McMaster Museum of Art exhibition We Remain Certain portrays Haudenosaunee’s complex history to strike conversations about our future
The We Remain Certain exhibition had its opening reception on Jan. 11 from 5-8 p.m. at the McMaster Museum of Art, and will be available for public viewing until Mar. 22, 2024.
This exhibition was funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. Their other supporters include the Ontario Arts Council.
We Remain Certain depicts the lasting connection between the Haudenosaunee people and their Grand River Territory home. The Haudenosaunee, also known as “people of the longhouse,” Iroquois or Six Nations, are members of a confederacy of Aboriginal nations that reside across southern Ontario, eastern Quebec and south into New York State. This exhibition is curated by a collective of Haudenosaunee artists, and the contemporary pieces delve into Haudenosaunee land tenure, exploring the intricate history, treaty agreements and displacements along the Grand River. It ultimately aims to ignite conversations and thoughts around our collective future, utilizing Haudenosaunee "Original Instructions" as a foundation for understanding and collaboration.
This collection was curated by Protect the Tract Collective, a Haudenosaunee-led project that conducts research, policy development and encourages civil engagement through the promotion of land stewardship (caring for and continuously learning about a piece of land despite its ownership) over the Haldimand Tract, featuring artists Dakota Brant, Denny Doolittle, Betts Doxtater, Kaya Hill, Rick Hill, Arnold Jacobs, Ken Maracle, Steve Maracle, Shelley Niro, Greg Staats, Steve Smith, Kristen Summers and Jeff Thomas.
The exhibit aims to communicate that, while the past remains certain, the future can be changed based on what we learn from our history.
“Arenhátyen tsi ní:tsi teyottenyonhátye’ kwató:ken tsi nī:tsi yonkwa’nikonhrayén:ta’s. Awęhęgyeh shęh hodęˀ dewahde:nihs, haˀgadagyeˀshǫˀ shęh nˀagwanigǫ̲ha:do:gę: It does not matter what continually changes, our understanding remains certain,” as stated on the M(M)A website.
Arenhátyen tsi ní:tsi teyottenyonhátye’ kwató:ken tsi nī:tsi yonkwa’nikonhrayén:ta’s. Awęhęgyeh shęh hodęˀ dewahde:nihs, haˀgadagyeˀshǫˀ shęh nˀagwanigǫ̲ha:do:gę: It does not matter what continually changes, our understanding remains certain
M(M)A website
Art Gallery of Hamilton’s new exhibit shows the process behind digitizing art
Art has early origins and continues to be relevant today. It’s important to collect and record art as a way of documenting history. However, what happens when art is documented but not immediately put up for display? They become a part of a collection of pieces hidden from the world.
The Art Gallery of Hamilton aims to address this issue with its Collections Digitization Project which began in Spring 2022 and will conclude in Spring 2024. The project aims to digitize many of the works kept in the vaults at AGH.
Andrea Howard, digitization collections assistant, emphasized that as the AGH is a publicly funded resource, it’s important to provide the public access to pieces which aren’t always on display. Moreover, the project team is prioritizing putting on underrepresented artists, such as Black, Indigenous and Persons of Colour and women artists.
“It is a really necessary project because we have well over 10,000 objects in our collection. The physical space that we have here at the museum means that we can only display 5 per cent of those works at a given time. That means the bulk of our works are in a vault and they're hidden from the public,” said Howard.
“It is a really necessary project because we have well over 10,000 objects in our collection. The physical space that we have here at the museum means that we can only display 5 per cent of those works at a given time. That means the bulk of our works are in a vault and they're hidden from the public."
Andrea Howard, digitization collections assistant
The project is funded by the Museums Assistance Program, specifically the Digital Access to Heritage, which is a program of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The funds were important for hiring people for the project, obtaining necessary licenses and receiving commissions and equipment.
The project has many aspects, one of which is focused on showcasing the process of digitizing art works. This exhibition will begin on Feb. 11, 2023 and will include installations and a behind the scenes look at the digitization process. Howard’s hope is to connect with the general population and show the public how much work goes into digitization.
