26 Artists & Creators: Reymond Shea Lise, Liam Curran, Raastiin, Avi Goodman, Elijah Harrison, Jay Jeong, Vivian Zhang, Ren Vitug, Alexis Nanibush-Pamajewong, Nima Parniani, Omar T. Zayed, Pauline Jondy, Yetong Qi, Kai Lumbang, Alice Wong, Unity Chiu, Mars/Margot Brighton, Leon Kim, Olivia DU, YiZ, Minseo Kim, Hannah Kryworuchko, Juni Magdalene, Nadia Da Silva, Joe Woolfe, and Anastasia Hryciuk.
A collection of 26 creators works by artists, creators, digital media makers, and designers tackling the criticality within the LGBTQ2S+ Communities. These sets of works came out of the Making Gender: LGBTQ2S+ Course at OCAD University, Fall 2022.
Tackling issues of gender representations, relationships, beliefs, and cultural stands that informs the ongoing conversation in Queer and Gender Theory, coming from different backgrounds, experiences, and criticality. Outside the Box Collective are proud in support of QUEERIOUS: The Politics of Gender Identity.
This catalogue of works echo’s the uncompromising Queerious narratives beyond the politics of gender identity. Covering a multi-disciplinary body of works that challenges the homonormative and homonationalist state of passive compliance to make way to gender fluidity, culture, beliefs, rituals, kinships, languages, and lived experiences outside the normative state of being, creating cathartic expressions of diverse individuals and materials through adversity. This online show explores the four chapters: "Queerious Gender Play", "Queerious Cultural Kinships", "Queerious Childhoods & Be-longings", and "Queerious Rituals". As one of my teaching philosophy I encourage creators who are more comfortable in writing in ones own language to do so followed by the colonial English translations. This was a way for me to celebrate, respects and create accessible inclusive presentations of other cultures and be more equitable and attain a decolonial process of pedagogies without the act of erasure and assimilation that perpetuates colonial narratives.
The purpose of this show is to create a space of dialogue for under-represented narratives excavated within the complexities in the queer communities that informs and reclaim a place of cultural and global awareness in the possibilities of Queer Futurities, beyond the dawn horizon where the sun touches visibility and clarity.
Curated by Julius Poncelet Manapul (they/them/ze)
In support with the Outside The Box Collective: Julius Poncelet Manapul & Neda Omidvar.
"We at Outside the Box Collective are pleased to present our inaugural online exhibition, highlighting the works of 26 emerging artists and creators with their personal narratives. What struck me the most was how the artists and creators were invited and encouraged to write in their own language, thus highlighting the individuality of each creator. We encourage you to take your time going through this exhibition, as each maker adds their own unique touch" - Neda Omidvar
Welcome to "QUEERIOUS: The Politics of Gender Identity" ONLINE SHOW FOR 2023!
Image by Reymond Shea Lise (he/they)
Queerious Gender Play
These sets of work tackles a critical look at how gender plays in many lived Queer bodies. By re-articulating new understandings and representations of the claustrophobic ideologies of gender that bounds society’s perspectives of how sexuality and performance amalgamates within societal norms of oppressive state. It dares to show complexities of how queer futurities takes agency of their own bodies.
Trigger warning: brief discussions of internalized toxic masculinity, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism.
Full Text of the Spoken Word Performance
RAPHAEL
by Reymond Shea Lise (he/they)
Medium: Self, Makeup, Video, Spoken Word, Performance, Photography, Performance | Size: 18 cm x 29 cm | Video Duration: 3:09 minutes
I created a video performance piece using myself as a subject matter and medium. I wanted to explore the expectations placed upon transgender people to adhere to the gender binary and the strain that puts it puts us under. I did this by painting myself in drag, an art form with a rich queer history of pushing boundaries of gender expectation and expression, to consolidate my own alienation from my queerness. As a binary trans person there is pressure to ‘pick a struggle’ in terms of my identity, often sacrificing my queerness for the sake of my transness. I’ve always found myself drawn to makeup but it's an interest I have kept buried since transitioning as those around me viewed it as inherently contradictory to my gender identity. Using this medium to push against patriarchal gender expectations and express trans joy is a personal act of reclamation. I wanted to dress in drag because I crave queer expression free from the gender-anxious prisons of fear and self-scrutiny that have been instilled within me through the rigorous application of the bioessentialist binary. I want to inspire others to explore their own gender variance beyond the simple limiting false dichotomy of man and woman.
Venus as a (T) Boy
by Avi Goodman (him/they)
Medium: Collage, Digital Drawing, Painting | Size: Depending on the scale of the Projection
This work revolves around expressing femininity and sexuality through trans masculinity and transition. The title of my final piece is a play on the song Venus as a Boy by Björk, a song about seeing the world through a lens of beauty and sensuality. The image of Venus, the goddess of love and temptation, was the starting point to play with through the gendered prescribed classical lens. As trans we are always either an object of disgust (at our bodies, and how they change on testosterone (i.e. body hair, acne)) or fetishization (usually from cisgender men). Using my own drag character, I wanted to blend this sort of monstrous character that transphobes make us out to be with this vision of great beauty, using animalistic features such as yellow eyes and long sharp claws. I wanted to show a very specific kind of transmasculine desirability which comes after gaining confidence during transition, and rekindling or reclaiming one’s relationship with femininity in a new way. The Venus emerges from a shell constructed from my testosterone needles, and manipulate it into the shape of the shell, showing the literal rebirth of transition. I collaged a drag image of myself digitally manipulated into the image. Additional images of paint and modelling paste textures make up the body, as well as other elements.
Historically, trans men and transmasculine people have been underrepresented in the media, much less in the drag world. This also interweaves questions of cis homonormativity into my project. In looking for images for my vision board, this came up in how few documentation there is of transmasculine drag. The search terms related to transmasculinity and nonbinary on Pinterest yields only images of thin, white, conventionally attractive, cispassing (trans people who pass as cisgender) young trans men and nonbinary people who follow traditional conventions of masculinity. There is still a misconception that nonbinary people have to naturally be perfectly androgynous, which raises the question of what androgyny, and even masculinity and femininity should even look like. There is a whole subsection of people in this community that are completely invisible. This work is to answer and re-translate that need for representation.
