Opening Celebration
In Search of Queertopias: Opening Celebration
14 July 2023
5:00pm
Queer Code, Video Game Capture from Mementorium, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.
Participants: James Albers, Amanda Amour-Lynx, Rylan Friday, Alex Gibson, Queer Code
Please join us for the opening celebration of In Search of Queertopias featuring artists James Albers, Amanda Amour-Lynx, Rylan Friday, Alex Gibson, and Queer Code.
Curated by UBC Master candidate in Critical Curatorial Studies, Nathan Clark, the exhibition is an immersive experimentation with feminist theorist Sara Ahmed’s methodology of disorientation to explore how Queertopias begin where the boundaries of the body end. As they are activated by the individual’s own movements through space, Queertopias bleed outside the boundaries of their own making, immersing themselves into everyday existence to overlap and dispute with what is perceived as familiar, or “normal.”
This exhibition is presented with support from the Killy Foundation and the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies through the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Columbia.
With Support From
Participant Bios
James Albers
James Albers (they/he) is an emerging artist, curator, writer, organizer, performer and drag artist based in Vancouver on the stolen and ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixwh (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. In their recent endeavors, James is thinking through subjects like queer fantasy, sci-fi, virtuality, digitization, futurism, poetics, nostalgia, humour, embodiment, and spirituality. They are interested in exploring the queer potentials of revisionist histories and choose to believe in the magic of fiction. Recently, James has been thinking through the truth that a perfect lie may hold, and vice versa. They graduated from the department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, with a double major in Visual Arts and Art History. During their final year, they were the Assistant Director of the Hatch Art Gallery, UBC’s only student-run art space.
Amanda Amour Lynx
Amanda Amour Lynx (they/she/nekm) is a Two Spirit, neurodivergent, mixed urban L’nu (Mi’kmaw) interdisciplinary artist and facilitator. Lynx was born and grew up in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) and is a member of Wagmatcook FN, and currently works and resides in Guelph, Ontario. Their art making is a hybridity of traditional l’nuk approaches with new and traditional art media guided by the Mi’kmaq principles netukulimk (sustainability) and etuaptmumk (two-eyed seeing). Lynx’s artistic practice discusses land and relationality, environmental issues, navigating systems and societal structures, cultural and gender identity, (L’nui’smk) language resurgence, quantum and spiritual multiplicities. Their facilitation work focuses on designing community spaces committed to healthy Indigenous futurities guided by lateral love, accessibility and world-building. Their writing was published as part of grunt gallery’s Together Apart anthology (2020), and revue esse (2020). Lynx also worked as program assistant at Xpace Cultural Centre. They most recently curated Shapeshifters at Beaver Hall Gallery (Toronto) as part of the annual Bi+ Arts Festival.
Rylan Friday
Rylan Friday (he/him) is a multi-faceted, award-winning filmmaker and curator from Cote First Nation, Saskatchewan who currently works and resides in Vancouver on the stolen and ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixwh (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. His focus is to bring honest representations to the LGBTQ2+ and Indigenous communities. He produced and implemented a peer-to-peer mentorship for Trevor Mack’s debut feature, Portraits From a Fire. He recently won the Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award, CMPA Indie Screen Awards, Prime Time Ottawa 2022 and the Leo Award for Best Motion Picture for his efforts on Mack’s debut feature. Rylan works include: Terror/Forming (2022) with plans of it becoming his debut feature film; The Sound of You Collapsing (2023); and, Musk (2023). Rylan has programmed for VIFF’s Catalyst Mentorship Program, and curated the highly successful #Indigeneity series for Reel Causes. Rylan was also the lead curator for the Who We Are Indigenous film series in collaboration with VIFF and the Museum of Vancouver. He recently won the Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award, CMPA Indie Screen Awards, Prime Time Ottawa 2022 and the Leo Award for Best Motion Picture for his efforts on Mack’s debut feature.
Alex Gibson
Alex Gibson (they/them) is a queer, non-binary Barbadian artist who currently lives and works in Vancouver on the stolen and ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəyə̓ m (Musqueam), Sḵwxw̱ ú7mesh (Squamish) and səl ̓ ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. Gibson is a MFA candidate at the University of British Columbia, whose practice explores transgressive queer identities in relation to their Caribbean background. As an immigrant genderfluid artist, their practice focuses on queer identity, space and temporality, and how these relate to memory and place, time and geography, experience and ecosystem. Their work has been exhibited at Capture Photography Festival (Vancouver), Wil Aballe Art Projects (Vancouver), Tomato Mouse (New York), Number 3 Gallery (Vancouver), Caribbean Fine Arts Fair (Bridgetown, Barbados), Artists Alliance Barbados (Bridgetown, Barbados), RBC Media Gallery (Vancouver).
Queer Code
Queer Code is a design and research-based studio that designs, develops, and researches new models of code and coding with queer and trans experiences at the forefront. They explore computing at the intersections of critical theory, virtual reality, complexity, and interactive art. Leading team members for the exhibited project, Mementorium, include Dylan Paré, Scout Windsor, and John Craig.
Nathan Clark
Nathan (Nate) Clark (they/ them) is a genderfluid nonbinary second year candidate in the Master of Art History in Critical Curatorial Studies at the University of British Columbia, where they also received their Bachelor of Art History and Museum Anthropology. Nathan currently works and resides in Vancouver on the stolen and ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixwh (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. Nathan’s research focuses on the phenomenology and narrative poetics of virtual reality and digital immersive installations and the importance of embodied, affective relations between the viewer and the work of art. They also research digital queerscapes and the disembodiment of users within cyberspaces, and how artists are responding to this “Wild West” of new mediums and artistic processes. The body is the primary point of concern in understanding how we interact with this new “ontological turn.” Nathan will be pursuing their PhD of Art History at the University of Toronto in Fall 2023.