“A part of this project has become an exhibition, that is going to be launching on [Feb. 11]. That exhibition is in part a digitization lab [and] part installation where we exhibit works and show some kind of hidden digitization labor that occurs in art museums,” said Howard.
“A part of this project has become an exhibition, that is going to be launching on [Feb. 11]. That exhibition is in part a digitization lab [and] part installation where we exhibit works and show some kind of hidden digitization labor that occurs in art museums."
Andrea Howard, digitization collections assistant
Howard believes the Hamilton community will find the exhibit to be engaging. She’s worked closely with the AGH docents, who have shared positive feedback for the exhibit.
One of their more recent programs at AGH called Fridays at Four gives those curious a virtual look at the AGH’s permanent collection. Given the docents extensive knowledge on the collections within the museum, Howard is aware their feedback is vital. They’ve expressed how happy they are to see more pieces being digitalized and how they are being shared with visitors.
“I know from my experience with the docent . . . that they’re really excited about the growing number of images they are seeing and having access to. I know we have been getting a lot of engagement on social media with our images and I’m excited to see where it jumps off from there,” said Howard.
Currently, the AGH is working on three dimensional printing as part of the digitization project. The goal of this is to have art pieces 3D printed as a way to engage visitors in a new way. It will also allow for pieces to be preserved and protected, which is valuable in the storage of artworks.
“Our hope is to not only create 3D renderings that will live online, but also from those 3D renderings have some of our works 3D printed. That’ll be a really great way for the programming department to pass around our objects to feel,” said Howard.
The AGH hopes that people will come together to learn about the complex tools used to preserve artwork. They hope the project itself will be able to highlight work that isn’t always displayed and allow for work to be presented in a new format. The exhibit is one of the first ways in which visitors can see the direct process that goes behind digitizing works.
By Donna Nadeem, Contributor
If you walk by Centre[3] for Print and Media Arts (173 James St. North), you will no longer be able to peek through the gallery’s front window at the usual art. Instead, you will see a black curtain and green leaves, setting the atmosphere for the forest that has grown inside.
From Sept. 5 to Oct. 3, Andrew O’Connor, a Hamilton-based multi-disciplinary artist, is exhibiting his sculptural, audiovisual installation, “Lost Illusions” — transporting visitors to Hamilton’s surrounding forests.
O’Connor is a Hamilton-based artist, VJ and designer whose work explores and blends light, video, 2D mixed media, animation and interactive installations. O’Connor completed his undergrad at McMaster University in 2012 with a double major in multimedia and studio arts. O’Connor has exhibited in Europe, the United States and around Canada and is a confounding member of HAVN (26 Barton St. East).
“Lost Illusions” is about the moments of tranquility and solitude that resonate when being truly present with the natural landscape. Blending layers of painted surfaces infused with projected light, shadow and movement, the scenery elicits an introspective, meditative quality influenced from experiences of walking through moonlit trees under the midnight sky,” said O’Connor.
The exhibition was made possible with the support of the Ontario Arts Council’s Media Artist Creation Project grant. O’Connor’s core idea was to blend projection lighting with painting. Unsure of what the final form would take, but focusing on site specifics, he knew that he wanted his artwork to change the entire ambience of a room and influence how a person felt when they walked in.
“The whole idea was that I wanted to capture that peace and tranquility that you can feel when you’re immersed in nature. When you’re away from all the distractions of society, the technological distractions . . . all the fears and anxieties when they melt away, you’re at peace. That was something that I definitely wanted to convey above all. It doesn’t matter to me what people see specifically, it’s more about what emotions that people are feeling from it,” said O’Connor.
O’Connor experimented with a variety of different materials to be the foundation of his work. He tried acetate, but found that it ripped too easily when being transported. After much trial and error, the artist landed on dura-lar, a polyester film that is a mix between mylar and acetate.
O’Connor started with six stencil drawings that he created while hiking around local Hamilton forests. The artist scanned them into his computer, digitally cleaned them up and applied them to create the basis of “Lost Illusions”.