The Dolls
by Liam Curran
Medium: Digital Drawings, Printed Cutouts on Hard Stock Paper | Size: 8.5" x 11" inches
A series of four paper doll characters that exemplify queer fashion and identity, using a traditional medium to flip the gender binary and performance on its head. The dolls stand within an 8.5” by 11” sheet of paper. By including trans bodies and stories into the Archetypal narratives of gender performance of dolls. My main sources and influences were form this year’s fashion weeks around the world, using real life styles to influence the signifiers for queer identities. Fashion has become increasingly queered in recent years so I wanted ot play with this idea and push it a step further. Cutting out the digital dolls and fashions manually allows for the viewer to manipulate the medium, and interchange the outfits and clothes as they see fit. Using the nomadic quality of dolls, it allows for expression while also holding onto a fact of queer protection, with paper being malleable and easily concealed. My goal is to represent all bodies and identities and styles in a medium that is easily accessed and easily transported, while also being something people can hide for protection if needed. For this piece, I want to create four distinct dolls or characters, using current fashion trends and brands to combine hard and soft elements to show the way queer fashion and this idea of both armoury and signifier have evolved. I also chose to use a digital medium as i thought it better represented an almost Warholian ideal of mass production, similar to that of the fashion industry, in the context of queerness.
The opus of this work is the idea of possibility - possibility of fashion as protection and also as an identifier, but more so the possibility of queer bodies and futures. Queer people use clothing as both an around and an ethnographic signifier, to protect themselves from unfriendly eyes, while showing those like them that they are here. Fashion has always been queer, but in the most modern contexts, most people now prescribe to a “queered” aesthetic, making the lines and signifiers harder for queer people to distinguish. Hopefully soon this sort of representation will be obsolete, we’ll have reached a point where the emphasis doesn’t need to be on representation, but on the normalcy of human existence in all forms. But for now I want to uplift and push forward the narratives of the under-represented.
Ecdysis from Gender
by Jay Jeong (they/them)
Medium: Digital Collage | Size: 22" x 22" inches | Video Duration: 22 seconds
"Ecdysis from Gender" is digital collage work with four portraits. The vibrating image was ultimately deconstructing the concept of gender and illustrating the new gender-less figures. Even for genderqueer people, I found that I have internalized stereotypical mindset that made me keep thinking of the appearance that people recognize in other's gender, rather than 'without gender' or hybrid of gender to the point of blurring them into fleeting semiotics of objects with coded genders. I believed that only in powerful and unfamiliar visualization, destructing the idea of sorting humans based on gender can be possible. Judith Butler described drag as 'a kind of imitation for which there is no original'. In these sequence playing drag by imitating non-human forms; representing neither female nor male, or mixing symbols of binary genders in its own critique. I chose digital collage to include photographs of objects which transfigures the forms of humans and other imaginary creatures. Appropriated photographs consider how society acknowledges or reminds certain atmospheres and genders. Some of my collections are profane or irreverent things to be a part of a face as collage or represented for identity, — such as insects or trash or weapon — they show radical resistance against which factor determines one’s gender by their look. Feminine elements like a wedding dress and ribbons, and some masculine elements like a mustache and tuxedo are dispersed and re-arranged. With the intended chaotic collaboration of feminine and masculine, cute, gross, beautiful and violent things, it confuses the fixed thinking on gender. Decorative patterns suggest their gender for the queer icons in as backdrops to remove it from its own meaning by representing them as pure decorative aesthetics. This work asks us if we could deliver a catharsis escape from gender views and furthermore, propose an expanded concept of drag play and gender play to collapse the argument on preference in the hyper-feminine look of current drag culture.
شست بابا خبردار شد
Baba figured it out
by Raaastiin (they/them) او
Medium: Photography, Performance, Sculpture | Size: Stamp 1.5" x 2.7" Inches each, Photographs 4" x 6" inches | Video Duration: 3:11 minutes uncut version, 2:57 minutes cut version
شست بابا خبردار شد
در کشور من انقلابی است که رهبر آن زنانند. دختر های نوجوان که برای آزادیشان جان میدهند. این پروژه برای دوستان کوییر من در ایران است. ما نمیخواهیم فقط عدد باشیم درون تماممان دنیایست که جست و جو میکنیم برای .این که دنیا خدایمان است و اکتشاف نمازمان
راستین یک شخسیت درگ اهل ایران است. نام او از نام برادر خیالی من آمده که پدرم داستان هایش را برایم .تعریف میکرد
در شست بابا خبر دار شد من گذشته ام و عمق هویت ایرانی-کوییرم را جست و جو کردم.دولت ایران آدم های .مثل من را از تاریخ پاک کرده. من هم مثل شاهان عکسم را روی تمبر چاپ کردم که افتخارم را به هویتم نشان دهم
تکه تکه از وسایل استفاده شده در این پروژه تکه هایی از من هستند. کسی که در ایران بزرگ شده و از ایران ترد شده. سبک سفر نمیکنم، کل خانوادهام را در چمدان جا دادم و با خودم به کانادا آوردم. این وسایل کم کم بوی خانه را از دست دادهاند و من به زبان انگلیسی خواب میبینم. دفتر تمبر بابا بزرگ را نیاوردم که مبادا تو مرز ایران ازم بگیرنش. مربای آلبالو مامانی هم تو یخچال جا موند. گوشواره های مریم جون رو هم متأسفانه تو استخر گم کردم. خیلی دوست دارم بدونم پسردایی نوزادم چه بویی میده یا این که نامزد خاله مرد خوبیه یا نه. دوستم گفت اگه تو خیابون نکشتنش میاد پیشم. پرپر من هنوز عروسک انگشتی که از بچه ی مردم دزدیدی رو دارم. وانی خرسی که تولدم بهم دادی رو تو تخت شبا بغل میکنم.
Currently, in December 2022 there is a female-led revolution happening in my country, Iran. Young girls are sacrificing their lives for freedom. This project is for all the Iranian queer bodies. “We do not want to be numbers, inside all of us there is a world that we explore because the universe is our god and exploring is our prayer”.
Raaastiin is a drag royalty from Iran. Their name comes from my imaginary brother who my dad would tell me stories of. In Shaste baba khabar dar shod I explored my past and the depth of my Queer-Iranian identity. The government of Iran has deleted queer bodies from our history. There is a sense of pride that comes with posing like a king and having my pictures printed on stamps as if I am Persian royalty. All the things that I have used in this work are parts of my being. A person who was born and raised in Iran and then outcasted by Iran. I do not travel light; I have my whole family in my luggage, and I brought them to Canada with me. The things I brought are losing their scent and I am dreaming in English. I could not bring my grandpa’s Stamp collection because I was scared, they would take it away from me at the border of Iran. I missed my grandma’s homemade black cherry jam in the fridge. Unfortunately, I lost Maryam joon’s earrings at the pool. I do not know how my baby cousin smells like or if I like aunt’s fiancé. My friend told me she will come here if they don’t kill her in the streets. Parpar I still have the Ikea finger puppet that you stole from a baby. Wifey I still have the stuffed bear (not a teddy bear) that you gave me on my birthday, and I hold it to sleep at nights.
