The pandemic has provided the opportunity to think through the ways we can be there for one another. While it is a collective experience that is happening to us, we are not able to physically be around each other. As a result, we’ve had to go beyond what in-person kinship can look like in order to create new ways of being “together.” The ability to be around one another is now a privilege for many but it’s also a lesson to think outside the box. It makes me think of the quote by the late bell hooks: “The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is–it’s to imagine what is possible.” 1 This time of isolation has challenged us to reimagine what can be viable for our communities.
“Thinking of you” is a sentiment I have taken for granted, one I did not think much of before the pandemic. It was sweet when a pal or acquaintance said that they were thinking of me, but it didn’t stay with me. The last two years have shifted my reaction to that phrase. For someone to say that they are “thinking of me” now… it fills me with so much joy and happiness. We are often caught up in the busyness of our lives, trying to survive and stay afloat. In a time when most people in our communities are not only enduring the pandemic but other long-standing systemic oppressions, our pre-existing feelings of isolation have only become more heightened. The act of thinking of someone in your life that you cherish is special, and the process of communicating that love is enriching for all involved; it keeps people close to our hearts.
The pandemic has revealed the true desirability of telling our loved ones that we are thinking of them. It is a necessity for survival to be in conversation with one another and feel cared for. I think that is why I was so drawn to the Thinking of You care package by the Younger than Beyoncé collective. In November 2021, this collective of folks announced that they were doing a raffle for a care package, one that included stickers, zines, self care items, and goodies that were unique in their own way.
The idea of the care package is helping to reimagine ways artists, collectives, and individuals engage with art. This package was distinct partly because it was free! Personally, I love free things and felt Thinking of You was a very mutual exchange: an opportunity for the included artists to share their work, and a chance for the raffle winners to discover works that, though not necessarily “new”, might be new to them.
I took my time looking through the Thinking of You care package, basking in the pages of zines that have become favourites of mine for the last couple of months. Ripe (issue 2), by the collective ripe, for example, is filled with delicious recipes, stories about the realities of food insecurity in Canada, and interviews with advocates that fight for food justice. This seemed an appropriate inclusion, as maybe some of us turned to hobbies that included growing food at home or cooking more across the pandemic. One of the items that I have revisited multiples times is the “So You’re Anxious as Fuck” zine by Sonali Menezes. It gives tips and tricks for dealing with anxiety. Reading through it, you can tell that it was written with care and experience. The attention and time that went into constructing multiple tools for managing anxiety is evident in the project and makes it feel generous, universal.
On a snowy day in December, I saw the bundle perched inside my mailbox. I was excited to see what was waiting for me in the box, to see how it was prepared and nurtured. This care package was filled with intention; I noticed it the first time I opened it. It was evident to me when I opened the box and still feel that way each time I sift through the items.
Receiving the care package also provided me the opportunity to chat with Geneviève Wallen, a member of the Younger Than Beyoncé collective. Our conversation over Zoom was grounded in a critical dialogue around care and the curation of an experience.
For someone to say that they are “thinking of me” now… it fills me with so much joy and happiness. We are often caught up in the busyness of our lives, trying to survive and stay afloat. In a time when most people in our communities are not only enduring the pandemic but other long-standing systemic oppressions, our pre-existing feelings of isolation have only become more heightened. The act of thinking of someone in your life that you cherish is special, and the process of communicating that love is enriching for all involved; it keeps people close to our hearts.
Image Description: A painted image of dark brown hands, isolated from a body float on a green textured background. The hands hold a round bowl filled with pink, purple, and yellow flowers along with dark green foliage. Text to the top right of the image reads “Thinking of You” in large, white, all-caps font, followed by “care package” in a dark green, lower-case. In the bottom right corner is Younger Than Beyoncé’s logo: a black square that reads: “YTB” in white text with “Gallery” below it in black.
Above: Sonali Menezes, So You’re Anxious as Fuck. 2019. Zine, image courtesy of Ariel Bader-Shamai.
Image Description: A handmade zine’s cover page is photographed on a brown background. The zine is made of white paper, text is handwritten in black ink, and “The Second Edition” is written in all-caps across the top. The zine’s title, “So You’re Anxious as Fuck Tips + Tricks + Things,” is surrounded by a hand drawn wreath of leaves in the centre of the page. A grey circle sits in the bottom right-hand corner of the zine with the text “Revised + Updated” centred within it.
What made you and the collective at YTB want to put together a care package to give away?
It started off with us stumbling upon the Ontario Arts Council COVID-19 Response grant and we wanted to apply for it. This time, specific funding made us think deeper about what it means to apply for a grant that is in dialogue to this unprecedented global event, and what could be a good use of that money. In contemplating what this grant could manifest as, we settled on aligning our project with acts of care. Caring for others felt like the most necessary response during an ongoing pandemic.This provided freedom to imagine what it would be to think outside of programming an exhibition or a virtual event.
