Considering Owkui Enzwor’s reminder that “collectives tend to emerge during periods of crisis, in moments of social upheaval and political uncertainty within society,” it’s easy to see how collective models have gained both interest and influence in recent years. This moment of renewed interest, along with the recent push towards the online, has helped to foster connections and alignments across geographies as artists seek out like minded practitioners and audiences. In a recent issue of ESSE magazine, Collectifs/Collectives, Sylvette Babin notes that as contemporary artists “[seek] alternative forms of ‘being together,’ these new collectives are reviving the concerns of several decades of shared creation.”1 BlackFlash Expanded aims to investigate the impacts collectives have made across the prairie region as a way to help shed light on the shared concerns that both Enzwor and Babin point toward.
Organized by founding year, the archive holds at its centre the insistence that collectives form in direct response to the urgent conditions they are embedded in. This organizational strategy pulls further from Blake Stimson & Gregory Sholette’s argument that a focus on collectivism should be periodized,2 and considers that in order to map the role that each collective played, we need to have a better sense of the circumstances they were responding to. Context matters; collectives in particular take shape as a strategy of response.
Our focus aims to consider the ways in which these artists have come together to organize, create community, and ultimately, get things done. As Alan Moore notes in a focus on NY collectives from 1975-2000: “Artists’ collectives do not make objects so much as they make changes. They make situations, opportunities, and understandings within the social practice of art.”3 We are excited to explore the myriad ways these prairie collectives shift our communities, our approaches to artistic practice, and ultimately the arts sector as a whole.
Along with this archive, our focus on collectives will also include interviews, new writing about collective models, and responses to current collective programming. With contributions by Holly Aubichon, Megan Gnanasihamany, Ellen Moffat, Emilie Neudorf, Patterns Collective, Shushkitew Collective, and AKA artist-run, among others. Our focus on collectives will continue across the summer and fall with contributions added through to the end of 2022.
Collective Archive
In our continually growing archive, collectives that remain active are noted in red text on an orange background; those which are now inactive are in blue text on a green background.
Within each profile we have started making links to other articles across BlackFlash’s online archives as a way to better see connections across time. Our hope is that the archive will spark interest in future analysis as new alignments and connections are made.
As our focus on collectives continues across 2022, more collective projects and artists will be added. If you’d like to contribute to the archive, please complete this form.
2020 to 2022:
Eat Paint Collective
Years Active: 2020 – present
Primary Discipline: Painting/Drawing Visual Art
Region/Location: Calgary, Alberta
Description: The Eat Paint Collective is a group of Alberta-based artists who met at the Alberta University of the Arts in 2020 and are eager to meet new artists to explore the creative process with! Our goal is to get sill, learn new skills, make art, and of course, eat paint!
Key Members: Casey Dashney, Clarice Hopfe, Erick Ugarte-Reyna, Leah Naicken, Majo Gomez de la Torre Urbina, Mouse Brown, Nicholas Orich, Rose Enns
Patterns Collective
Years Active: 2020 – present
Primary Discipline: Virtual Performance
Region/Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba (treaty 1)
Description: Patterns Collective was initially founded on the idea of curating performances via virtual platforms, our goal is to bring communities together and also connect artists from far and near, by breaking the barrier of location. Patterns Collective is composed of Chukwudubem Ukaigwe, Shaneela Boodoo, and Mahlet Cuff.
Key Members: Chuwudubem Ukaigwe, Shaneela Boodoo, Mahlet Cuff
Other Mentions:
Alternative Methods for Fostering Care
Care, Trust and Laughter: Strengthening the Collective Model
2011 to 2019:
SWARM Artist Collective
Years Active: 2019 – 2022
Primary Discipline: Interdisciplinary
Region/Location: Treaty 1 Territory, heartland of the Métis Nation aka Winnipeg, MB AND in the virtual realm
Description: SWARM arc.hive is a sympoetic digital space that holds the working of the artist collective SWARM. The launch of the arc.hive is hosted by Gallery 1C03 and takes shape as an exhibition running from March 3 – April 9 2022. The exhibition and arc.hive features the work of 8 artist-researchers who, together, comprise the collective SWARM. Through beading technologies, digital worlding, embroidery, sculpture, storytelling, poetics, sound and performance works, artists Dallas Cant, Roewan Crowe, Lorena Sekwan Fontaine, Franchesca Hebert-Spence, Kaliesa Beasse McGillvray, Hailey Primrose, Willow Rector, and Maram Rocha, present work developed in a context of sympoiesis, or, making-with. This project, partially funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant, is based out of the greenhouse artlab at the University of Winnipeg.