“One idea that stuck out for me was . . . I remember I would just film stuff as I was biking through woods. I started filming the treetops as I’m biking through woods and I would look at those video clips and that sort of imagery stuck with me . . . A lot of it are just closeups of trees with the sun shining through and gusts of wind blowing the leaves,” said O’Connor.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz_YZSHnRxs/
Although the video component was vital to O’Connor’s piece, something was missing. He realized that audio can immerse an audience and add depth to artwork.
“Given my background with VJing, I did a bunch of recording sessions of myself using a MIDI controller fading in and out, activating certain effects on the video clips as I’m listening to the composition, taking those recording and splicing together the best bits,” said O’Connor.
The still art and projections amalgamate to enchant the viewer, transporting them directly into the heart of Mother Nature without the pressures of the outside world.
“If students want an escape from whatever’s happening in their life, the exhibition has a very entrancing affect on you if you give it the chance. As students, we can be extremely stressed with our studies, but this piece is an entrancing piece, it’s a sense of escapism from the stresses and anxieties of your life,” said O’Connor.
“Lost Illusions” is on display at Centre[3] for Print and Media Arts at 173 James Street North until October 3, 2019.
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By: Anastasia Richards
Our lifestyles tend to be disposable. Many of us are prone to throwing things away and replacing them without thinking twice about it. We reach for simplicity and convenience, regardless of the consequences.
The Repair Café, a grassroots organization based in Toronto, will be hosting their first event in Hamilton at the Worker’s Arts and Heritage Centre as part of the ongoing Division of Labour exhibit. Set to take place on March 30 from 1 to 4 p.m., the workshop will gather community members to learn how to fix things together and address sustainability.
The Repair Café launched in Amsterdam in May 2009. The philosophies of the event are all linked to promoting sustainability, helping out your neighbours and getting to know others in the community. In 2013, there was a small group of citizens in Toronto that heard of the event in Amsterdam and wanted to bring it to the greater Toronto area.
“Whether it be… electronics, sewing and mending, small motor repair, carpentry. Individuals that have the skill set come to the café, usually held in public spaces such as libraries or community centres and they teach people how to repair on their own,” explained Suzanne Carte, curator of the Division of Labour Exhibit at the Worker’s Arts and Heritage Centre.
Not only does the Repair Café provide you with the opportunity to learn to be handy, it provides an opportunity to meet people in your community. While you wait on your repair or even if you just want to stop by and see what it’s all about, you can get to know your fellow neighbours.
“With that, there may be some intergenerational conversation…talking about an object will lead to one’s life, uses for said object, storytelling and all of that. It's about building community and skill sharing too,” said Carte.
We live in an age where disposal and replacement are all too easy. Many of us are far too keen on replacing things once they’re slightly damaged. The Repair Café workshops aim to challenge this notion by facilitating an opportunity for people to learn how to be handy, as part of a community and on their own.
The workshops also aim to challenge gender roles that are present within the context of the work associated with repairs. The Repair Café creates an environment where preconceived notions about gender, such as who can sew and knit or do small-motor repairs, can be addressed and broken down.
The Repair Café wishes to create a comfortable and inviting atmosphere so that even those who do not want to come and get something fixed can still feel compelled to attend and be a part of the community. As an example, Carte will be bringing her iron.
“I could probably go and find out how to do it via a digital platform, but I really want to be able to sit down with a person who can take me through the steps, answer any questions that I have in how to better care and serve this object that then services me,” said Carte.
Attending the Repair Café will provide her with an opportunity to collaborate with others in her community, share stories with them, exchange knowledge and extend the lifetime of her appliance.
The Repair Café hopes to change people’s mindset. Every contribution helps to improve our sustainability practices and it can all begin by learning how to fix the little things.
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When Hamilton designer Jennifer Kaye visited the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology National Historic Site, she was struck by the beauty and craftsmanship of the 19th century steam-powered water pumping engines. It was something that couldn’t quite be captured in a 2D image. That is why her images of the 1859 Waterworks are in 3D.
