Writer Cole Thompson’s (SK) article Be Careful, the Top Plate is Very Hot or The Death and Life of Licensed Family Restaurants delves into the precognitive state of affect, connecting themes of poetry, theory, food poisoning, and the ubiquitous charm of the familiar licensed family restaurant.
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In this profile, Kiki Dishes it Out, curator/artist/writer Luther Konadu (MB) traces the origins and influence of “Kiki,” the alter ego of performance artist Kiera Boult (ON). Konadu examines how Boult combines sharp commentary on art world hypocrisies with playful riffs on pop culture, delivered with style and criticality.
Artist duo Phomohobes (SK/ON) appropriates elements from vintage lifestyle magazines—spanning interior décor, fashion, and porn—reworking them into erotically charged and surreal collages. Their project, Perverse Luxury, simultaneously highlights their capacity to worship and critique consumer culture.
Artist and scholar Clint Enns interviews filmmaker and photographer Judah Iyunade about cinematic style and influences, following Iyunade’s recent solo exhibition “Alara” at the Centre for Cultural Arts + Practices (C’CAP) in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
In Eyres’ world, the tragicomic reigns, and something is always thrillingly off.
The articles and projects in this issue stem from commissioned responses to the theme of “taste,” framed in part by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s text Distinction, which examines the relationship between taste and class.
“The material reliance of photography—and the artworld—on mining is often overlooked. Palu’s body of work is a corrective to this blind spot in photography and all camera-based image-making.”
“I’d love to stop working, but clicking is work. Scrolling is work. Posting is work. Commenting is work. Changing my thermostat is work. Talking to my friends is work. Even activities that were already forms of work are now multiplied. This feels like the apotheosis of bullshit work.”
“Writing about art has become a way for me to explore my own identity and cultural heritage, to engage with complex ideas about representation, history, and creativity. […] Art has become a mirror, reflecting not just the world around me, but also my internal landscape—my memories, emotions, and thoughts.”
“In the beforetimes, you would never have worked like this: through two hypothetical fifteen- minute breaks and a lunch, with no concept of overtime, entirely alone. There was time to distract yourself with images—a plentiful supply in a seemingly endless scroll. The work seemed less urgent then; yesterday’s rest was a risk of different proportions.”
“Re-working traditional Islamic art forms and objects by employing a variety of media (ink drawing, painting, printmaking, digital print, laser cutting, and video projection), I attempt to reconsider the attachment of divineness and depth in art making. I want to highlight how the meticulous process of creating art—once celebrated in ancient Persia as a symbol of beauty, precision, and spirituality—has become obscured in today’s art world.”