailed fox spirit, the Huli jing fox spirit of which this term is Through the eyes of the fox to human - and according to
(狐狸精). In Chinese mythology, derived from, is historically spirit, we fuse macabre and the origin of the mythical tale,
the Huli jing is a well known genderless (in its animal form) East Asian cultural mythos its survival is contingent on
mythological creature, most that only takes physical form to highlight how a virus-like accumulating essence through
notable for its ability to acquire (gendered) to lure mortals for sexual intercourse with
spread of anti-Asian racism is
human form that is almost their essence. The depiction of mortals, thereby prolonging
painfully experienced. What is
always in the image of a the fox spirit in historical texts its magical powers and
it about the macabre and sci-fi
beautiful young woman. Today, and literature has evolved into eventual immortality.
horror that elicits unsettling
the popular usage of the term a very cemented feminized
feelings of discomfort and fear This work was conceptualized
“huli jing” is a pejorative word image in contemporary East
of infection? Like a mythic prior to COVID-19, with
to describe women who are Asian popular culture. Similar
story, the virus is personified as production originally scheduled
flirtatious and sexually liberated iterations can be found in Japan
a cultural phenomenon of our in March. We quickly realized
16 17during the quarantine that the state, it’s not just the physical
context of the piece needed to bodies being replicated (fox
transform, and mutate. Our to human), but thoughts,
initial idea on ‘bodies that minds, DNA are all absorbed
transgress homonationalism’, and mirrored. The evocation
now had different implications of fear through desolation and
in the context of anti-Asian macabre reflects how (white)
racism that emerged from homonationalism is enforced
COVID-19 related sinophobia, by the nation-state to conform
and has now shifted again certain (racialized) bodies,
with movements against genders and sexualities, into a
anti-Black violence. This productive “normative” citizen.
concept of interrogating A key component in the
how homonationalism potency of the fox spirit’s
upholds the colonial white magical powers is memory
supremacist nation state has loss. She enacts a kind of
new implications, in light of forgetting — serving both
the changing discourse of a protective shield around
systemic racism, and the literal herself and her clan’s location
enforcement of biopolitics and lair, and more importantly,
and racial capitalism by the what actually happened. The
nation-state. How do notions Huli jing’s potency and her
of “fear”, “discomfort” and magical powers threaten the
“destabilization” that we invoke colonial, homonational state,
through this piece relate to as well as the weaponized
public discourse today? potential/power in forgetting
By evoking a sci-fi horror and memory loss and what
lens, we connect our own that does to our controlled/
xenophobic fears towards policed bodies. What
the fox spirit, to place an exactly are the visceral and
immediate sense of fear embodied tensions between
that this entity is growing the mechanisms of white
and looming above, under, homonormativity and the
and surrounding all around “deviant Other” that the Huli
us. Visually, the virus-like jing represents? What are the
creature spreads through linkages between the emotional
the gradient of 3 thematic and spiritual vulnerabilities
worlds: utopia, apocalypse, that are essential to the shifts
and dystopia — infecting towards broader social change
and penetrating into the in the queer community?
What is the ultimate threat
Love Intersections, Hulijing Still 6 - Lips, 2020 (top), Hulijing Still 3 - Hand, 2020 (bottom) very matter of each of the
to the mechanisms of
world’s reality, taking on the
properties of everything it homonormativity — which
touches like the invasion of includes whiteness — when
the body snatchers. In this assimilation is refused?
18 19Michael Morris
Artist, educator, curator. Michael Morris was born in
1942 in Saltdean, England and immigrated to Canada at age
four. In 1960, Morris began his studies at the University of
Victoria, transferring the following year to the Vancouver
School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design).
After graduating with honors in 1964, Morris attended two
years of postgraduate studies at the Slade School of Fine Art
at the University College London. There he absorbed the work
of Fluxus and the European avant-garde, artistic developments
that had a profound influence on the Vancouver experimental
art scene. Upon his return to Vancouver, Morris became
acting curator of the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Centre
for Communications and the Arts at Simon Fraser University.
In his roles as a curator and, primarily, as an artist, Morris was
a key figure of the West Coast art scene during the 1960s.
Notably, Morris, along with Vincent Trasov, founded the Image
Bank in 1969, a system of postal correspondence between
participating artists for the exchange of information and ideas.
The intention of the Image Bank was to create a collaborative,
process-based project in the hopes of engendering a shared
creative consciousness-in opposition to the alienation endemic
to modern capitalist society-through the deconstruction and
recombination of its ideological forms. In 1973, Morris co-founded
the Western Front-one of Canada’s first artist-run centers-
and served as co-director of the Western Front for seven years.