From Jan. 19 to Sept. 8, the Museum of Steam and Technology National Historic Site will host an exhibit of Kaye’s photography entitled Doing It Justice: The Steam Museum. The free exhibit will be housed in the Woodshed that forms part of the Victorian industrial building complex.
Kaye recently did a graphic design program at Mohawk College, during which she took a photography course. In that class, she was assigned to use an advanced photography technique and chose 3D photography. She felt the museum lent itself perfectly to the medium.
“It's interesting to stand in the woodshed space and experience the engine in three dimensions without actually being there and looking at them. It has sort of a retro feel to it actually because we are using the old school three dimensional glasses, with the red and blue panes and the red and blue offset images. So it feels a bit like all the old school movies or even three dimensional comics,” said museum curator Richard Barlas.
3D photography is created by mimicking the way each human eye perceives a slightly different view. For each photograph, Kaye had to take two shots from slightly different angles and bring them together. When she reached out to the museum for help with the assignment, they loved it so much that they asked her to expand it so it could be displayed at the museum.
On Jan. 19, the opening reception for Doing It Justice took place, coinciding with the birthday of James Watt. Watt was an 18th century Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer who made significant improvements to the steam engine and thus contributed to the Industrial Revolution. The exhibit opening honoured his contributions to the modern world with birthday cake.
Aside from showcasing the machinery, the exhibit will educate patrons on 3D photography and machine art. Kaye prepared an essay highlighting the history of the two forms and the museum staff have been given information on the topic in order to engage visitors. As well, movies from the 1920s and 1930s with machinery in them will be playing in the exhibit.
3D photography became popular around the same time as the steam museum was built, making the use of one to illustrate the other even more fitting. Kaye also wrote in her essay about the early 20th century history of machine art, tracing its usage as a metaphoric icon to the modern acknowledgement of machines as beautiful objects.
“[There’s] real beauty in that kind of machinery. You know it's big and it's almost like it was made to be looked at and admired, you know, beautiful materials and… a real pride in the craftsmanship that I find really inspiring… And the art that uses that uses that iconography, I just find it appealing,” Kaye said.
Kaye hopes that the appreciation for the museum will increase and the exhibit helps to bring new visitors to see the steam engines. Barlas hopes that the exhibition gives those who cannot see the steam engines due to the lack of accessibility a way to experience the historic machinery.
“[T]he industrial past of Hamilton is so tied to its present and maybe to its future… we'll have to see. So I think places like the steam museum… honor a past about Hamilton that sometimes we prefer not to spend too much time thinking about, you know dirty industry and all of that, but that's who we are here. So yeah, I find that inspiring,” Kaye said.
The main goal of the steam museum is to promote education about the industrial and scientific history of Hamilton. Kaye has found a way to take a symbol of that history, the steam engines, and do it justice through art.
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A pomegranate, some books, plants and a kiln. On their own, these images may not speak to the inspiring legacy of women’s stories. However, in the hands of the youth leaders from the YWCA Hamilton and Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre Youth Councils, items such as these have been transformed into powerful symbols within beautiful collages.
This artwork currently hangs at WAHC’s community gallery in an exhibition entitled Portraits of Gratitude: Women+’s History; Women+’s Future. All the pieces came out of a two-hour collage workshop led by Hamilton artist Stylo Starr for the youth council members, all of whom are between 16 and 29 years old.
[spacer height="20px"]The individuals behind these pieces are not necessarily artists by trade, but were passionate about telling stories of woman-identified individuals’ power and leadership. The idea came out of a conversation held during the YWCA Youth Council’s summer book club wherein they were reading Elizabeth Renzetti’s Shrewed.
“[T]here's a chapter in the book that discusses the relationship between Mary Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft and we were remarking on how interesting it was that both of these women eventually got such recognition for their work and about how women's stories and history are often absorbed by their husbands,” explained Daniela Giulietti, the coordinator for the YWCA Youth Advisory Council.
Giulietti approached WAHC with the idea of creating an exhibition to combat this erasure and bring women’s stories to the forefront. This brought the WAHC Youth Council on board and the group decided to hold the exhibit at the WAHC, a massive two storey historic house on 51 Stuart Street.