我身非我魂，生而为人罢了
Severed Body Severed Mind: Merely Human
by Vivian Zhang (they/them)
Medium: Acrylic Paint, Clay, Glass, Wood, Paper, Glue, Cardboard, Tape | Size: 12" x 16" x 7" inches | Video Duration: 1:41 minutes
我身非我魂，生而为人罢了
我想要用这个作品表达我以女性的身份出生并被抚养长大，这些年来经历的性别认知障碍和不适。我制作了这个分为两部分的立体雕塑作品，用光和影子来描绘我寻找自己时内心的挣扎。这部作品围绕着性少数群体的身体和思想的分离， 主要表达了作为非二元性别和跨性别者的个人体验。
在最开始我的计划是使用很多颜色来让我的雕塑吸引眼球，但是在经过一些讨论之后，我发现我的雕塑作品已经有很多部件和细节，如果再用五彩的上色可能会变得眼花缭乱。最后我决定让整个作品色调以白色为主，只在木制画板上使用一些灰色。我还发现计划中制作的白色中国字剪纸加上强光会在木画板上投射清晰的影子，这个发现立刻给了我灵感，所以在最终的作品里利用了这个特点。单调的黑白灰色调让我能花更多的时间在制作粘土雕塑上，毕竟雕塑本身蕴含的故事比颜色要多很多。这个作品对光和影的灵活利用是我个人认为最有趣的一个改良， 因为它很成功地象征着所有我被长辈灌输的关于性别的偏见和误解。这些无意识的思想深深扎根在我脑中，如果不去挖掘的话根本无法发现，就像是必须要被强光照射才能显现的影子一般。
我觉得这个主题和故事对性少数群体很重要，因为还有很多人需要一些来自群体内的帮助来找到自己，尤其是需要能共鸣的人存在。我出生在中国，也在中国长大，这么多年来我从来没有亲眼见过一个活生生的性少数群体成员。我在仅仅几个月前才第一次听说“非二元性别”这个词，而这个发现最终让我领悟到自己是非二元性别。我制作这个作品最大的一个原因就是因为，能够让中国人产生共鸣的性少数主题事物太少了。我想让人们知道我们存在，我想让任何正在探索和发掘自己性向和性别认知的中国人知道：你们不是孤独的，你们不是一个人。我希望所有人能直视自己的真正模样，能找到最真实的自己。如果这部作品帮助了任何一个人看清自己的性别身份，那我的故事就没有被枉费。
In this work, I show my own struggles with being assigned female at birth and having to live through my life to this point, experiencing great discomfort in my body and feeling disconnected with my presenting gender. I chose to create a two-piece sculpture that plays with light and shadow, to represent the inner hardships that I went through trying to find myself. I re-frame my project with the dissociation between the physical body and the queer human mind, specifically the experience of being non-binary and transgender.
Rather than a full range of colours, that echos the LGBTQ2S communities, I realized the power of the absence and erasure of colours. With many different materials and small pieces, having too many colours might also end up being distracting and echoing a cliche of the queer rainbow flag. Everything white, and sparing of the use of gray emphasize the shadows that plays a part in the work. Paper cutouts of Chinese words on the glass panel create revealing shadows, depending on the play on light as they move through the white space in and out. The monochrome colour scheme allowed me to focus on the sculptural aspects, which plays an important part in my storytelling; the idea of using light and shadow conveyed the invisible stereotypes and misconceptions of gender that I was taught, rooted in my learned conceptions so deeply, which then only appear when I have dug into my identity, just like how bright light can cast shadows.
This concept and narrative is significant to the LGBTQIA+ community because there are always people who need these sense of kinship, especially with the lack of representations within queer female Asian bodies. I lived in China ever since I was born, but I have never seen a real-life queer person in my country. I learned the word “non-binary” only a few months ago, which led to me discovering that I am non-binary. Thus one of the most important reason that I chose to make this project in creating a platform for Chinese queer representation. I want people to know that we exist, I want anyone who is Chinese and questioning their sexuality or gender identity to know that there are people like them, they are not alone. I want people to see themselves as who they really are, if this work reaches anyone and helps them identify their real self, then I will be forever content.
COS-FUSION
by Ren Vitug (them/they)
Medium: Digital Performance, Digital Work, Self-Photography, Photo Series, Cards | Size: Cards 3" x 4.5" inches, Digital Work 8.5" x 11" inches
@fairysuns on Instagram
Cos-Fusion is a mixed media project that reflects my personal journey with gender identity and expression as a cosplayer. This is a series of a graphic reflection of what exploration of gender through cosplay felt like to me by utilizing different photographs of myself in different costumes that varied greatly from one another yet sparked the same sense of gender euphoria. The work I’ve created shows how I am merely a collection of the interests I’ve gathered over the years, and how they’ve helped me in self-discovery. Cos-Fusion reflects on how many others have found safety in cosplaying and how the art of cosplay has become a way for many people to play with and experiment comfortably and openly with gender expression and/or identity.
The concept of the card game evokes not only the act of playing trading cards but also the act of cosplay and how gender plays a part into its performative aspect. By focusing more on the accessibility of the internet and applications that help those who are interested in the hobby to get started with cosplay. It is due to this accessibility that I was able to really put my foot in the door of cosplay and eventually grow as a creator both professionally and personally. Through small details through the editing being completely done via mobile phone applications, such themes are reflected. The structure and presentation of the work itself is also meant to be reflective of that of playing cards as it shows that cosplayers are playing with gender identity and expression with their costumes. The overall design of the cards are inspired by filtering applications that cosplayers often use to enhance their photos and emphasize just how much can change with the application of editing, makeup, wigs, and costumes. Each card is meant to play on the idea of what masculinity and femininity or even androgyny can be perceived as, and how in cosplay stereotypical binaries are thrown to the wind.
Exposure Feeder Theatre
by Elijah Harrison (they/them)
Medium: Cardboard, Paper, Velcro, Tape, Electric Tealight, Gesso Installation | Size: 12" x 10" x 13" inches | Video Duration: 2:45 minutes
Exposure Feeder Theatre is a paper and cardboard construction that examines representation of non-binary people in the media as non-human entities, and how these representations can be sources of both dehumanization and relatability. While these queer characters in other worlds open up futures and empowerment for freedom of expression, there is also an “othering” of queer bodies, which are real and deserve representation as humans able to exist in our present world. The theatre itself is held together with velcro as a way of relating it to costuming, masks, and the idea of an architectural body.
By looking in from the front, the viewer can see inhuman silhouettes, in the colours of the non-binary flag, in front of a stage. They make up an audience, and are made from cut out collages of my own self-portrait photos and a mask I made from various craft materials. From the back of the theatre, the viewer can look into a backstage and attic area where paper scraps, sketches from the process, and photos of myself without the mask are loosely piled, exposing the creatures from the front as human figures in costume.