Key Members: Dallas Cant, Roewan Crowe, Lorena Sekwan Fontaine, Franchesca Hebert-Spence, Kaliesa Beasse McGillvray, Hailey Primrose, Willow Rector, and Maram Rocha
Biofeedback Collective
Years Active: 2019 – present
Primary Discipline: Interdisciplinary
Region/Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Treaty 6 Territory
Description: Biofeedback Collective resides and practices on Treaty 6 Territory and homeland of the Métis Nations in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The collective’s three members, Kelsey Ford, Lauren Warrington, and Emily Zdunich are all recent graduates from the University of Saskatchewan. Between them, they explore a range of mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, virtual and augmented reality. What unites them as a collective is an overarching interest in conceptual and responsive approaches to art making. The collective is focused on creating relational and feedback-based programming for underrepresented and emerging artists. Biofeedback recognizes the long history of colonialism in Canada and our own positionality in different places and spaces within this context. We are interested in exploring how we relate to one another, our bodies, the places in which we inhabit, and how our unique histories and ancestries come together.
Key Members: Lauren Warrington, Emily Zdunich, Kelsey Ford
Taryn Knetemen & Alma Louise Visscher
Years Active: 2019 – present
Primary Discipline: Interdisciplinary
Region/Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Description: Our collaborative practice is an inquiry into the living, shifting, and changeable nature of shared resources and collective making, both with each other and with the public. Our collaborative and individual practices intertwine as flexible systems of creation. Alma brings a background in textiles, low-relief sculpture, and natural dyes and inks. Her work considers the complex ecologic and socio-political history of materials. Taryn is fascinated with surfaces and material transformation in everyday rituals and domestic spaces. She brings a background in printmaking, video, mold-making, and casting.
Some recent projects include: “The Future Library of Worries, Hopes and Fears “which is a participatory sculptural collection about lending and borrowing, memory, and comfort. Taking inspiration from a literary library, a place containing books for reading, study, and reference, the project is part atelier, part open stacks, part daydreaming area.
Another recent project is “Hand to carry” which takes cues from infrastructure, monoliths, and land art, scaled down to be palm-sized. During our walks we collected small stones from the riverbank. We polished and incorporated them into sculptural rings created out of vintage brass curtain eyelets. While developing these pieces we looked at modernist jewelry of the 1950s and 60s, Atomic Age home décor, and undersea coral formations. The small stones and rocks are currently of no commercial value, but were gathered from the riverside site previously host to gold, then coal, then gravel extraction. These sculptures adorn the present moment and – we hope – question the process of collecting, extracting, and valuing materials.
Key Members: Taryn Knetemen & Alma Louise Visscher
Carnation Zine
Years Active: 2018 – present
Primary Discipline: Interdisciplinary
Region/Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Description: Carnation is a submission-based, self-published zine that shares artwork and writing created through a lens of diaspora and displacement by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of colour). Based on Treaty 1 Territory and Homeland of the Métis Nation, Carnation is a collaboration between artists and friends Christina Hajjar, Luther Konadu, and Mariana Muñoz Gomez. Publications: Vol. 1, 2018: 5.5×8.5, 38 pages, stapled, 17 contributors. Vol. 2 (Pleasure), 2021: 9×10.5, 116 pages, perfect binding, 30 contributors. Workshops: Screen Printing Postcards, 2018 (ArtsJunktion, Winnipeg, MB) Self Publishing Workshop, 2020 (Prairie Art Book Fair, Plug In ICA, Winnipeg, MB)
Key Members: Christina Hajjar, Luther Konadu, and Mariana Muñoz Gomez.
Other Mentions:
Don’t Forget to Count Your Blessings: Summer of 2020
An Ecstatic Fullness: In Conversation with Leonard Suryajaya
Luther Konadu and Pao Houa Her in Conversation
window Winnipeg: An interview with Noor Bhangu, Mariana Muñoz Gomez and Sarah Nesbitt
Suggestions for an Endless Landscape
Sustaining art work part I
Sustaining art work part II
Kyuubi Culture Artist Collective
Years Active: 2016 – present
Primary Discipline: Interdisciplinary
Region/Location: Saskatoon, Canada; Wuhan, China.