October is Women’s History Month in Canada and this year’s theme has been designated with the #MakeAnImpact hashtag. The government has set up Women of Impact in Canada, an online gallery celebrating the achievements of remarkable women.
In the same vein, the collage workshop that produced the exhibition’s pieces began with the participants reflecting on women who inspire them. Some of these women were activists, authors and pop culture figures. Notable figures such as Toni Morrison and Beyoncé were highlighted in the pieces.
[spacer height="20px"]However, many were women that would not be found in national collections: mothers, sisters, grandmothers, aunts and friends. Hitoko Okada, a textile artist and Interim Programs Coordinator for the WAHC Youth Council, shared how her grandmother inspires her at this time in her life.
“[W]hen I'm weaving and sewing, I really feel like she is coming through and…even teaching my small movements of the hand…I just feel like that she's really with me and guiding me and encouraging me to connect to my ancestry through craft,” explained Okada.
“I feel like that's a knowledge that was transmitted to me through this…indirect way but it's a hand movement and a practice that…most of the women in our family have shared.”
The influence of family comes through in many of the collages. Several invoke domestic imagery and contain allusions to women relatives. One piece has clippings of a farm that reminded the artist of her grandmother’s farm where she grew up. Another seems to spell out Mom.
It is special that this exhibition provides a place for the stories of women that figure most prominently in our personal histories. In this time where the experiences of women are continuously being cast aside, it is empowering to have a space wherein the narratives of women are valued.
“[T]he timing ended up being really important because this was…when a lot of anti-survivor narratives were present in the media around the Brent Kavanaugh confirmation…[I]t felt for me like the space created was almost a really nice relief. You can see that in some of the pieces where there's survivors and I believe survivors, we believe survivors,” said Jordyn Perreault-Laird, a member of the YWCA Youth Council and Outreach and Partnerships Coordinator at WAHC.
The exhibition will culminate with a closing reception on Oct. 26, during which there will be a screening of the film, Bread and Roses. The film is inspired by the Justice for Janitors movement and tells the story of the janitorial strike in Los Angeles by undocumented immigrants and led by women.
The film sheds light on history that is often obscured by louder male narratives. It also demonstrates the power of young women and marginalized people to change their world. Creating space for the lesser known stories of women was one of the main goals of the exhibition as a whole. Reflecting on the success of the exhibit, Okada summed up the gravity of this impact.
“It really makes me think about the power of an image and the image of a woman in leadership. It speaks volumes. It's really so powerful…[it] gives me chills.”
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By Adrienne Klein
The Shifting Ground Lines: Shifting Pluralist Perspectives exhibition explores how cultural backgrounds influence their view of landscapes and use of land through framed depictions of Canadian landscapes, from Carl Ray’s Medicine Bear to Lawren Harris’ Lake and Mountains, hanging on the crisp black walls of the main floor of L.R. Wilson.
[spacer height="20px"]Shifting Ground Lines: Shifting Pluralist Perspectives is an exhibition curated by Brandon Coombs and a production team consisting of Beatrice Hammond, Sienna Suji Kim, Kyle Wyndham-West and Jennifer Yacula of McMaster University. It is composed of twelve photo reproductions of artistic Canadian landscapes and is part of the Socrates Project at McMaster University, which aims to shed light on pressing issues through interdisciplinary approaches.
[spacer height="20px"]The exhibition was originally conceived as part of a project for Art History 4X03 administered by Angela Sheng, an associate professor in the Art History department, where students were tasked with curating a visual exhibit. Beatrice Hammond, who is a fifth-year art history and English major, explained that her group decided to do their project on Canadian landscapes because they wanted to challenge and question popular ideas surrounding the meaning of Canadian art.
“When people think of Canadian landscape their mind automatically goes to the Group of Seven. That’s what we were taught in elementary school. Go to the art gallery, see the Group of Seven, learn it, but we don’t usually get to see that that’s not the only landscape,” explained Hammond.