The theatre plays with conceptions of masking and exposure, light and shadow, and the differing perspectives gender non-conforming individuals are viewed through, particularly in the spotlight of the media. Representations of imagined worlds can be safe spaces of exploration made by and for the community. An architectural body or costume represents a fantasy space for alternative ways of being, and an escape from binaries. Exposure Feeder Theatre is both my own personal exploration of gender expression and a critique of the dehumanizing effects of mass media.
Image by Alexis Nanibush-Pamajewong (she/they)
Queerious Cultural Kinships
These sets of work reflect on how culture plays a part in many queer communities outside the normative representations of LGBTQ2S+ communities within Western ideologies that tackles the politics of gender and how it is represented. Many IBPOC Queer communities tackle not only their sense of ancestral lands of kinship but also a sense of their own diasporic transcultural experiences.
ogichidaakwe (her brave heart)
by Alexis Nanibush-Pamajewong (she/they)
Medium: Installation, Paper, Ink, Found Wood, Found Rocks, Nylon String, Artificial Sinew, Moose Hide, Seed Beads, Bubblewrap, Chicken Wire, Rocks, Light | Size: Life Size Installation Depending on Space | Video Duration: 2:59 minutes
ogichidaakwe (her brave heart), 2022 is an installation that explores themes of the psychological— childhood trauma, tendencies, and sexual and cultural identity. ogichidaakwe means her brave heart in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibway) and ogichidaakwe(g)(plural) translates to warrior woman. One of the many terms used to describe Two-Spirit folks.
I need to protect her. Give space.
She needs boundaries. Only she can know.
If you cross the line, the ogichidaakwe(g) will fire into a fury.
Give space, protect her, leave her be.
She is healing. She is strong. Her heart.
She is not hiding. She is remembering. Everything that you once said.
Everything you made her feel.
Listen.
They are healing. Their hearts.
Ogichidaakweg is an installation that explores themes of psychological — childhood trauma, tendencies, and sexual and cultural identity. The framework of the installation is based on acknowledging the Two-Spirit identity and my coming to with this term. The concept is driven by my experiences as an Indigenous girl that conceded my bisexuality due to the invalidation that surfaced from my family. To acknowledge her presence and absence of her. As a reminder that she still exists inside of me and that I am (un)consciously trying to protect her, heal her, and our heart.
The mediums and methods acknowledge my conscious and spiritual efforts toward the act of care and labour of love. Braiding 18 ft of nylon string together is an act of care. Beading the picot edge stitch on the moose hide is an act of care. Folding the paper for the inkblot (Rorschach) tests is an act of care. Beading the bubble wrap is an act of gentle care. Composing the chicken wire to shape and curating the bubble wrap is an act of care. Acts of care and labour of love becoming a part of the journey of healing– my childhood, identity, trauma, and my relationship with my mother.
ادخل
Aidkhul (come in)
by Omar T. Zayed
تعال ، تسعى لاستكشاف دینامیات الھویة الكویریة / الإسلامیة في سیاق ثقافة الكویر
المعاصرة. تؤدي ممارسة الدخول أو السماح إلى تفكیك ُمثُل الھویة والتمكین التي تھیمن على روح العصر الكویر. غالبًا ما یتم تحقیق الوكالة والتمكین الذاتي من خلال الفلاتر المصممة بعنایة والمرادفة للتجربة الشاذة المتقاطعة. قدمت سلسلة الصور نظرة خاطفة داخل المناطق الآمنة ، أو "الحجرات" ، للمسلمین المثلیین والعرب وغیرھم من الأشخاص المتقاطعین. یحد استخدام الأفلام السلبیة من المعلومات المرئیة التي یمكن للمشاھد الوصول إلیھا. یتم عرض الصور على الحائط وعرضھا أعلى صندوق ضوئي ؛ یتطلب التثبیت من المشاھدین الاقتراب من العمل من أجل رؤیتھ بوضوح. التأكید بشكل أكبر على موضوعات الخصوصیة والألفة ، كل ذلك من خلال الحاجة المادیة إلى "الدخول" إلى العمل. یحمي الافتقار إلى المعلومات المرئیةھویةالموضوع،ولكنھیعملأیًضاعلىتحديالفكرةالغربیةعنالشذوذ،وفينھایة المطاف تحدي النظرة الغربیة نفسھا. على الرغم من عدم إمكانیة تحدیدھم ، یمكن رؤیة
الأشخاص وھم یغنون ویرقصون ویشربون ویستمتعون بغرابةھم وفقًا لشروطھم الخاصة.
Aidkul, seeks to explore dynamics of queer/muslim identity within the context contemporary queer culture. The practice of coming in or letting in deconstructs the ideals of identity, and empowerment that dominate the queer zeitgeist. Agency and self-empowment are often times achieved through carefully constructed filters that are synonymous with intersectional queer experience. The photo series presented peeks inside the safe zones , or “closets”, of queer muslim, Arab, and other intersectional folks. The use of film negatives limit the visual information that the viewer has access to. The images are both projected onto the wall and displayed on top of a light box; requiring viewers to get close to the work in order to clearly see it. Further emphasizing themes of privacy, and intimacy, all through the physical need to “come in '' to the work. The lack of visual information both protects the identity of the subject but also works to challenge the Western idea of queerness, and ultimately challenge the Western gaze itself. Though unidentifiable, the subjects can be seen, singing, dancing, drinking, and enjoying their queerness on their own terms.
Reframing Middle Eastern Queer Culture
by Pauline Jondy
Medium: Paper Zine, Ink, Graphite, Digital Prints | Size 8.3" x 11.7" inches
Reframing Middle Eastern Queer Culture is about exploring the history of queer middle eastern theories and how they are misrepresented in western media. I created this zine in response to a comment from one of my older cousins that said, “There aren't any gay Arabs.” Based on personal experiences, there are various stereotypes and misconceptions regarding the middle east in general. Despite what is depicted in western media, the middle east offers much more, including a rich cultural history. I am Arab myself, however, growing up as a second-generation immigrant I felt disconnected from my cultural identity. I don't remember my parents ever teaching me Arabic; perhaps they thought I would figure it out on my own. Furthermore, I realized that I had little knowledge of the history of queer Arabs in the Middle East, despite being queer myself. Because of this inadequate feeling, I have become interested in learning more about the history of LGBTQ+ activism in the middle east. Overall, the purpose of this zine was also to encourage not only myself but others to learn more about the history of queer individuals from the Middle East.
I learned a lot about middle eastern queer history by using a medium that is so free and open for research. Each page explores a different topic about middle eastern queer history. Compiling text from Female Homosexuality in the Middle East by Samir Habib and Harem Girls and Terrorist Men by Afnan Qutub as well as articles based on the advocacy for human rights in the middle east, Photos from different pride parades to show the improvement, current day pop culture, and LGBTQ+ organizations.