Morris has participated in artist-in-residence programs both in
Canada at the Banff Centre (1990) and at Open Studio (2003)
and internationally at Berlin Kustlerprogramm (1981-1998). Morris
was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities in 2005 by
Emily Carr University of Art + Design. He currently lives and
works in Victoria.
Michael Morris,
Berlin boys from the Boyopolus series, 1984,
collection of the artist
20 21Joseph
Liatela
Joseph Liatela is a multidisciplinary
artist based in New York City. Through
a transgender lens, his work explores the
cultural and medico-legal notions of what
is considered a “correct” bodily formation.
He has exhibited at Denniston Hill,
LACE, Field Projects, Monmouth Museum,
BRIC, and PS122 Gallery, among others.
Liatela’s work has been featured in The Leslie
Lohman Journal, SF MoMA’s Open Space,
Joseph Liatela, Untitled (Molecular Prosthesis), 2020, Artsy, among others. They have received
120 x 108 x 84 in / 304.8 x 274.32 x 213.36 cm fellowships from the Zellerbach Foundation,
VCT Tile, masonite, singlets used by athletes, resin, marble powder, silicone, steel, powdered Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Project,
Viibryd, Vyvance, & synthetic hormones Denniston Hill,
California College
of the Arts,
Banff Centre, and
Columbia University.
22 23Kama
La Mackerel
Kama La Mackerel is a
multi-disciplinary artist, educator,
writer, cultural mediator and literary
translator who hails from Mauritius
and now lives in Montr al. Their
work is grounded in the exploration
of justice, love, healing, decoloniality,
and self-and collective-empowerment.
They work within and across poetry,
photography, performance, installation
and textile arts. lamackerel.net
// @kamalamackerel
Artist
Statement
My work aspires to articulate languages of decoloniality through
inter-textual and inter-textural artistic practices.
My life’s work emerges from practices— in order to rewrite
a concern for justice and the marginalized and silenced
an imperative to heal from voice in contemporary contexts
colonial pasts. I reimagine of global imperialism. I draw
and reformulate languages from the past to interrupt the
of the self in order to offer “a present, and offer possibilities
countermemory, for the future” of being for future, as a
(Gordon). I explore ancestral “reacquisition of power to create
loss— as the loss of bodies, one’s own i-mage” (Philip).
histories, cultures,
languages, genders, knowledge The “i” in my work is multiple:
systems and spiritual it is an i that is descendant of
Kama La Mackerel, Breaking
the Promise of Tropical Emptiness:
Trans Subjectivity in the Postcard, 2019
24 25Slaves and Indentured labour, spaces and ‘in-between’ voices
it is an i that grew up on the which offer a kaleidoscopic
plantation island of Mauritius, view of my subjectivities as
it is an i that is economically they relate to space, time,
working-class but culturally history, and kinship: “this
middle-class, it is an i filled with interstitial passage between
queer desires, it is an i that fixed identifications opens up
crosses normative gender lines, the possibility of a cultural
it is an i that grew up in a half- hybridity that entertains
Catholic and half-Hindu family, difference without an assumed
it is an i that is East-African, or imposed hierarchy”
South-Asian and in the process (Bhabha). I thus re-figure my
of becoming Canadian… The i in own corporality as multiple,
my work refuses to be restricted transgressing genres, locations,
by singularity, it cannot be: bodies, tongues, spaces and
my voice is multiple, moving temporalities.
beyond and across definitions,
“Breaking the Promise of
a voice imbued in “complex
Tropical Emptiness: Trans
personhood” (Gordon).
Subjectivity in the Postcard”
The i in my work, then, is not is a performance-based
constrained by the boundaries photography series where I call
of disciplinarity. I work across into question the dominating
live performance, poetry, aesthetics of postcards as
installations, textile and visual orientalist visual artifacts that
arts to speak multiple aesthetic have historically portrayed
and political voices that island spaces as “exotic”
enunciate a decolonial poetics. landscapes, devoid of local
The voice in the body of my subjectivity. In this series, I
work expresses itself across disrupt the colonial postcard
different media and in the frame by positioning my queer
interstices between these and transgender body in the
media. These intermedia foreground of stereotypical
spaces provide the terrain postcard-like landscapes.
for elaborating “strategies “Breaking the Promise” also
of selfhood— singular and articulates a visual vocabulary
communal— that initiate new with which to reclaim the
signs of identity, and innovative scapes of my home/is/land and
sites of collaboration, return my transgender body
and contestation” back to the land I had to flee
(Bhabha). Through an in order to birth my queer
inter-disciplinary practice, I femme self.
create a range of ‘in-between’
26 27Kunst
Based in Miami, Florida KUNST is an
interdisciplinary artist working to contextualize
and visualize the aberrant queer phenomenology
inherent to our bodies, our experiences and our
fantasies. Having studied various fields of interest
from philosophy to classical music, since 2012
they have blended their years of study with
sculpture, video art, performance, soundscape
design and illustration to produce a surrealist
fantasy in which the Queer Other is opened
up and explored interpersonally.
