Occupy Space Exhibit: Time Travel Talismans Workshop October 1, 2016

Occupy Space Exhibit & Workshop 

Aug - October 2016

Farah Yusuf Curator

Farah Yusuf, Nat & Ashley (L space Director) 

Occupy Space taps into other-worldly imaginaries to address the social reality of Canadian diversity. The creators of the works featured in this exhibition move in from the margins to occupy speculative realms of popular culture – where the politics of inclusion remain contested.

The exhibition is grounded in Afrofuturism, which began in the ‘60s as a musical and literary genre that merges modern technology, African roots and futuristic imagery. By allegorically linking space travel with the forced migration of Africans slaves, Afrofuturism provides a platform to imagine alternative narratives of black identity that are empowered and self-determined.

A constellation of ethnically diverse and Indigenous futurisms have recently emerged to address similar themes of cultural alienation and reclamation. These narratives reject the idea of a compulsory black, Indigenous, or ethnic identity relegated to a historical past. By using visionary fiction as a blueprint for cosmic liberation, these futurisms are revolutionary acts of resistance to the whitewashing of western media. The impulse is no different from the current widespread use of Occupy Movement’s imperative to “take up space” on sites of tension to demand change.

 

Artists: Nicholas Galanin, Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen, Rajni Perera with Richard Thomas, Natalie Wood

Curated by Humber Galleries' Curator in Residence Farah Yusuf

http://www.humbergalleries.ca/exhibitions/l-space/occupy-space

Resource guide : Provides text and writing on the works in the exhibition.

Space Travel Talisman Workshop with Natalie Wood

Join me for a hands-on workshop in creating a space travel talisman. Participants will be provided with symbolic materials and be instructed in how to create their own talisman to use in their travels through time and space. The piece they create will ground them to their specific time for their return voyage, protect them in their travels and direct them to the time/ space to which they are traveling.

Humber Art Galleries - L Space
Lakeshore Campus
Room L1002
19 Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive
Toronto, ON M8V 4B6

http://www.humbergalleries.ca/events/space-travel-talisman-workshop-natalie-wood

That's So Gay: Come Together - August 2016

That's So Gay: Come Together 

Hangman Installation & Video

Here are excerpts from the video Hangman and a link to see it. Like the title suggests the video references the game Hangman.

It is about the slurs and derogatory names that we get called - sodomite, battygirl/ boo, ni**ger etc and the thought that what if every time those words are used it conjures up and re-members a queer/ black/ radicalized and racialized person who is ready to fight against these labels and painful put downs. In Black Skin White Masks Fanon writes " A man who has a language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language" and in Inventing Reality; Physics as Language, Bruce Gregory points out that language allows us to interpret our experiences and even the physical world and "how much of what we see is an optical illusion - an interpretation fabricated from our interaction with the world". Special thanks to Deidre Logue for equipment support. 

Gladstone Hotel Install June 8th - August 17th 2016

Hangman Installation Rm 205 @ Gladstone in the process

Installation of Hangman near completion

Opening Reception - Playing Hangman

Some visitors who talked about semiotics and the interactive element of Hangman that asks viewers to construct their own interpretations of partially formed words...

The visitors generating many solutions to those partially formed words - how would you complete .._ IGGER?

#Emily

Even the kids could not resist brown paper on a wall and chalk 

All the partners involved in this Show - Gladstone Hotel President & artist Christina Zeidler, 10 x10 Curator, James Fowler, TSG Curator: Syrus Ware, & Lukus Toane Director of Exhibitions, Gladstone Hotel 

Gladstone Hotel’s 7th Annual TSG exhibition; a group show celebrating new works by LGBTTI2QQ artists curated by Syrus Marcus Ware.

The 2016 subtitle (Come Together) refers to many things: a call to action and activism during a year that has witnessed unprecedented coverage of cross-movement building amongst Indigenous, Black and POC Two-Spirited and LGBTTI2QQ communities, collective struggle and the need to unify and call for creative responses to transphobic and homophobic violence that is dis-proportionally affecting Indigenous and racialized trans women. TSG: Come together highlights the need for artistic engagement and responses to propel our activism into a new dimension.

Nia Centre for the Arts Exposed Exhibition: Solace March 2016

Natalie Wood, Erica De Freitas & Genevieve Wallen at the Opening for Solace.

Nia Centre for the Arts asked me to write the essay for this exhibit. Thank you Nia Centre for the Arts, Genevieve Wallen for having me jury and write to contextualize the work of the amazing artists in the show. It was held at the Gladstone, March 17th 2016.

Qouleur 2015: Les émotions contenues : Une soirée de cinéma de Qouleur / Contained Emotions: A Qouleur Film Night

Will (3 mins) was screened Thursday 20 August 2015.

Still from 'Touched by a Soucouyant' a 5 minute cell phone video screened at Inside Out Film Festival May 2015
 for In Your Pocket – RT Collective

'Touched by a Soucouyant' tells the story of a late night encounter between two women that lead to the unraveling of a supernatural mystery with connections to Trinidad and Tobago/ Caribbean.

Actors: Kyisha Williams, Robin Akimbo,

Camera, Lights: Nadijah Robinson, Kyisha Williams, Robin Akimbo

Director: Natalie Wood

BakerGram, OCAD Gallery Thesis exhibit March 6 -14, 2015

Installation shot of Genevieve Wallen's Curatorial Thesis Exhibition, There Is Always More than What We Perceive - a group show with Michele Clarke and Abdi Osman.

These are some of the Installation and Performance Shots.
We had the bananas age throughout the exhibit. Some of the banana skins changed from yellow to black - obscuring the text. Some people getting the quoted bananas felt strongly that there was a message in it meant for them. I enjoyed this performance.