Editorial Note
The sun is melting the snow on the sidewalk and it’s starting to feel like this daunting winter is behind us. As we anticipated, COVID-19 made the yearly struggles of our Canadian winters particularly difficult. Emerging from the freezing temperatures, it’s clear that the care and compassion that brought us through to the other side didn’t come from the guidance of institutions or corporations—it came from within our communities.
Historically, the power dynamic between curator and artist has been fraught and widely critiqued. Our spring 2021 issue opens with a conversation between artist Erika DeFreitas and curator Tarin Dehod which took place as they prepared for their exhibition at AKA artist-run centre. Their dialogue reflects the admiration and consideration imperative for a fruitful collaboration. Correspondingly, curator Yuvinka Medina interviewed artist Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn on the eve of their exhibition opening at Bonniers Konsthall, reviewing the process and events that brought them to that moment. To commemorate the partnership, Nguyễn created a beautiful artist multiple that replicates the lenticular motion of her text-based installations. The postcard, which is placed in each copy of this issue, switches between Nguyễn’s birth name and Western European name and acts as a reminder of how colonial ideologies reverberate throughout every corner of western culture.
A number of writers within this issue were inspired by the resonance of our recent past. Each editorial incites a valuable confrontation with nostalgia, exploring where these sentiments sit in the hearts and minds of our present day. Although their subject matter differs greatly, Rhiannon Vogl’s exploration of Chrysanne Stathacos’ ongoing installation 1-900 Mirror Mirror, Derek Coulombe’s dissection of archival footage from the 1984 Summer Olympics, and Nicole Leroy’s uncovering of Osamu Sato’s 1998 video game, LSD: Dream Emulator, showcase the vitality in our current collective memory. In a similar vein, Jessie Ray Short has been researching the lineage and historical representation of her great great uncle Édouard Beaupré. Beaupré was born in Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan, and although he was Métis, his identity has been usurped as an icon of the French-Canadian curriculum. After a chance meeting with Fransaskois artist Laura St. Pierre and a conversation about her own perception of Beaupré, Short was emboldened to foster a collaborative discussion that confronted the erasure of the Beaupré Métis lineage.
As we continue to grapple with the lasting effects of COVID- 19, testimonies dedicated to mentoring and elevating the next generation of artists and curators is generative beyond social spheres. In an effort to critique the stereotypes associated with the queer community, Vancouver-based artist Christopher Lacroix centres his physical body in his practice, testing its capacity to endure stress, discomfort, and failure. In a profile of the artist, Henry Heng Lu encourages us to resist upholding the status quo of liberal individualism and consider the multitude of ways of both being and attunement. Alternatively, Timothy Yanick Hunter utilizes archival materials, collage, and audio to shape strategies of decolonization. In her introduction to Hunter’s practice, Liz Ikiriko articulates his acute call for radical collective care and the urgency to “recognize that joy, desire, perseverance, and suffering are so often intertwined with our self worth.” And lastly, Lodoe Laura’s conversation with the co- programmers of Winnipeg’s window: Noor Bhangu, Mariana Muñoz Gomez, and Sarah Nesbitt, provides a roadmap to circumvent traditional methodologies. The twenty-four hour exhibition space was designed to be accessible to both the public and its organizers, and despite its temporal nature, has made a lasting impact on the landscape of the Winnipeg art community.
On behalf of the entire BlackFlash cohort, both past and present, I would like to conclude with a heartfelt thank you to Troy Gronsdahl. After four years as the chair of the Buffalo Berry Press board of directors, he has provided our organization with an immeasurable amount of time, creative energy, and compassion. We are eternally grateful for all he has done to secure a positive future for this publication.
— Maxine Proctor, Managing Editor
Purchase Issue 38.1: Spring 2021 or Subscribe to BlackFlash
Feature Image: Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn, Untitled (Entitled), 2019-2021. Installation view of “Untitled (Entitled)” at Bonniers Konsthall,
Stockholm, Sweden (February 3 – May 23, 2021). Photography by Jean-Baptiste Béranger.
The inclusion of Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn’s Untitled (Entitled) limited-edition postcard was generously sponsored by Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.
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