KUNST, Town Crier 11, 2019
Original digital photograph by Vince Cuadra, Performance for Camera Single Channel Video
Artist
Statement
TOWN CRIER is a series of site-specific performances
enacted in public space wherein I perform the role of a
town crier. Historically, the role of the crier was to deliver
proclamations in a market or square on behalf of the royal
court. They were elaborately dressed and utilized a handbell
to underscore their deliverances. In my work, rather than
delivering assertions on behalf of a royal court, I deliver
my proclamations on behalf of the working class which I
am a part of. In doing so in the spaces I select to leverage
my presence against I am focused on articulating these
interventions in space as a way to disrupt the minutiae of
capitalist ideologies that articulate our understandings of
space and context within those locations.
28
KUNST, Still from Camera Single Channel Video (top), Object For Exchange, 2019 (bottom)Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan
Shawna Dempsey have collaboratively created queer, feminist
performance and video art for over 30 years.
& Lorri Millan They have exhibited in venues as far-ranging as
women’s centres in Sri Lanka, the Sydney Gay/
Lesbian Mardi Gras in Australia and the Museum
of Modern Art in New York, and have curated
internationally as well. However to most, they
are known simply as the Lesbian Rangers.
Artist
Statement
In our self-created worlds, we have the freedom to
make self-definitions, disrupting the images and
lessons contained in all the stories and codes that have
shaped us. By subverting and perverting accepted
meanings, we attempt to re-tell tales truly. By making
people laugh, we open them up to thinking differently.
For us, art making is a means to perform our realities
into existence.
Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, Homogeneity, Videos (still). 3 min. 1998,
Shot on Super 8 film while in residence at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Centre, Buffalo, NY
Using the metaphor of suburban architecture,
“Homogeneity” archly critiques the desire for
conformity within the/our queer community.
Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, unnamed, 1998 (Facing page)
30 31Tom Hsu is a studio-based
Tom Hsu visual artist whose works seeks to
investigate the curious condition
of spaces, and their correlation
to the bodies that attend them,
as communicated through the
photography of the everyday mundane.
He comes from a base in analog
photography, and this stability allows
him to extend into made, found, and
choreographic sculpture, all of which
deal with the everyday mundane. He
currently lives and works in Vancouver
and holds a BFA in Photography from
Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
He undertook a residency at Burrard
Arts Foundation from April to June
2018. He has exhibited at Centre A,
Unit/Pitt, Index Gallery, and Yactac
Gallery in Vancouver.
Artist
Statement
The term wicked can signify something morally wrong or it
could mean excellent. These two images of headless bodies
plays a role in which searches for directions. The orientation
Tom Hsu, Cue Holding, 2019 Tom Hsu, Head in Rock, 2015 of these images have been flipped to something not to the
norm, that in itself can show something wicked in the way
the images are presented. Is there a proper orientation of
how an image is to present itself?
32 33Xandra
Ibarra The Ho
Xandra Ibarra is Oakland-based
performance artist from the US/
Artist
Mexico border of El Paso/Juarez
who sometimes works under the Statement
alias of La Chica Boom. Ibarra uses It’s been exhausting to
performance, video, and sculpture to stay afloat in this era that
address abjection and joy and the promises a wider gap
borders between proper and improper between the rich and poor.
racial, gender, and queer subject. In the past two decades,
Ibarra’s work has been featured at low-income and of-color
Ex Teresa Arte Actual (Mexico), communities have struggled
to keep their housing in the
El Museo de Arte Contemporaneo
Mission neighborhood of
(Colombia), The Broad Museum (LA) San Francisco and abroad.
and The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Many adored queer nightlife
Art (NYC) to name a few. venues and other convivial
spaces have disappeared
and resurfaced as sterile
establishments that attract
upwardly mobile and affluent
demographics. In an effort to
resurface the “messy” and “sucio” spirits of queer Latino
and lesbian ghosts from gentrified sites in San Francisco, Ibarra
led strangers and friends on a bar crawl tour to five former
queer Latino and Lesbian bars in San Francisco. Together the
group made alters, wrote messages, imprinted their bodies,
pleasures and kisses onto the phantom walls of beloved queer
venues — Esta Noche (1979 – 2014), La India Bonita (late 70s –
1996), Amelia’s (1978 – 1991), The Lexington (1997- 2015), and
Osento (1979 – 2008). Strangers and friends sipped on spirits,
danced, made out, and posted counterfeit “Public Notices of
Application for Ownership Change” while 1990s footage of queer
Latinos and Lesbians in the former bars was projected onto walls.
