“Making art, reflecting, means caring more than is normally necessary while also ignoring more than is normally necessary. It means parsing through the constant arrival and disappearance of images and information, often without warning or context. It means we must decide to be calloused or catalysed.”
Articles
“We don’t know what we’re making until we make it. When I shared my poem with Christine Fellows and Chantel Mierau, two brilliant artists I was over the moon to collaborate with, the page dissolved and burst open all at once.”
“To look at the surface of things is not enough: engaging with the objects meticulously crafted by Jennifer Laflamme, the Toronto-based artist otherwise known as Mifi Mifi, is a necessarily sensuous, embodied act, an invitation to touch the surface of an object in order to be pulled directly into its intricate world.”
“As we play and grow, we may conclude that distinguishing between 2D, 3D, and virtual art forms is non-essential. Inside and outside my studio, the ever-shifting conversation between painting and visual culture unfolds.”
Purdah is a term that encapsulates the concept and practice of veiling and voluntary seclusion from society. The word “Purdah,” derived from Farsi, can also have the literal meaning of “curtains.” “Purdah: Veiled Realities” is a multimedia project that explores this concept through a personal journey, inspired by the rich cultural and feminist lineage of my Islamic heritage, where women in my ancestry have voluntarily embraced various forms of Purdah, such as the hijab, Balochi chadar, niqab, and burqa…
“How does the surface shape engage with the material world? How do some surfaces come to be considered permanent while others permeable? How does the idea of a surface translate to the digital realm? How did the surface become understood as a metaphor for a (lack of) profundity of knowledge? How is the surface implicated in the status of the image itself, as a support or as a medium?”
“I think these are the reasons this form of making is so interesting to me. It’s a connection to a rich canon of cultural production and a conversation with history. […] I’m never exactly sure where the work will take me, at least conceptually. I am more concerned with the process(es) and ultimately the rhythm of the work.”
“The Archive on Ice is a solar-powered digital micro-archive. A miniature database of Ice Follies’ history. The website archiveonice.ca was coded on a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, which is then hosted by a remote server, and powered by PV solar panels. Our digital networks, data centres and technological devices contribute a massive 4% of greenhouse gas emissions. Using solar-power to build a digital archive celebrates a reciprocal relationship with the land, the sun, the lake, and the digital technology. The Archive on Ice is only available to the user as long as the sun shines.” -Imogen Clendinning and Ice Follies
“…the value of the animal archive goes beyond merely being a repository for collected specimens, biological materials, and digitized multimedia. These archives invite us to contemplate alternative futures, to bring past histories of long-gone species to the present and transmit their stories across generations.”
“The Two-Spirit Archive is a significant resource for Two-Spirit, trans, and queer Indigenous peoples—it not only provides insight into the lives of those who have, and continue to, fight for rights, but it also shows us that we’ve always been here, and we always will be.”