爱看
Beneath the Fantasy: Tanbi! Yuri! (Love to See!)
by Yetong Qi (she/her)
As early as the 1930s, fictional works based on the practice of real-life homosexual romance began to flourish in Asia. For its romantic elements and pure emotions that "not involving breeding purposes," this subject matter was honored at the time as "the most touching and innocent love with no desires," namely "Tanbi" (which stand for the intimacy between males) and "Yuri "(which stand for intimacy between females), these themes were gradually applied to various media for example novel, manga, video games and so on. Through its development, this subculture is widely admired among modern youth for a variety of reasons and has even become a commercial attraction, offering idealized, fantastical imagery to an inquisitive or sensory- seeking audience.
However, I believe that the glorification of the homosexual community in the “Tanbi” and “Yuri” themes may seem to bring attention to them, but creates a certain psychological discrepancy and separates the fictional theories from their actual identities. for example, some outsiders are enthusiastic about the idealized concept and dramatic performance of fictional homosexual love, but they are hesitant to accept the real queer community that is outside the commercialization, rather than playfully consuming them.
The project included two cut-out collages, each of which consists of a triple-layer construction formed by nine small pieces. the bottom layers are patterns composed of the flowers of lily and Iris——they are the two kinds of flower stands for Tanbi and Yuri themes, which symbolize the fictional world in this project. The second layers are two relatively small size, nearly circular-shaped cut-out patterns, inspired by paper-cut window decorations in Chinese traditions. This layer of content symbolizes the root of the Tanbi and Yuri genre. The uppermost collage is composed of male and female limbs, which resemble both flowers and hearts. The collages here are the least artistically refined of the three layers and they symbolize the homosexual community that is out of the fantasy world of commercial fiction. Although these collages are not as elaborate and abstracted as the other cut-out pieces, they are indeed the central part of the whole work.
The main purpose of this project is to make people realize the marginalized and consumed queer communities under the tides of popular social culture, and I hope it also raises the awareness of the "Tanbi" & "Yuri" enthusiasts to the status of the queer communities and reveals the fact that these virtual themes have indivisible relationships with those minority groups.
The Life and Death of the Closeted
by Alice Wong (they/them)
Medium: Installation of Digital Painting Printed on Foam Core, Ready Made Personal Objects, Carrier | Size: Digital Print on Foam Core 11" x 10" inches, Carrier 11" x 18" inches
The Life and Death of the Closeted is a mixed-media installation involving a luggage carrier and two diptych paintings encased within. It is a piece that displays closeted queer folk's struggles with invisibility within the community of LGBTQIA, media and outside of that, up until their deaths, making their existence hyper-visible either through gossip and speculation.
Digital mediums display a feeling of distance. Therefore, I’ve painted digitally to represent the coldness bystanders and communities of both sides hold towards closeted individuals.
“Freak Show Accident” details an art installation made from a closeted queer death. Onlookers stand by what appears to be a spectacle to them, alluding to the hypervisibility of queer death.
“Mine shaft Carrier” details a luggage carrier being treated as a mine shaft, the figure climbing out of the mine shaft, a metaphor for the closet and the safety it provides. The outside world surrounds the figure and the carrier as monstrous beings, hinting at the hostility one would face even if they decided to come out.
Through the luggage’s lying flat position, “The Life and Death of the Closeted” calls for its audience to surround and look down. This coincides with the notion of people frowning upon closeted queer folk, forcing them to either come out or question their cis heteronormativity. The luggage carrier contains items that one would find within a closet, personal items, informing the viewer of the humanity closeted folk have, while also alluding to the carrier itself to be a closet symbol. All in all, “The Life and Death of the Closeted” exists to demonstrate a look into the lives of the closeted, the atmosphere, the community and reactions to provide visibility into their seemingly hidden and ignored existences.
عجیب
Ajeeb
by Nima Parniani (he/they)
Medium: Installation of Screenprints | Size: 41" x 44" inches
Ajeeb is an ongoing exploration of otherness that I have been expanding on since 2018. The word “ajeeb” is Farsi for strange, out of place, bizarre, or queer in a literal sense. I’ve created digital and traditional drawings and painting for this series, along with a numerous screen-prints.
I question how humans have an evolutionary disposition to embrace the familiar and exclude the other. A survival skill for our hunter gatherer ancestors manifests today as bias and prejudice towards individuals that diverge from the idealistic status quo; white / thin / cisgender / heterosexual / able bodied / neurotypical / western / male / etc.
Ajeeb is a reclamation of otherness, excavating the normative state of the status quo. I emphasize the difference as opposed to highlighting commonalities. This installation confronts impermanence and the ephemerality, asking us to rethink the ideologies of discomfort that is rooted within cultural biases.
Our Bodies Will Fail
by Kai Lumbang (he/him)
Medium: Ink on Paper, Drawing, Collage, Installation | Size: 5" x 6.5" inches, 32 pages
Graphic comic—presented n both zine & installation form—using drawing & collage techniques to portray a myriad of different moments from the collapsed history of Toronto punk and its orbiting subcultures through a queer lens. Sourced from oral histories, show photos & defunct blogs, the images I chose reflect both the experiences of my peers and the faded memories of our forebears—those we’ve known and those we never got to.
Our Bodies Will Fail seeks to use the fallibility of memory and its contradictory nature, in tandem with the layering of colour allowed by the risograph printing process, to honour and acknowledge the imperfect oral histories that are so often the vessel through which we as younger punks/queer people/transcultural queers etc. learn how to identify ourselves. Using repeating imagery from both the past and the present (occasionally complimenting underlying colour layers but more often obfuscating), the work seeks to memorialize the various people and spaces that we’ve lived with and lost as a community & culture without delving too far into specificity.
I hoped to communicate a sort of enduring loss that often comes with being queer/trans/racialized—the transcultural experience of fighting for scraps, being pushed to the margins, seeking out joy, etc. Primarily rendered with permanent markers and ink pens, I emphasized gestural mark-making over accuracy in my process to try and capture the hazy nature of recollection. Much of my practice already utilizes these techniques, so I sought to continue my research by using the same methods for this project. In completing this project, I feel that I have gained useful knowledge regarding my printing techniques and what kind of imagery I’d like to focus on moving forward in my practice.
Image by Unity Chiu (she/her)
Queerious Childhoods & Be-longings
For many individuals, childhood lived experience plays a part on how queer ideologies and gender are understood and portrayed or the lack of within its own psychological adversities. Intertwined with a closer excavation at how new generations tackle issues of relationships and kinship outside normative sense of be-longings.