Xandra Ibarra, The Hook Up/Displacement/Barhopping/Drama Tour,
2017, Live Community Performance — Former Queer Latino Bars and Lesbian Venues
34 35s with bombastic burlesque
Embrace your too-muchnes Turtle Island’s
ass babes of Virago Nation,
brought to you by the bad l guests
collective. Featuring specia
first all-indigenous burlesque ore or always wanted
Ly nx Ch ase ! Whether you’ve seen it bef
Fri July 17 | 7PM PST Monday Blu es and sexual rematriation
r cha nce to reli sh the many facets of indigenous
to, now’s you
living room.
from the comfort of your
Shane Sable performer bios
“Mover, Shaker, Mischief Maker; the Furiously Flirtatious Force of Nature”
2Spirit Gitxsan artist and activist Shane Sable has slayed stages all over Vancouver in front of and
behind the scenes since 2011. Shane has an abiding hunger for audience engagement and delights in
the tension created by breaking the 4th wall of burlesque. Shane is the convening member of Virago
Nation — Turtle Island’s first all-indigenous burlesque collective and Festival Administrator for the
Vancouver International Burlesque Festival.
Indigenous
Burlesque
RainbowGlitz is one of Virago’s Monday Blues is an Afro-Indigenous
Nations founding members and Vancouver’s burlesque artist, and has been performing
Rainbow Slut spreading her love medicine burlesque professionally since 2011. Monday
in a mix of classic, nerdlesque, exotic dance has traveled the globe as a solo female
and pussy cat doll hip hop movements. This adventurer and loves to live outside her
Haida, Squamish, Musqueam and black comfort zone. Her most recent endeavours
artist will leave you wanting to throw your include being an avid entrepreneur, both in
gold at the end of her rainbow. Sex Work and coaching capacities, as well as
Instagram: @jaibrend pursuing her passion on the burlesque stages
all over Canada and the US. Monday strives
Scarlet Delirium: Vancouver BC’s to exist without limits and wants to help
Raven Goddess! The Kwakiutl Indigi-Babe! others feel just as empowered.
Scarlet Delirium has been enjoying the Instagram: @missmondayblues
slow burn of Burlesque and Cabaret since
2010 and is a founding member of Virago Lynx Chase: A true showpony
Nation. During the daylight hours doubles at heart, Lynx Chase has always been
as Costume Designer for herself and her passionate about movement and performance
Burlesque family. arts. Over the years she has trained in a
Instagram: @scarlet_delirium variety of disciplines ranging from Aerial
Hoop, Silks, Contortion, Partner Acrobatics,
Sparkle Plenty is Vancouver’s Bellydance & Capoeira; however it wasn’t
glamedian, weirdlesquer, and word-maker- until she discovered Pole Dancing in 2012
upper who has been delivering beautifully that she found her true vocation. Lynx has
bizarre burlesque acts for over 10 years! been professionally teaching in Vancouver
This fiery goddess is Cree and Metis with since 2015 and has also showcased her
mixed heritage and is a proud sister of the gravity defying acts at various events and
first ever all Indigenous burlesque group, festivals across the province such as Retro
Virago Nation. You can find her teasing Strip Show, Bass Coast and Shambhala Music
and emceeing with the Screaming Chicken Festival. It is her hope to continue to share
Theatrical Society as well as on stages all her craft with the world by demonstrating
over Vancouver, Toronto, Las Vegas and more. the strength, sensuality, artistry and grace
Instagram: @sparkleplentys that goes hand in hand with the art of pole
and exotic dance.
Instagram: @aylaylay_
36 37Media Nights h VIVO
wit
RUPTURE PROBE
Queer Inquiries & Remediations
Sat Jul 18 | 7PM PST
Recent queer shorts rupture normative notions of gender, pleasure,
and activism. Employing remediation and experimental narrative
and forms, artists probe transgender and non-binary experience, new
erotic signifiers, and inventive strategies for dissent and celebration.
Framing Agnes (Chase Joynt, 2018, 19min)
Lesbian Hand Gestures (Coral Short, 2011, 3min)
Less Lethal Fetishes (Thirza Cuthand, 2019, 10min)
Slumberparty 2018 (Cait McKinny & Hazel Meyer, 2018, 24min)
Paisa (Dorian Wood, Graham Kolbeins, 2019, 9min)
38 39RETURN TO SODOM NORTH
Sun Jul 19 | 7PM PST
Vancouver Queer Video 1993-2000
At Video In and elsewhere in the ‘90s, a new
generation of queer artists were expanding
the west coast response to ongoing racialized
and gendered suppression of queer bodies,
expression,and desire. Experimental narrative,
appropriation, and remediation marked video
storytelling. Characteristics of abbreviation,
play, and provocation portend the queer
potential of new platforms and emergent
counterpublics that would define the new
millennium. The sum of this work speaks to the
desire for a more equitable future; one executed
with rigour, joy, and delicious wickedness.