“That’s not the only representation of landscape or Canadian landscape and there’s so many different representations. [W]e really wanted to shift the narrative… we’re shifting the notion of what is the conventional landscape and shifting away from the settler, colonial ideas of art and…what is beauty and what is landscape.”
The director of the Socrates project, Rina Fraticelli, trusted these students to make the entire exhibit a reality. They were given the upmost independence in the curation process. They picked pieces to include, framed the artwork by hand, marketed the project and were involved in every details from inception of the project to the closing reception.
“There were a lot of components to this and I learned so much about the professional art world through this experience. It was crazy learning how museums and galleries work and how to communicate with them and get results. Like how to get people to give you photo reproductions, how to get them to ship them to you, you know, just working with people,” said Hammond.
[spacer height="20px"]The reception for the exhibit has received a positive response thus far. On Sept. 26, Coombs gave a curatorial talk where he discussed the way that we create artificial boundaries in various areas of society and Hammond enjoyed watching everyone admire the pieces through that lens.
“[We] had Coombs talk about how the art relates to space and how we create artificial boundaries through our provinces and territory lines and how some spaces are delegated to some people while others aren’t so that was kind of cool watching people view the artwork while keeping that in mind,” explained Hammond.
Only a few of pieces from their original virtual exhibition were able to be secured, but the intent remained the same; to have equal representation for Indigenous and non-Indigenous art. The entire process shows the value of experiential education both for people leading the project and those able to appreciate the end results.
The exhibit can be viewed in L.R. Wilson up until Oct. 19, when there will be a final reception for the exhibit. People will have the opportunity to hear from the students who put the exhibit together and discuss it with them.
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By Drew Simpson
The museum is still and rested thirty minutes after opening at 11 a.m. Light grey undertones of the tile, the walls and even the clear glass feed into this state. The only audible sounds are the receptionist chatting with the artist, Ursula Johnson.
Another glass door with grey undertones opens to Rheanne Chartrand, the museum curator. It is as if the grey cancels out the obnoxious glare of light the door would have produced. Chartrand motions towards the exhibit entrance.
[spacer height="20px"]At first sight, the exhibit seems simple. A side room leads into what feels like a room filled with statements. Baskets seemingly non-functional sit on metal shelving with tags attached. A database, a scanner and a pair of delicate white gloves demonstrate otherwise.
Exhibit attendees are encouraged to wear the gloves, choose a basket and scan the tag as a database educates them in seconds on what the artifact they are holding is. This one is a puppy holder.
The process of the gloves, scanning and reading the information resembles a museum’s archive room. As Chartrand mentions, Johnson points out the limitations of the database’s structure.
“A lot of cultural signifiers or references or terms and their use cannot fully be archived within that database. There’s also no space for a lot of community information or space for contested stories or histories related to that object,” explained Chartrand.
Leaving the Archive Room and entering the main room, black text describing the exhibit sits on a lamented white background stuck to the wall. The description of the exhibit entails three distinct spaces: The Archive Room, the Museological Grand Hall and the Performative Space.
[spacer height="20px"]The Museological Grand Hall holds empty exhibit glasses with white etchings on two sides, labeling the basketry. Johnson clarifies the archive room's parody permitting persons to touch the artifacts, yet the empty exhibit glasses do not allow people to touch anything even though the cases are empty.
Furthermore, the Museological Grand Hall reiterates the history of institutions bringing back artifacts from the Indigenous maker. Often times it is in awe of the spectacle without aiming to understand how the artifact was made.
Historically, many ‘artifacts’ have been mislabelled and misnamed. The etchings and labels pose as recipes and when coupled with the language they tell how each basket was made.
Paired with the Archive Room, the Museological Grand Hall also gambles the idea of who has the authority to name things and to describe their history. Mirroring Johnson’s sense of humour, the Archive Room does so with a comical twist.
If these neo-artifacts and their descriptions take their place in the chronological database, years later the discussion of pairing history to understand these artifacts will be comical to those aware of the satire.
