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The NPC: An unplayable character for unnarratable times
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Who is worthy of a homeland?
This article contains subject matter that might be triggering. Please read with care. Surviving genocide Genocide has been the subject of my inquiries since childhood. My father would tell us sakhis about Sikh genocides, ranging from the Mughal violence towards our Sikh gurus to the state-led pogroms against the Sikh people. Each generation…
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Artist Care: Samar Hejazi
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Re-Mixing African Photograph
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Landback in Our Lifetime
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This piece is about healing
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The Journey Of Rest
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Sum Of Its Parts
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Doorways to Read Ritual
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Where the Cave Ends & the Mountain Begins
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Cosmic Microwave Background
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What happened to Silence=Death?
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Emotional alchemy
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Parallel Earth No. 737
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On Memory Work
On Memory Work What do I hope to leave behind and for whom?” By: Radha Mistry Portrait of Bao, Creative Biologist Model: Xiyao (Miranda) Shou In a not so distant future, a not so simple reality persists – ten billion people are poised to want the same thing that perhaps we all want. More. More…
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Emerging from Cocoons
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The afterlife of Wundr
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Closer to a lobster than a butterfly
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Spaces for Hesitation
Meghan: What brings you joy? Kosisochukwu: Getting out of my comfort zone. Long walks. The Ultimatum on Netflix—it’s a whole mess. My family and friends. The knowledge that I am intentionally creating this life that I’ve chosen to live.︎ website ︎ instagram
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Shape Shifter
Shantha: During a panel for International Women’s Day, you spoke a lot about community work. What does that look like for you? Violet: Since the beginning of my professional practice, I have been working towards a world where my art and activism melt together as one. Thankfully these days I can say this is true.…
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Embodied Silences
Meghan: What is something —anything— you would like to bring attention to? Lukas: For those that are rarely silent, I would like to urge you to consider practicing silence. In a one-on-one conversation, practice leaving a gap of silence between the end of their expression, and your response. You might be surprised at how much…
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Shifting Perspective
Devyani Saltzman has broken a lot of ground in Canada’s arts and culture scene—a founding curator of Toronto’s Luminato, the first woman of colour to hold the position of Director of Public Programming for the Art Gallery of Ontario, and Director of Literature at Banff before that. Now, working beyond our borders for the first…
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Ninga Mìnèh
In Conversation HIMA: After almost 18 months of revealing more of so-called Canada’s history of genocide against Indigenous communities, how are you really? CAROLINE: People forget that Indigenous communities have gone through so much. They forget the history. Let alone knowing the history. It’s a good thing this chaotic past comes to light. But it…
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Bloody Boats
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We cast spells on the mothers of our daughters and daughters of our mothers.
Scheherazade’s Dream The echoes of a spell casted on women centuries ago pulses through my veins. Like the Indian Ocean, a vast tempest full of unknown emotions, an abyss eternal, I feel the generations of women before me. I feel their innocence, their revenge, their power. Perhaps most of all, I feel their lust and…
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Book review: Amrit’s moving debut novel
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Intergenerational Shifts
NEWEST INTERVIEW INTERGENERATIONAL SHIFTS BY SATNAM SINGH AND AMRIT (NOYZ) SINGH a conversation between father and son Listen to the full conversation here: NOYZ: This is Amrit Singh, also known as Noyz. I’m a rapper and author from Brampton, Ontario. And at the end of 2019, I released my first book entitled “Keep Moving On:…
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Earth Bodies 2
EARTH BODIES SARAH MAY TAYLOR & D’BI. YOUNG ANITAFRIKA INTRODUCTION: The Anitafrika Method is an integrative, critically-reflexive, trauma-informed, decolonial framework used to support the growth and development of artists, educators, innovators and leaders. It is a practitioner-centred arts-based intervention that nurtures self-transformation, creative expression & community embodiment. Created by d’bi.young anitafrika from the Dub theory…
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Respectful Design
RAJI: I’ve spoken before on my advocacy for education and curriculum reform, so I wanted to chat with you about decolonizing Canadian education and its impact on design students. They go through a Western education system that teaches students exclusively Western ways of knowing and speaking. EDT: At Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD)…
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Going the Distance