*The title is derived from R.E.A.L. Women’s
attempt to ban the 1990 Gay Games, warning
B.C. would become Sodom North. The moniker
was quickly appropriated for the queer
publication, Sodomite Invasion, and Video In’s
screening, Sodom North Bash Back.
Boulevard of Broken Sync (Winston Xin, 1996, 3min)
Helpless Maiden Makes an I Statement (Thirza Cuthand, 1999, 6min)
Defiance (Maureen Bradley, 1993, 6:50min)
Surfer Dick (Wayne Yung, 1997, 3:20min)
Unmapping Desire (Sheila James, 1999, 6:42min)
Transmission (Ivan Coyote, 1998, 7min)
Water Into Fire (Zachery Longboy, 1994, 10min)
View (Shani Mootoo, 2000, 6min)
Search Engine (Wayne Yung, 1999, 4min)
40 41dings
PM PST | Literary Rea
Wed Jul 22 | 7 Danny
o f S t o r y t e l l in g
A Night Ramadan When
you’re in
A Night of Storytelling is back for its fifth
hosted by the much-beloved Danny Ram
year and once again Labrador
adan, this time around
as a new online experience. Spend a nigh
t in with the talented
LGBTQ2+ voices of the CanLit scene. Dann
y brings prominent
writers from the Queer and trans community
into your homes as
they explore their identities through the
medium of the written
word. A Night of Storytelling features read
ings from Billy Ray
Belcourt, Amber Dawn, jaye simpson, Jillia
n Christmas, and
Erin-Brooke Kirsh.
Curator Danny Ramadan is an award-
winning Syrian-Canadian author, public
speaker and LGBTQ-refugees activist.
His novel, The Clothesline Swing, won
multiple awards. His children’s book,
Salma the Syrian Chef, is out now.
Amber Dawn is a writer and creative facilitator living on unceded Coast Salish Territories
(Vancouver, Canada). She is the author of five books and the editor of three anthologies.
Billy-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation, and lives in Vancouver. He is an
Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing Program at UBC. His books are THIS WOUND IS A
WORLD, NDN COPING MECHANISMS, and A HISTORY OF MY BRIEF BODY.
Erin Kirsh is a writer and performer. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has appeared in
dozens of literary journals internationally. Her greatest accomplishment to date is that one time
she painted her nails without getting the polish all over the place.
jaye simpson is an Oji-Cree Saulteaux indigiqueer writer with roots in Sapotaweyak Cree
Nation. they often write about being queer in the Child Welfare system, as well as being queer and
Indigenous. their work has been featured in Poetry Is Dead, This Magazine, PRISM international,
SAD Mag, GUTS Magazine and Room. simpson resides on the unceded and ancestral territories
of the xwm 0kw y m (Musqueam), s lilw ta’ ɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish)
First Nations peoples, currently and colonially known as Vancouver, BC.
Jillian Christmas lives on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and
Musqueam people, where she served for six years as Artistic Director of Vers s Festival of Words.
An educator, organizer, and advocate in the arts community, utilizing an anti-oppressive lens,
Jillian has performed and facilitated workshops across the continent.
42 43Underground
Absolute
Fiction
Thu Jul 23 | 7PM PST
Speculative Theatre
“I wish
“I wishyou
yougreat
greatjourneys,
journeys, nightmares,
nightmares, andand
an an afterworld
afterworld...
...I wish you tears, a knife, and blood...
...I wish you tears, a knife, and blood...
That
That you
youshould
shouldsing
singand
andconspire.
conspire.
That
That God
Godshould
shouldwatch
watch over
overyou
you
and that you should not need
and that you should not need Him. Him.
That
That they
theyshould
shouldnotnothang
hangyou
you
before
before you’ve had timetotopack
you’ve had time packyour suitcase
your suitcase
my
my friend...”
friend...”
Above: House Concert in 1980s Poland — photo 1981 by JUKKA MALE Ma)
Facing page: Polish Punk Girl Polish — by Ania Dąbrowska-Lyons — part of Polski punk 1978-1982
44 45Excerpt from Underground Absolute Fiction (2020) It’s summer, and you’re standing in the centre of a low-income
by Anais West housing development. It’s a generation after your mother left,
#1 — Pamięć i fantazja (Memory and Fantasy) and time or capitalism has made everything palatable. She said
the apartments were brutal grey slabs. Now, after the fall of
Communism, they’re painted pastel pink. She said there was no
playground, only a single iron monkey-bar and a dry tuft of yellow
grass. Now, the EU money has paid for fresh wood-shavings, slides,
swings, and climbing contraptions, all in primary colours. You squint
at the schoolyard, where your mother and her classmates wore
Close your eyes. black, sung political anthems and defied their Communist teachers.