[spacer height="20px"]Within the main room and behind a parting wall there is a long tool about three inches wide and three feet long, sitting on a couple of blonde plywood. It has a seat for the performer to sit and split the wood. There are wood shavings like locks of curly blonde hair scattered on the ground. Other smaller tools sit to the side.
The Performative Space is where Johnson performs traditional Mi’kmaw basket-making for the audience. However, she purposely produces unusable splints, as an opposition to set the Indian on display. The entire exhibit is a humorous yet challenging discursion concerning the institution's treatment of Indigenous material and linguistic culture.
The performance is loud. I helped lift the wood while two other persons scattered squares of mats underneath it. It is ironic that the performance is loud given how institutions like museums have set the Indigenous maker on display to perform their knowledge.
[spacer height="20px"]Except for this time, what is being performed is false knowledge, as Johnson purposely makes beginner mistakes when processing the wood, which also speaks to the disconnection between generations.
Ultimately, the three spaces combine to describe a long and large discussion around colonialism and the impact on Indigenous material and linguistic culture. Specifically, it challenges the museums. Certain museums still find this show controversial, although the exhibit has been touring for the past four years.
“All the institutions that have taken the show are always doing things to open up their collections. They are already doing things to break down the idea of the Indian on display. The institutions that don’t have those practices, that are mandated in their policies are the ones that are terrified of the show. They are the ones that can’t take it because it’s too risqué for them,” explained Johnson.
Ultimately hearing Johnson describes the deeper roots of the exhibit changed the visuals of the room. Mi’kwite’tmn (Do You Remember) takes a simple room and fills it with rich stories. These stories are finally told by the right person who simultaneously parodies that authority.
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This past weekend, K-pop superstars BTS landed in Hamilton for three sold-out stadium concerts. Nestled among the three multi-million dollar performances was Magic Shop: A Celebration of BTS and the Magic of Self-Love, a group art exhibition at the Factory Media Centre.
The exhibit was dedicated to BTS fan art and ran from Sept. 21 to Sept. 23. It featured media artwork created by local artists who love the boy band. The event also featured two workshops, one focusing on zine-making and the other on hybrid animation.
Hamilton 3D artist, Charlit Floriano, wanted to have an exhibit as soon as she heard that BTS was coming to play in the city. She became a fan a little over a year ago when a friend of hers sent her one of the band’s music videos. Instantly in love, Floriano became an avid consumer of the plethora of content that the group puts out.
BTS keeps its fans hooked with a constant stream of tweets and music. In the last year alone they have released three albums and countless music videos. The visually stunning videos have made art a key part of the BTS experience.
“I think the visuals do a really good of connecting everything. [I]t drew me in…[T]hat first video I watched, it was like the sets… the costumes, the makeup, all of it just blew me away as an artist,” Floriano explained.
The band’s aesthetics have inspired their army of fans to create their own art, Floriano among them. In the past she has made 3D models of the band members and for the exhibit she has created a virtual reality experience.
Floriano sees the creation of BTS fan art as narrative work. It serves as a way for fans to develop the band members’ characters as they are inspired by the real and idol personas that the group shares online.
She and the other artists that took part in the exhibition were also drawn to the themes present in the band’s music and style.
“[I]n the West the way that [the band] deal[s] with masculine beauty is really different… [I]t's kind of more soft and feminine so it feels androgynous to us. And then the whole theme of loving yourself and just focusing more on… your career. It's not so romance-driven but it's also about friendship and owning yourself,” she said.
[pjc_slideshow slide_type="bts-fan-art-exhibit"]
These themes are part of what has made BTS so special to so many people. It is the reason why they have enough support to sell out the FirstOntario Centre for three nights and fill Jackson Square’s roof with 10,000 fans waiting for merchandise and a chance to take a picture with holograms of band members. Their fans are beyond passionate and creative.
Unfortunately, Floriano reports there is stigma associated with being a BTS fan, perhaps because they are a pop group or because they cater to younger audiences. Floriano doesn’t want those who love BTS to feel as if that their love is invalid or misplaced.