RAJI AUJLA: Your point of view doesn’t come from trauma, but from reclamation of certain historical atrocities that are unclaimed in political documents and records. Has that always been the case for you? MANUEL MATHIEU: Growing up in an environment where I was exposed to certain things, I built a cocoon around myself, so I…
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Figments & Pigments
FIGMENTS & PIGMENTS Studio session with abstract artist Callum Schuster on the psychology of colour, memory, and magnets Photography by Aakanksha Luthra + Callum Schuster NEWEST: Is your studio an insight into your brain or heart? CALLUM SCHUSTER: Maybe both? Could be one in the same but perceived separately, with the object as the brain…
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Home is Where the Art is
ART IS BY SAMIA KHAN Imagining Afghan futures and feminine space with artist Hangama Amiri Images: Courtesy of the artist Hangama Amiri, an Afghan-Canadian artist, finds herself at home on the margins and in mobility. She uses fabrics and photographs to weave together memories and materiality as a cross-cultural dialogue. She believes in “using the…
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Traversing the Void
TRAVERSING THE VOID MARISA GALLEMIT X RHIANNON VOGL On finding identity through found objects and locating self in lineage. RHIANNON VOGL: We’ve been talking about how your art practice is a form of placemaking, a sort of knowledge acquisition, a way to excavate, embody and explore ties to your Filipino roots. MARISA GALLEMIT: My work…
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The medicine wheel of Hip-Hop
THE MEDICINE WHEEL OF HIP-HOP DAVID STRICKLAND An essay on Hip-Hop as 21st century Indigenous culture As a child, my first dream was to become a professional hockey player in the NHL. Then Hip-Hop entered my life, and my whole life changed. Feeling a connection to my Indigenous roots came later; then my whole life…
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Paper Trail
PAPER TRAIL BY MALLIKA VIEGAS On love, legality and LGBT migration with Porus Vimadalal and Prayag Menon. MALLIKA VIEGAS: I see your online following and presence, and it’s remarkable. Fashion is not the most forgiving of industries. Was there a point where things really got going and you felt comfortable? PRAYAG MENON: When I started…
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Swellings in the Tide
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Continental Drifts
Introduction by Corrie Jackson. Human experience isn’t monolithic. Contemporary art offers possible perspectives through which futures can be considered, experienced and defined. Artists play a critical role in this imagining. They create portals into ways of being, and ways of being in-relation. The parameters for how these proposals come into association with those of us…
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Nude in the Grass
Introduction by Bonnie Devine It is my intense and wonderful pleasure to be introducing Dr. Andrea Fatona. Andrea’s research and practice is concerned with issues of equity in the arts, and the pedagogical possibilities of artworks produced by “other” Canadians to articulate broader perspectives and Canadian identities. Andrea’s interests are in the ways that art,…
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The Groundwork
In Conversation ANA: This International Women’s Day seems even more important than ever. The pandemic has shone a light on so many of the inequities present in society not least of all, the importance of “care-taking” in all its forms and how we need to find a balance between how we take care of each…
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Earth Bodies
The Anitafrika Method. The Anitafrika Method is an integrative, critically-reflexive, trauma-informed, decolonial framework used to support the growth and development of artists, educators, innovators and leaders. It is a practitioner-centred arts-based intervention that nurtures self-transformation, creative expression & community embodiment. Created by d’bi.young anitafrika from the Dub theory of her mother—pioneer Dub poet Anita Stewart—the…
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Listening as a Mother
ISSUE II Listening as a Mother From 6pm to 6am at Rt. 105 STORY BY Meghan J. Lindsay PUBLISHED January 1, 2021 We have a 6 month child. When the world stopped to show its sickness, we moved to the Quebec countryside, 15-minutes away from my childhood home. I am grateful for our walls, the…
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Coming of Age
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My Body and Her Work
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How to Win at Board Games
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Immeasurable Melody
IMMEASURABLE MELODY Interactive Video Journey NEP SIDHU ARTIST Once upon a time, we met an enigmatic spirit. He’s a sculpture, a designer, a maker. Only his closest circle could gain access to the intelligence of his mind and the rhythm of his melodic voice. His name is Nep Sidhu and he let us in one…
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Ghosts, Memories and Future Nostalgia
GHOSTS, MEMORIES, AND FUTURE NOSTALGIA In Conversation with Howie Tsui and Hana Amani ARTIST HOWIE TSUI CURATORIAL DEVELOPMENT HANA AMANI Many things are lost when we migrate from one place to another. The magic, the folklore, the mythology that we unconsciously bring with us to the new societies we live in, keeps some of the…
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Growing Pains
GROWING PAINS In Conversation with Nyla Innuksuk and Devyani Saltzman NYLA INNUKSUK STORYTELLER DEVYANI SALTZMAN ARTS ADMINISTRATION We all grew up with horror stories that spooked us in our dreams. We got older and either befriended the monsters or feared them. Filmmaker and media artist Nyla Innuksuk and arts administrator Devyani Saltzman befriended them and…
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Tales from the Dark Side
TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE WRITTEN BY ANONYMOUS ARTWORK BY QUENTIN VERCETTY “I learned from my enemies. Beat them at their own game.” – KILLMONGER IN BLACK PANTHER It’s a story we’ve been screaming forever, but no one wanted to hear. It’s the biggest elephant in Canada’s newsrooms that few wanted to talk about…
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The Picture of Jah Grey
THE PICTURE OF JAH GREY Jah Grey In Conversation with Anubha Momin JAH GREY PHOTOGRAPHER ANUBHA MOMIN WRITER Jah Grey is a self-taught photographer whose work is motivated by a desire to capture, question, and present queer depictions of Black masculinity. Focusing on portraiture, Jah’s images are often accompanied with written prose; stories that…
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Cadesan – Not of this Land
CADESAN – NOT OF THIS LAND POEM AND NARRATION HARJOT GHUMAN-MATHARU DIRECTION RAJI AUJLA CINEMATOGRAPHY RICK MATHARU EDIT DARSHAN DAURKA FOLK SINGING RAJ GHUMAN Our ideas are cultivated. Nurtured and fed opinion and facts. Sifting through an overload of information, to have them grow into values and doctrine that outline our mind.Our ideas are…
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Artist Care : Queen Kukoyi
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Artist Care : Alyssa Alikpala
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Call of Beauty
NEWEST COVER FEATURE blackpowerbarbie ILLUSTRATOR & ANIMATOR When we were thinking about how to illustrate our theme Rupture for the cover, an image of Kali kept coming to mind. Kali is the Hindu deity of death and time. She is the most powerful form of Shakti and despite her fearful form, she is considered a strong maternal…
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Lighting the qulliq (traditional Inuit oil lamp)
Malina is my reimagined story of the sun goddess. In the original story, Malina is repeatedly sexually assaulted in the dark by her brother and flees into the sky when she catches him in the act. The story is that she becomes the sun and the brother becomes the moon, chasing her everyday. I created…
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Rooh, Ishq and Inquilab : Towards an Understanding of Ecumenical Mysticism
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Collaborations into the future
Raji There’s a couple of responses to you. One, you must be around some great white folks that are thinking like this because there are so many people that don’t. Shary What kind of white people are you guys hanging out with because I hear this stuff from my friends all the time. Ha. Maybe…
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The Non-Linearities of Queerness
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Mushroom Eyes
Mushroom Eyes Connected to one another through an invisible mycelial web By: Tarun Nayar Today, I’ve wandered deep into the forest in search of fungi. It’s early enough in the spring that the creek next to the path is loud and playful. Sweat trickles down my back, even in this cool air. There is less…
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Necrobrands
Imagine an online store that uses artificial intelligence to generate graphic T-shirts. Once a week, the online store uses Twitter’s API to find trending topics.The top-ten trending topics are run through an image generator, like Midjourney, and added onto stock imagery using Printful’s API. The newly designed T-shirts are pushed onto a Shopify Store, using AI-generated descriptions by Critbot and OpenGPT. New products…
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Protopica
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Bottoms Up / Gratitude
BOTTOMS UP / GRATITUDE A collaborative response to rupture by Toronto’s arts community, animation by digital artist Alex McLeod, music by classically trained Gurpreet Chana and written piece by curator Rhiannon Vogl ANIMATION ALEX MCLEOD TABLA GURPREET CHANA POEM RHIANNON VOGL BOTTOMS UP Rupture isn’t a break, it’s not a letting go or a…
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A Bouquet of Flowers
The relationship between Palestinian identity, survivor guilt and his art practice.
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Mirror, Mirror
There is usually a strong gender divide; women participate, while men prefer not to touch Highlighted by Najmabadi, the role of mirrors in Qajar art suggestively asserts the viewer to assume a participatory role. As the figures in the paintings from this period possess strong outward gazes, mirrors in the image are positioned such that…
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I will stay there, even if in pieces
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Our eternal beings
Raji: You both responded to this theme, Ceremonial Deaths, from your respective vantage points. I’m curious what you’ve been thinking about? Howie: I was like: oh, I am already thinking about mingqi (burial objects) and developing a project around this practice of bone repatriation and funerary objects. I’m researching this Canadian Chinese history around the…
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The role of art in a war torn life
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The brushstrokes of a living ancestor
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Rust as Memory, but also as Time
Meghan: I’m so curious about this idea of immersion. You’ve created a space in which the audience can be immersed, but in the process, you were immersed in the act of painting—a new and different practice for you. What did it feel like to immerse yourself in this practice, in your body, to create this,…
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Avatars of Entombment
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Dahae Song
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Soundscapes, Sun Ra & Sikhi
We play the drum until the wound begins to show signs of healing On April 23, 2022 there was a public program moderated by Jova Lynne, the Susanne Feld Senior Curator at MOCAD with special guests Kahil El Zabar and Craig Huckaby. I recall Huckaby opening his commentary by sharing that he never imagined a…