Now, kids giggle and swing tennis rackets.
It feels almost idyllic, and you think of the propaganda postcards —
posed, curated images of families suntanning outside the Falowiec,
filtered yellow. Outside the frame, tanks rolled by, the phones were
tapped, and your mom’s friend cried on the stairs in a torn dress.
There. You see it. The window on the top floor, in the corner. Your
grandfather’s apartment. He waited ten years for the government
to give it to him. He was rationed out this meagre square
home and a small garden plot by the dumpster, concealed by a
corrugated iron sheet.
Above: Polish Punks in the 1980s — by Ania Dąbrowska-Lyons — part of Polski punk 1978-1982
Facing page: Punks in 1980s Communist Hungary — photo by Tamás Urbán
47
46ROSE BUTCH
The Darling
s
AL BREAKF
AST uncensored
CONTINENT
Fri Jul 24 | 7PM PST
Drag Performance
https://www.instagram.com/rose.butch
What sacrifice is consumed by the tantalizing pursuit of gender
euphoria? Why do we crash endlessly as glittering waves on some
far away beach only to be rolled back into a Sisyphean sea, tempest-
tossed. Who prowls beyond the cold liquid crystal, that digital
shroud, to establish the confines and consequences of the wicked?
PM After two widely successful shows aptly titled “Quarantine I” and
st “Quarantine II”, the multidisciplinary non-binary drag performance
/contibreakfa
instagram.com collective, The Darlings, are back on stage direct to your living
https://www.
room, bedroom, kitchen, porch, rooftop, closet, or any other
dwelling of your choice, and this time the queer phantasmagoria
is uncensored and excessively indulgent.
The Darlings are a multidisciplinary non-binary drag performance
collective based in Vancouver. Their work challenges the
MAIDEN CHINA boundaries of conventional drag and explores genderqueer,
non-binary, and Trans experience through the use of movement,
poetry, performance art, theatre, and immersive installation.
https://www
.instagram.c
om/pmforago
odtime
Photos by
Maya Ritchey
with Queer Based Media
https://www.instagram.com/queenmaidenchina
48 49A Hiromi Goto and
Conversation Erica Isomura
On Queer explore the nuances
of intergenerational
Mentorship mentorship as queer
POC writers.
Sat Jul 25 |12PM PST
Lunch Discourse
Hiromi Goto (@hiromigotowrites), an
emigrant from Japan, gratefully resides on
the Unceded Musqueam, Skwxwú7mesh,
and Tsleil-Waututh Territories. She’s the
author of many books. Her first graphic
novel, Shadow Life, with artist Ann Xu, is
pending with First Second Books. Hiromi
is currently being guided by land-based
learning and at work on a second graphic novel.
Erica Isomura (@ericahiroko) is an
emerging writer and community
organizer living on unceded Musqueam,
Skwxwú7mesh and Tsleil-Waututh
homelands. In 2019, Erica’s work won
Briarpatch Magazine’s Writing In The
Margins contest, selected by Alicia
Elliott. She is coping with the pandemic
by drawing quarantine comics and
creating poetic installations in her
living room window.
A Queer Bird, Hiromi Goto
50 51This
Crazy
Show
dance legend Noam
In his Swan Song, contemporary
ween pain and pleasure in
Gagnon sashays the fine line bet
morous and beautifully
a fetishization of something gla
twisted: a monster beautified.
love, through revisiting the
A reflection on the quest for
l and imagined.
worlds of childhood, both rea
er
hammered or deformed und
How do we feel when we are How can we be
ugh to bre ak?
pressure, but not quite eno
ble and flex ible , def orm and reform without losing
ma llea
our core selves?
y becomes a place of
In ‘This Crazy Show,’ the bod
tion, and of transfiguration.
transformation, of transmuta non
te and humourous, Noam Gag
Alternately agitated, delica him self to his phy sical
s, pus hin g
choreographs and perform e
it to exp lore and exp ose “the art of artifice” in a cultur
lim is Cra zy Sho w’
henticity. ‘Th
obsessed with pretending aut
how pre car iou s and ambiguous identity can
explores just h
the body and the self as bot
be, through the evolution of bra ted .