“[I]t's okay to like things because they're pretty or because it makes you happy…I also want[ed] to give a venue to the people I knew who are really into them and who are artists too…[BTS] is something I like drawing and it can be art [placed] in a gallery,” explained Floriano.
The art exhibit and concerts served as a way for the Hamilton BTS army to come together. By meeting people who love BTS and art, Floriano hopes people have been inspired to make their own BTS-inspired pieces. She believes that fan art is a gateway to real art.
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At Supercrawl this weekend, Hamilton photographer Jessie Golem brought an interactive, human face to the premature cancellation of the universal basic income pilot project through her photo exhibit Humans of Basic Income.
Ten portraits of individuals whose lives had been radically changed by the premature cancellation stood outside Centre 3 for Print and Media Arts on James Street North. Several recipients of the basic income pilot sat in front of the photo display, sharing with passersby their own personal experiences.
Universal basic income was introduced as an experimental pilot project by the provincial Liberal government in 2017 in order to sustainably reduce poverty. Four thousand eligible people from Hamilton, Brantford, Brant County, Thunder Bay and Lindsay received monthly basic income payments to help cover living expenses and improve quality of life.
Golem started the Humans of Basic Income project to humanize the issues associated with cancelling the project through the power of visual storytelling. Prior to this weekend’s exhibit, the photographs only existed online. Golem used Facebook and Twitter to share the photos.
Part of what made the Supercrawl exhibit unique was the ability to have face-to-face interactions with basic income recipients.
“[It’s about] taking what's a political issue and putting a human face to it and saying, well these are the people that are being affected,” Golem said.
The exhibit explores how basic income gave some people the freedom to pursue other passions and interests. Margie Goold, one of the volunteers at the exhibit, was able to take a digital camera course at Mohawk college, an opportunity she wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise.
Basic income also allowed Hamilton resident Lance Dingman to pay for his prosthetic leg. This allowed him to save up funds for prosthetics that he will need in the not so distant future. Most importantly, basic income gave Dingman the autonomy to live his life as he chooses.
“Basic income for me has given me the life that I have been striving a long time [for], to make it better, to make it richer, to make it more independent for myself,” explained Dingman.
The original intention was to continue the project on an experimental basis for three years and then assess its effectiveness. However, the Ford government cancelled the pilot program in July and announced that payments will stop at the end of March.
Through the photographs and experiences being shared during the Supercrawl exhibit, the narrative is consistent. A premature cancellation of the pilot project threatens to uproot the lives that it had helped people to build for themselves.
Recipients made life-changing decisions based on the expectation of receiving monthly payments for the entirety of the pilot program. Scraping the income will lock individuals into leases they can’t afford and disrupt their studies at colleges and universities.
Furthermore, recipients that applied for other sources of financial support on the understanding that they would be receiving basic income payments, are now stuck in between assistance programs, with no certainty about where their financial support will come from.
Lynn Ridsdale, another volunteer at the exhibit, notes that high living costs in Hamilton made universal basic income even more important. In particular, basic income helped her to find suitable, accessible housing, despite the steadily increasing cost of rent in Hamilton.
As Hamilton’s arts scene attracts investment and development, living expenses rise and many can no longer afford to live in Hamilton. New cafes, galleries and condominiums wipe away the visual signs of poverty in the city, and the bustle of Supercrawl makes it easy to forget about the consequences that come alongside the city’s development.
#basicincome gives people stability and dignity.
Heartbreaking stories of what the loss of the program means.
Grateful to have heard from Jessie Golem yesterday, who started the Humans of Basic Income project @HumansBasic. pic.twitter.com/FVoHTDLeQ2
— Kevin (@KevinHLam) September 16, 2018
Golem hopes that the project will help continue the conversation about poverty.
“I don’t want this conversation to die down and just become another political issue…I want people to think about the conversation, think about what poverty looks like,” explained Golem.
The Humans of Basic Income exhibit brings Hamiltonians face to face with the reality of what it is like to navigate life in the city while experiencing poverty. The exhibit’s photographs, media reach and real-life interactions at Supercrawl have created a platform for Hamilton residents to share their experiences with the community at large.
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