In the process of coming up with the idea of a care package, it didn’t feel fair to be the judge of who gets it and who doesn’t; what kind of criteria would make someone more deserving than another? Therefore, raffling it made more sense. Also, what is exciting about raffling a free giveaway is that it relates to redistribution of wealth. As a collective, YTB applies for project grants that can facilitate the showcase of emerging artists and other forms of professional development. By being a recipient of the COVID-19 Response grant, we were able to pay the creatives who contributed to the project, do a raffle, and send the care packages to our constituency and to the Thinking of You contributors (minus the item they contributed). They deserve it too!
It was almost like the meme with Oprah who is giving away cars: you get a care package, you get a care package, and you get a care package!
On another tangent, I think it’s rare that we get the chance to distribute meaningful objects for free without it being part of a larger project, especially in the art world. I think there’s something very beautiful that is present in other cultures but not necessarily entrenched in North American capitalistic culture, which is to give without expectations, exemplified by Gudlskul’s event Hanya Memberi Tak Harap Kembali (HMTHK) or To Give and Expect Nothing in Return at AGYU last fall during the Knowledge Garden Festival. As a practice, gift giving fuels collective care, and I believe that it can inspire us to share with a spirit of abundance.
Why did you choose the artists included in the packages? They range from various mediums and craft makings.
In terms of picking the artists, who and what was included were basically based on my taste. When assembling the package, I was thinking about versatility. If there is an item in the bundle that someone doesn’t like, it can be gifted to someone else. Moreover, members of the artistic community also entered people close to them who they thought would appreciate receiving a gift. It was really heartwarming to observe this act of generosity since we didn’t anticipate it. And so, the reach of the collective care goes beyond the scope of the 55 raffle winners. The artists who contributed to the care package were a mix of people that I knew and worked with, and individuals whose practice[s] I recently discovered. I believe in the idea of working with people more than once. It is strange to me, this sort of assumption that it is better to have a whole new roster of collaborators for each grant application.
Furthermore, it’s important to establish longevity in relationships that you cultivate with the creatives around you. Also, creating these types of support networks acknowledge[s] that one ‘s practice evolves over time. It is even more important to sustain long term relationships with artists facing systemic barriers in the art world. It’s a way to take care of one another and to participate in generating a more sustainable and equitable art ecosystem. As we show up for each other, we break institutional cycles of disposable collaborations.
Do you feel that more galleries, collectives, and institutions should go in the direction of curating care packages like this? As sometimes it is hard for artists to produce work or shows in times like these?
I think you need a certain type of capacity and set of resources to facilitate this type of project. Many artist-run centres survive on little, having a small margin in terms of financial and human resources. To sustain a care package project could put a strain on the staff and exhibition budget. In the case of a major public institution with a large operation budget, the different priorities they support are sometimes opposite to community-based practices. For example, in the case of a gallery that circulates a big blockster show like a Van Gogh retrospective, my question would be who would inherit a care package project?
In the structure of roles and its hierarchy of tasks, I wonder who could have the capacity to take ownership of this type of program. Everyone is stretched thin within the art institutional realm, while labouring towards fulfilling a specific agenda and mandate.This gives very little flexibility, and so I suspect that someone occupying an underpaid and temporary position would be the one carrying the Thinking of You project. It takes time to put these packages together and there are lengthy menial tasks such as making and posting labels, assembling the items in the box, and bringing them to the post office. So what will be the support in place for the temporary worker? And in terms of sustaining the project and perhaps making it a recurrent event, I wonder about the viability of it in a conventional gallery space.
To do this project, you have to be flexible with time and be collectively involved. We received the grant just before the spring of 2021, and I thought we would be able to send the packages out by August. It took until December to actualize the project in full because we were working on other projects while taking care of things in our respective practices. It makes sense for a nomadic collective to do something like this, since we are not tied to a pre-established cycle of exhibitions and events. It makes the process and the logistics easier.
Overall yes, I think more organisations should be doing this type of giveaway but it all depends on how flexible these institutions and galleries can be, as well as the system in place to support this kind of initiatives.
What is the importance of supporting artists at critical times such as now? And sharing their talents and stories with a wide variety of people?
I think it’s a collective conversation and it is one that everyone has been brainstorming around. There are many fronts to attend to in providing more support and visibility for artists. One is, of course, a universal basic income and another is to financially support artists by encouraging the streams of income available to them other than exhibition-making. Especially because during the first year or so of the pandemic, we saw a shrinkage in opportunities to showcase art. Also, most institutions are now revisiting how they are perceiving or treating artistic labour, and that is connected to the fact that artists are more vocal about wanting to open conversations about money. It feeds into that ecosystem of advocacy, which has been generating a platform for people to be seen but also having the full spectrum of their contributions recognized.
Be sure to follow the Younger Than Beyoncé Collective and see all the amazing work they are up to! @ytbgallery
As well, follow and keep up with all the artists that are included in the Thinking of You care package:
Jackie Lee and the Secret Planet Print Shop
Amrit Brar and 13th Press
Mahlet Cuff is an emerging curator, writer and artist. She is based in Treaty 1 Territory in so-called Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has interviewed artists and cultural workers for the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg Film group, Yiara Mag, Manitoba music and Synonym Art Consultation.
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