, unfixed and boldly cele
Erica Isomura, 2020
are continuously morphing
52 “Because I dream, I’m not.” - L olo 53— Sun Jul 26 | 2P
M This Crazy Show
Sat Jul 25 | 7PM
Dance Performance
I wanted to take up the challenge of exploring
new avenues of creation by playing with the
range of humanly possible transformations,
transmutations, and transfigurations. ‘This Crazy
Show’ tackles the theme of the perpetual quest
for love by revisiting the worlds of childhood,
real and imagined, through the bionic woman as
superhero metaphor.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the McGrane-Pearson Endowment Fund.
Images courtesy of Eric Zimmerman.
54 55Message from the Board President PATRONS
A heartfelt thank you to all of our faithful donors! You help
Thank you for joining QAF 2020, To our Board of Directors, we give QAF incite, inspire and bring diverse communities together
we are all looking forward to an special thanks: Bobbi Kozinuk, through the visceral power of art.
excellent and extremely-modified Valérie d. Walker, Orene Askew,
WICKED, the 12th Annual Queer Arts Ladan Sahraei, Rodney Sharman, Addon Creative Kathryn Cernauskas Peter Cheng
Festival, coming to you wherever Bruce Munro Wright, Scott Watson. Andrea Joy Rideout Kathy Atkins Phil D Collins
you are — from a safe-ish distance. This year we heartily welcome new Barb Snelgrove Kelly Tweten Rachel Iwaasa
Directors Scott Watson, Issaku blye frank Kirsten Anderson Randy Gledhill
A huge thank you to our staff, Inami, and Rodney Sharman. Brian Buchanan Lance Chang Ray Macdonald
who are hard at work from home Brian Jones Lau Mehes Regina Salomon
to make WICKED happen during a To our artists: your work is a Bruce Munro Wright Leslie Uyeda Robert Gair
pandemic! Our incredible returning gift during these times. Art keeps Chris Thorne Liz Tajcnar Rodney Sharman
staff have pivoted with poise: us connected in the age of social Christina Acton Louise Hager Ron Regan
SD Holman as Artistic Director, distancing. We are so grateful D’Anne Howes Lynn Ruscheinsky Ronald W Thiessen
Lalia Fraser as Interim General to every artist at this year’s David Bloom Marnie Carter Roy Surette
Manager, Mark Carter as Production festival who was able to adapt David Metzer Martin Tugdual & Sandy Forbes
Manager, Ben Siegl as Programs and revise their work for this David Ng Frederic L’Anton Scott Elliott
Coordinator, Mirim Jang as Office new audience experience. Denis Walz Mary Brookes Scott Watson
Administrator, and Maxim Greer Dennis Salonoy Mavreen David SD Holman
as Arts Administrative Assistant. With everything going on, we Dipankar Sen McGrane-Pearson Sean Bickerton
We also welcome new staff, some thank you now more than ever for Donald Allan Stuart Endowment Fund Sean Lowe
of whom onboarded from home, joining us. Welcome all to the Queer Emanation Consulting Michelle Wilson Sylvia Machat
jumping into the deep end just Arts Family! We look forward to Esther Shannon Myer Leach & Gio Bisanti Vikki Reynolds
weeks ago: Shane Sable as Two- continuing to build the team, and to Gail Nugent Nada Vuksic William Lubell
Spirit Programs Coordinator / serving the Queer community as a Glenn Stensrud Natasha Sawyer Zam Karim
Art Auntie, Luca Cara Seccafien whole, in 2020 and beyond! Helen Leung Nicole Celli
as Director of Development, Tanya Hildegard Westerkamp
Commisso as Communications In solidarity and liberation, ileana pietrobruno
Coordinator, Ed Walwail as Digital Ina Dennekamp
Inger Iwaasa
Media Coordinator, Johnny Trinh as Thierry Gudel, Islai Rathlin Please support queer artists with a donation.
Volunteer Resource Coordinator, and
President, James Goodman & Pride in Art Society is a registered charity,
Kimberly Ho as Audience Services
Pride in Art Society Garry Wolfater and every donation of $20 or more receives
Coordinator, as well as our many
James Oulton a charitable tax receipt.
wonderful volunteers!
James Wright
Jeff Grayston Mail a cheque to:
Jessie Gresley-Jones Pride in Art
Jocelyn Morlock
268 Keefer St., Suite #425
Jonny Sopotiuk
Vancouver, BC V6A 1X5
Kathleen Speakman &
Leslie Uyeda Or go to bit.ly/PiADonate
56
56 57STAFF HUGE THANKS
SD Holman Artistic Director TO ALL OUR VOLUNTEERS!