The B
by Unity Chiu (she/her)
Medium: Digital Painting | Size: 18" x 22.5" inches
The B is a 4 piece digitally made poster series made focusing on the ups and downs of someone who identifies as Bisexual. In this series, I was inspired by childrens book illustration. The posters feature a cat as the main character of this poster series, depicting them through their life. The series discusses themes such as alienation and the feeling of being judged by others. Members of the bisexual community often find that they get judgement from both sides, heterosexual and homosexual individuals, and struggle with others thinking their identity is not valid. Some even refer to this experience as the “double closet”
My use of digital rendering, are due to the current common execution for posters. In the process I experimented with adding physical elements, but I decided against it because a poster series should be able to be replicated fairly easily and having physical components would hinder that. Originally my idea had a more activist approach, however I wanted to make it more personal. This is why a desicion was made to add Cat like characters, and did the series in a playful style. My work touches on biphobia and acceptance which relates to the bisexual community as well as the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.
This subject resonated with me because I’ve been recently dealing with internalized biphobia and unwillingness to accept my sexuality because of what others think. I was afraid if I dated boys, people would see me as less valid. I wanted to interpret the fear of being judged, no matter what gender one is dating, as well as the highs of a relationship.
Content Warning: Mentions of Suicide, Self Harm & Internalized Homophobia
Internalized
by Mars/Margot Brighton (they/he)
Medium: Peformance Video Installation, Wall Projection | Size: Depending on Wall Space | Video Duration: 4:21 minutes
This video installation speaks to the struggles of dealing with Internalized Homophobia. Making reference to the article entitled “Internalized Homophobia and Relationship Quality Among Lesbians Gay Men and Bisexuals.” Research states, Internalized Homophobia negatively impacts LGB’s global self concept, which includes one’s own mental health and well being. I wanted to highlight that idea within a poem format as it is easy to follow along with and can be descriptively executed in a sort of bite sized way. The way in which I framed this poem is through the lens of someone experiencing Internalized Homophobia alongside suicidal ideation due to the fact. Initially I chose to create a documentary type video paired with a drag performance to shed light to how growing up queer can be traumatizing at times, and how art can be a fantastic medium to overcome one’s own challenges with self. As I took a moment to reflect on all of this I recognized that I may have bit off more than I could chew in terms of the time frame and put more work on my plate than I could most likely handle. I had started writing this poem quite a while back and decided to revisit the work, add to it, take away and finish it. I wanted there to be a dark tone to the poem with the reader coming to understand that it is possible to overcome the likes of internalized homophobia, and that there is a light at the end of that dark tunnel. I think that this struggle is that of nearly every queer person’s experience with coming to terms with their queer identity. I really wanted the audience to feel connected to the work I made through descriptive language and compelling visuals. But since I believe that this is a commonly shared experience, the connection is far stronger.
My Genderfluid Online Avatar: Neon the Rat of Downtown Toronto
by Leon Kim (he/him)
Medium: Digital Art, Phoptography, Digital Collage, Digital Painting, Instagram Application | Size: 5.78" x 2.82" | Instagram: Neon_The_Rat
As seasons change, I too change, and at times, I realize I am continuously on a different journey of becoming a brand-new person. However, it is hard to let others see I do not feel the same way I felt yesterday. Because of what others would expect of me, I have felt reluctant to explore the other side of me which can be characterized as more feminine. Through my art, I wished to experience the fluidity of my nature in a judgment-free zone. Although societal expectations can often make it seem like everyone is either masculine or feminine and never both, I believe everyone is on a spectrum of genders instead of a binary system. I have created a character design of an avatar that can represent my suppressed side on online platforms like social media apps. My avatar Neon (they/them) is a genderfluid anthropomorphic rat that lives in the city of Toronto. Taking the form of an animal is a method of hiding which comes with a small piece of escapism. And that means, in a way, I finally get to feel free from the rules of my own body, how I would discipline myself to behave as a man and a human.
This project majorly involved the creation of Neon and making an Instagram account dedicated to them, making them feel real through inserting them into real photos of Toronto. Through the character Neon, I was motivated to go to places I would not usually go, and I explored and observed the world in a different, fresh perspective when taking photos. And as I digitally painted in Neon on the photos, the more pictures I drew of them, the more I felt the character was alive. Neon’s colour scheme is inspired by neon signs of city streets at night, and logos on their gender neutral clothes are designed to represent the plurality of their gender identities. Arrows pointed in different directions symbolize their gender identity can shift on the spectrum of genders.
In the era of rapid technological advancement, the metaverse is a rising topic. In the metaverse, people can make their own avatars to represent themselves however they like, and many queer people, both closeted and uncloseted, see this phenomenon as an opportunity to explore their gender identities in a more safe and accepting environment. I personally felt more courageous and daring when I wore the persona of Neon and became as one with them. This type of experiment could be a helpful pathway to self-discovery, and I plan to further continue using the same method not to be afraid of who I truly am as a whole. And when I continue working on Neon, I hope to tell deeper stories of their gender fluidity.
SEED
by Olivia DU
Medium: Digital Drawings | Size: 10.28" x 10.35" inches
Through the childlike play of Anime minature toys I designed different painting styles for the two works, one emphasizing line and color, the other more realistic, but the image of the backing used in both works is the same, which expresses the diversity in my concept to a broader extent. As my theme is the freedom to dress, I believe that sexual orientation or gender should not restrict people's clothing choices. A person is essentially the same as a piece of flat fabric before it is cut and sewn, just as clothes are. In order to become who we are today, every aspect of our upbringing and social expectations has influenced our images and dress preferences. The world's eyes prevent many people from choosing the way they would like to look or they are forced to dress like the stereotype of their group in order to seek identity, which prompted me to reflect deeply and decide to create this work. It is not just traditional straight men and women who are restricted in their ability to choose in order to conform to the appropriate masculine or feminine characteristics, but it is also the case with LGBTQ individuals. People always stereotype gay men as being overly feminine because they dress boldly and wear delicate makeup. This is not to say that this is necessarily a bad thing, but there are some individuals who simply wish to look more in line with the stereotype and dress in this manner, otherwise it is not consistent with their identity. The design is based on a blind box toy and BJD (ball jointed dolls), which are made from the same template by adding makeup and designing different outfits to reflect the character traits of the dolls. As the basis of this piece, I created a genderless unisex stencil figurine. The individual figurines are inspired by plants and flowers, and are designed with different skin tones, faces, and clothing styles to create a variety of looks, and are grouped in groups of twelve to create an overall composition.