Lalia Fraser Interim General Manager
Luca Cara Seccafien Director of Development
Shane Sable 2Spirit Programming Coordinator & Art Auntie We couldn’t do it without you! Not all
Ben Siegl Programs Coordinator volunteer names were available at time
Maxim Greer Arts Administrative Assistant of printing, but they include:
Mirim Jang Office Administrator
Alex Masse Naov Reimer
Ed Walwail Digital Media Coordinator Alexandra Alexandra Nathan McNamee
Tanya Commisso Communications Coordinator Alexandra Jiang Noreen Valenzuela
Kimberly Ho Audience Services Coordinator Amber Gauley-Alcorn Robert Azevedo
Johnny Trinh Volunteer Resource Coordinator Becky Wilkinson Ronald Arjadi
Afuwa Granger Financial Officer Bon Fabian Sarah Foster
Bruce Passmore Sean K
Miyra Olney Bookkeeper Cat Rey Shayla Perreault
Mark Carter Production Manager Chris Shimek Shiraz Ramji
Graeme Boyd Promotions Dennis Baher Sian Venables
Odette Hidalgo Graphic Design BOARD OF DIRECTORS Evens Zhang Sidi Chen
Barb Snelgrove Media Relations Thierry Gudel, President Freddie Kim Simon Tam
Bruce Munro Wright, Gerald Joe Steven Hall
Vice-President Gillian Chandler Sunny Park
Bobbi Kozinuk, Treasurer Jean-Philipe Wilmshurst Sydney Thorne
Jeff Wilson Terry Horner
Valerie D. Walker, Secretary
Jessi Taylor Yi Chen
Orene Askew Jo Oosterhuis
Issaku Inami Johanna Clark
Ladan Sahraei Josephine Karugu
Rodney Sharman Kate Braun
Kathy Atkins
Scott Watson
Kelly Tweten
Mac Walsh
ADVISORY BOARD Megan Low
CONTACT Glenn Alteen
Mikayla Fawcett
Queer Arts Festival,
Rob Gloor
presented by Pride in Art
#425 - 268 Keefer Street Karen Knights
Vancouver BC V6A 1X5 David Pay
Bernard Sauv
queerartsfestival.com Coral Short
info@queerartsfestival.com Paul Wong
58 59We would like to thank all of our funders,
A VERY SPECIAL partners, and sponsors that have helped make
THANKS TO: the festival a success.
Bruce Munro Wright Orene Askew
Chief Byron Longclaws Paul Wong and On Main Gallery
Dakota Shelby Ron Regan
grunt gallery Roundhouse Arts Centre
Heather Redfern Sammy Chien
100 Gay Men for a Cause Sempulyan We acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia
Inger Iwaasa Sookie Crewe
James Goodman and Garry Wolfater Trigger Segal
Karen Knights and VIVO Tyler Alan Jacobs
Ken Gracie and Phillip Waddell ...and Tilda Berry Moo Braveheart Swinton,
Margo Kane Wonderdog of Little Dog Nation
..Pretty isn’t beautiful, Mother
Pretty is what changes
What the eye arranges
Is what is beautiful
Fading
I’m changing
You’re changing
It keeps fading...
I’ll draw us now before we fade
Copyright 2020 Pride in Art Society.
Mother... All rights reserved.
In memory of
You watch Inger Iwaasa Artists retain copyright of their work.
While I revise the world April 25 1930 - June 12 2020
Changing, We are very sad to report the death
As we sit here- of the mother of co-founder Rachel
Quick, draw it all... Iwaasa, Inger Iwaasa: star volunteer,
donor and patron of Pride in Art. Queer Arts Festival @QAFVancouver @QueerArts | #QAF2020
From Beautiful, Sondheim Inger, you are sorely missed!
60The Queer Arts Festival (QAF) is
an annual artist-run professional
Transdisciplinary art festival in
Vancouver, BC. Recognized as one of
the top 3 festivals of its kind worldwide.
QAF produces, presents and exhibits
with a curatorial vision favouring
challenging, thought-provoking work
that pushes boundaries and initiates
dialogue. Each year, the festival theme ties
together a curated visual art exhibition,
performing art series, workshops, artist
talks, panels, and media art screenings.
QAF’s programming has garnered wide
2020 acclaim as “concise, brilliant and moving”
(Georgia Straight), “easily one of the best
exhibitions of the year” (Vancouver Sun),
“some of the most adventurous of any
local arts festival” (The Province) and
“on the forefront of aesthetic and
cultural dialogue today” (Xtra)
The Pride in Art Society (PiA), produces The Queer
Arts Festival (QAF) and SUM Gallery, that tap into the
visceral power of art to build a better world. We bring
our diverse communities together in the intimate act of
sharing as artists and audiences, to dispel hatred through
the visibility, recognition and celebration of lives that
transgress sexual and gender norms.
Photo: Sean Alistair
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