Content Warning: Mentions of Suicide, Self Harm, Abuse & Homophobia
玫瑰少年
Womxnly (Rose Boy)
by YiZ
Medium: Video Short | Video Duration: 1:52 minutes
對於 玫瑰少年，我選擇了20 年前發生在臺灣的一個新聞事件。 一名男孩因其女性氣質在學校浴室被欺負後死亡。 我的新聞來源是臺灣當地的新聞媒體。 20 年後的今天，這項活動仍然很受歡迎。 我選擇用拍攝的管道來紀念和抵制這一事件。 背景音樂是歌手Jolin為活動男孩葉永志創作的歌曲 玫瑰少年。 我的想法很簡單。 人們生活在同一個世界，但環境完全不同。 在 21世紀，有些人可以在街上親吻他們的伴侶，而有些人會因為他們的性格而被殘忍地殺害。 不平等和歧視是人類罪惡的根源，我們應該保持警惕。 我是一名畫家，但我認為一幅畫很難讓每個人都有同樣的同理心。 它必須結合實際的影像和音樂，以更好地讓每個人理解我的概念。 LGBTQ+ 社區在任何時代和地方都會經歷大大小小的磨難，但總會有人站出來為群體發聲，為人權而戰。 我也選擇拍攝視頻，因為多媒體是公眾接受度最高的藝術。 這將讓每個人都能面對這個概念並接受它。我希望全世界被欺負的人都能站起來，站起來，我也希望他們周圍的人對他們有善意。
For Wonxnly, I chose a news event that happened in Taiwan 20 years ago. A boy has died after being bullied in a school bathroom because of his femininity. My source of news is Taiwan's local news media. This event is still very popular today, 20 years later. I chose to use the way of filming to commemorate and resist this incident. The background music is the song Womxnly written by singer Jolin for the event boy Ye Yongzhi. My idea is very simple. People live in the same world but have completely different circumstances. In the 21st century, some people can kiss their partners on the street, while some people will be brutally killed because of their character. Inequality and discrimination are the roots of human evil and we should be vigilant. I am a painter, but I think it is difficult for a painting to make everyone have the same empathy. It must be combined with actual images and music to better allow everyone to understand my concept. The LGBTQ+ community will experience big and small tribulations in any era and place, but there will always be someone who stands up to speak out for the group and fight for human rights. I also chose to shoot video because multimedia is the art with the highest acceptance by the public. It will allow everyone to face the concept and accept it. I hope that people who are bullied all over the world can stand up and stand up, and I also hope the people around them will have kindness towards them.
Our--------------------------------Kinship
by Minseo Kim (she/her)
Medium: Photo Montage Series | Size: Depending on the Digital Phone Screen
우리들의 사랑은 뭐라 불러야할까요?
Our Kinship 은 두가지 컨셉으로 구성된 사진 시리즈 작품이다. 필름 카메라와 폴 라로이드 등을 활용해 촬영 되었고 디지털 공간에서 전시된다. 사실혼 관계임에 도 공식적인 파트너로서 인정되지 않는 몇몇 국가의 LGBTQ+ 커플들의 상황에서 시작된 주제는 그들의 사랑과 존재에 대해 이야기 한다.
두 래즈비언 커플의 사랑의 순간들을 포착한 첫번째 작품 “That’s so us” 는 함께 살아가며 수 많은 시간과 추억을 공유해온 그들의 관계를 Kinship으로 새롭게 정 의해 관계의 단단함을 풀어냈다. “We don’t need to prove we’re together” 라는 메 인문구는 누군가에게 그들의 존재를 증명하거나 설득할 필요가 없다는 의미이다. 그들이 함께한 흔적을 따라가는 사진들은 자연스럽고 부드러우며 애정이 담겨있 다.
가면(사회적 분위기에 의해 요구되는) 의 통상적 개념을 환기시키기 위한 두번째 작품 “Don’t hide it:Butterfly” 은 밝고 비비드한 색상의 스티커를 이용해 새로운 마스크를 만들어 낸 작품이다. 이 작품을 통해 가면은 더 이상 스스로를 숨기는 도구가 아닌 스스로를 표현하는 매개체로 이해된다. 얼굴을 뒤덮은 수 많은 스티 커들과 어우러진 다양한 표정은 자신의 감정과 기분, 그리고 정체성을 필터 없이 보여준다. 더 나아가 많은 나비 모양의 스티커를 볼 수 있는데, 이것은 번데기에 서 벗어나 나비로 진화하는 나비의 특징을 떠올리게 만든다.
이렇게 두가지 작품은 Our Kinship이라는 제목으로 이야기된다. 이 작품은 우리의 상황에서 찾을 수 있는 희망과 사랑 그리고 행복을 담고있고 그것을 밝은 분위기 와 따뜻함으로 표현하기 위해 노력했다.
What should we call our love?
Our Kinship is a series of photographs with two concepts. It was taken using film cameras and polaroids and is displayed in a digital space. The theme that began with the situation of LGBTQ+ couples in several countries who are not recognized as official partners despite their de facto marriage talks about their love and existence.
That's so us, the first work that captures the moments of love between the lesbian couple newly defines their relationship as Kinship, which has shared countless times
and memories while living together. The main phrase "We don't need to probe we're together" means that they don't have to prove or convince someone of their existence. The photos that follow their traces together are natural, soft, and affectionate.
The second work, Don't Hide It: Butterfly evokes the usual concept of masks (required by the social atmosphere), is a work that uses bright and vivid color stickers to create a new mask. Through this work, masks are no longer a tool to hide themselves but are understood as a medium to express themselves. Various facial expressions combined with countless stickers covering the face show one's emotions, moods, and identity without filters. Furthermore, you can see many butterfly-shaped stickers, which remind you of the characteristics of butterflies that break away from pupae and evolve into butterflies.
These two works are called Our Kinship. This work contains hope, love and happiness that can be found in our situation, and I tried to express it with a bright atmosphere and warmth.
Unravel Relationship to Uncover Connection
by Hannah Kryworuchko (they/she/he)
Medium: Installation of Paper, Graphite, Pen, Yarn String | Size: Installation Scale 3'.5" x 4'.7" feet, Individual Varied Between 10" x 12" - 3.5" x 4" inches
As our society works today, no relationship gets marketed to us quite like straight, allosexual monogamy. Within this type of relationship, there is a relationship escalator. This escalator defines the steps to a ‘successful’ relationship and converts relationships into to a hierarchical system. We are frequently shown that this is the only option. But this one type of relationship does not encompass the immense complexities of relationships. Relationships are intertwined, they serve different purposes, and they build who we are as people. Unravel Relationships to Uncover Connection explores the diverse connections we all have in our lives. It gives representation that is not often seen. It protests the need to subscribe to the relationship escalator and the hierarchy that comes with it.
This work seeks to ensure that non-normative relationships do not get left behind. It emphasises that we can all experience connection in ways that feel most comfortable and important to us. The materials I used, graphite, ink, and yarn, were carefully chosen to emphasise my theme. Graphite is erasable and so allows the viewer to insert themselves into the characters and their relationships. It also demonstrates how fluid and forgiving relationship structures are: they can be erased and redrawn to what feels right. In contrast, the ink is permanent. This emphasises the connection and love that is present in relationships and that that part of kinship is permanent. My piece further emphasises the interconnectedness of relationships by connecting the narratives as well as physically connecting the pages with yarn. In this way, we observe glimpses into the space people take up within the many relationships in their lives. “Unravel Relationships to Uncover Connection” was also very self-explorative: throughout the process, I was able to learn about diverse relationship structures and think about ones that might work for me.
Image by Juni Magdalene (he/they)
Queerious Rituals
Rituals and Religion plays a critical part within the LGBTQ2S+ communities, rooted in historical negative exaltation of spiritual practice and longings. These sets of work tackle the politics of how rituals and Religion can be re-translated and create a new futurities of be-longings for many Queer communities.
Queer Mo(u)rning
by Juni Magdalene (he/they)
Medium: Digital Painting Self Portrait | Size: Varies to the Projection in the Room
My digital painting titled Queer Mo(u)rning is a a stained glass diptych depicting the transition of who I was to who I wish to be; despair and acceptance, death and rebirth, night and day, dark and light. This piece, consisting of my past, conformed self in a praying position while my future self stands free, aims to portray the reclamation of my religion and its impact on me as a queer, Filipino-Canadian individual growing up Roman Catholic. The symbolism emulates the transition with myself; both my gender as well as my culture, being half Filipino and living the majority of my life at a distance from it.
The imagery present in my work consists of the transgender symbol in the centre of the top circle surrounded by a rainbow ring, a cardinal to represent the mascot of my Roman Catholic high school, my red high school uniform, elements from the Filipino flag such as the sun and the three stars, two traditional Filipino banig weave patterns, and the Sampaguita—the national flower of the Philippines. This painting signifies my past and projected future while present me currently exists as both and neither. Additionally, due to large-scale, tangible artworks being easily noticeable by my family who are queerphobic in one way or the other, there are limited options in how I can create. Digital art aligns with my practice and connects with my gender and sexual identity of being majorly discovered within digital spaces, but it also represents the limitations of expressing my own queerness in my life.
Love I Suffer
by Nadia Da Silva (they/them)
Medium: Oil on Canvas | Size: 30" x 40" inches
Love I Suffer is an open-ended piece, a modern reflection of Catholicism from the iconic renaissance. Through lived experiences, I reflect on the fantasy and beautification of Catholicism; and how it has affected me as a non-binary youth growing up in a traditional catholic immigrant household. This work rides on my experience of being disenchanted with religion, the love and kinship it took away from me. The representation of the weeping Mary evokes a parallel to my emotions, her Jesus is my “Dawn”; my own caricature, my creation brought into existence just to bear my own suffering. Mary represented as the original victim of Catholicism, giving everything to end in her own suffering. As a saint, there is little known about her other than the glorification of her virginity. She is my reflection of the feminist lens in this work. We live to create and then we are to live no more when we are born a girl. The trans lens is also used, as I reflect on what it truly means to be “born in the image of god” and how to be born in the wrong body is perceived as the biggest sin of them all, coded under normative religious beliefs and values. We are taught to love our neighbour and yet we ruin them instead. My goal was to depict beautiful suffering, in the irony of the Christianity climate, a colour palette evoking child-like authenticity and the use of gender symbolism as Queer semiotics that cuts through the weight of Religion. By allocating Mary as the focal point in feminine agony, victim to pain, bearing the viewer to worships her with "Dawns" as her disciples, giving a modern mirror of the feminine rage as altar & shrine. To love is to suffer, and to suffer is to love.
In Nome del Padre, e del Figlio, e del Spirito Santo (In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit)
by Joe Woolfe (he/him)
Medium: Acrylic Paint on Canvas, Time Laps Video Performance | Size: 30" x 40" inches | Video Duration: 2:58 minutes
I used painting to express my relationship between gender, culture, and religion. The title of my piece, In Nome del Padre, e del Figlio, e del Spirito Santo, is what you say when making the sign of the cross in Italian: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” These are each the members of the Holy Trinity, which I represent in an abstracted view in my painting. I chose this title because my faith is directly tied to my Italian heritage, and my experience with how my gender was viewed in my family is directly tied to my faith.
On a 30”x40” canvas, I represent the Holy Trinity in acrylic paint. Because of how deeply Catholicism is tied in with colonialism and the patriarchy, I wanted to break away from the white male representation of divinity. I believe that the fact that humanity is meant to be created in the image of God means that God represents more than one man. In line with the Catholic belief that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are in fact all one entity, that means that God, who is omnipotent, can appear in all forms. The genderless expression of the Holy Spirit implies the genderless existence of Jesus and God. I see the Holy Trinity as one entity made up of three parts, powerful and warm in the way that a flame can be a hearth or a destructive mass. The way I arranged my painting works as a conversation between the vulnerability I felt in coming out to my parents as a trans man and the impact I felt when religion was used against me in response.
The perfomative aspect of making the work became part of the work itself as ritual repetetive acts. In the end the three are represented from the first small scale painted sketch, to the second large canvas painting that is a performance in its act of making and the third as the documented performance itself. One can also ask themselves that all parts of the work embodies its own ritual as a queer critical take on such a canonized religous topics.
Nuns: Diligo animam tuam et totam vitam tuam
(I love your soul and the whole of your life)
by Anastasia Hryciuk
Medium: Acrylic Paint on MDF Board | Size: 2' x 5' feet
A historical inspired painting of romanticized lesbianism depicting two nuns in a queer relationship. I painted Saint Hildegard of Bingen with her companion Richardis Vonstrade. There is much evidence and reason to believe that they were lovers, which I spoke about in my previous proposal.
The painting was done in a style resembling stained glass. This is a nod to the catholic church setting. The loudest symbolic element in my painting is of two biblical angels, one overhead and one at Richardis’s heart. Angels are often described as beautiful winged creatures, but biblically they are terrifying. This relates to the way some christians ‘cherry pick’ beliefs, with homophobic hate being a popular belief among them. The nuns have piercings because I wanted to contrast the aesthetic of nuns to the look of the contemporary lesbian, which usually coincides with alternative fashion. The scroll in latin translates to “I love your soul and the whole of your life.” This was a direct quote from one of Hildegard’s love letters to Richardis. I included this in my piece to reveal a bit of the passion in their relationship that we never might’ve known could exist in a monastery.
We hope you enjoyed this digital catalogue of the four chapters in QUEERIOUS: the Politics of Gender Identity brought to you by the ©Outside the Box Collective 2022-2023.
Many thanks for visiting this online show!
Poster Series Designs Below by Julius P Manapul