Description: Kyuubi Culture Artist Collective is an interdisciplinary collective consisting of an artist duo proficient in various artistic and curatorial practices. Originally born in China, graduates from the MFA program at the University in Canada, Xiao Han and Qiming Sun strive to bridge the gaps between divergent cultures, languages and art activities. Kyuubi Culture Artist Collective facilitates art projects, exhibitions and engagement in a community context. The collective seeks to support the community, provide general public education, and establish an inclusive platform for emerging and mid-career artists.
The latest project, MIXING RICE, is an artist-in-community project mentored by Xiao Han and curated by Kyuubi Culture Artist Collective. MIXING RICE researches and cultivates the Asian restaurants’ past, present and future of the prairies. By visual artwork in public space, MIXING RICE disrupts the mainstream narration about art, Asians and gallery. MIXING RICE raises the notion of Asian-Canadian identity and history in an exhibition form.
Key Members: Xiao Han, Qiming Sun
Collaborations with: Biofeedback Collective, BAM (Bridges Art Movement), Nuit Blanche projects by Li Wan and Marie Webster.
Other Mentions:
Fill the Fridge Card Collection
Unheard Sound Collective
Years Active: 2015 – 2022
Primary Discipline: Audio/Sound
Region/Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Description: Formed in Saskatoon in the summer of 2015 by Travis Cole, Tod Emel and Chad Munson, the Unheard Sound Series (USS) is an ad hoc curatorial collective focused on experimental audio art. In our first season, we established a monthly curated program of live audio performances. Leading on the success of our initial core programming series, we were offered to curate the audio festival Sounds Like in 2017, in 2018 we took on all programming and administration. Tod Emel left the collective prior to the festival in 2018, with Chad Munson leaving soon after the festival wrapped. Janice Weber, Spencer King Martin and Lindsey Rewuski joined the collective for 2019, with both Janice and Lindsey leaving after this iteration. Spencer King Martin and Travis Cole are the two remaining members and will present Sounds Like 10 in 2022.
Key Members: Travis Cole, Chad Munson, Tod Emel (co-founders) members, Janice Weber, Spencer Martin, Lindsey Rewuski.
Other Mentions:
Talking About Sounds Like (An Experimental Opera Response)
Tone Continuity In 3 Parts
Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective
Years Active: 2015 – present
Primary Discipline: Multidisciplinary
Region/Location: Edmonton, Treaty 6
Description: Based in the region of amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton,) Alberta, Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre supports the work of Indigenous contemporary artists and designers and engages in contemporary critical dialogue. We value artistic collaboration and foster the awareness of Indigenous contemporary art practices. Ociciwan operates as a collective of Indigenous artists and curators focusing on presenting three to four projects per year in the areas of art exhibition, research, public art and awareness surrounding Indigenous contemporary art. Ociciwan is an inanimate Plains Cree noun relating to current or river, translated to mean the current comes from there. The name references the North Saskatchewan River that has brought many people over time to the region. It conveys an energy of engagement with Indigenous contemporary culture, linking present with the past and the future.
Key Members: Erin Sutherland, Tiffany Shaw Collinge, Halie Finney, Cheyenne LeGrande, Alberta Williams and Becca Taylor
Other Mentions:
On Bodies of Water
The Ceaseless Legacy of KC Adams
CONSTELACIONES
Years active: 2015-2019
Primary Discipline: Multidisciplinary
Region/Location: Winnipeg, MB
Description: CONSTELACIONES embodies collective healing through kinship and vulnerability—rejecting isolation, silence, and disconnection in the face of trauma. Drawing from interdisciplinary practices that include sculpture, performance, installation, sound, and video, artists Roewan Crowe (Winnipeg, MB), Doris Difarnecio (Chile, Argentina, Brazil), Christina Hajjar (Winnipeg, MB), Monica Martinez (Edmonton, AB), and Helene Vosters (Toronto, ON) engage in a process-based trans-hemispheric collaboration. CONSTELACIONES traveled to Chile’s infamously storied Atacama Desert to return a large set of vibrant sculptural forms. The heavy ceramic forms, created by Martinez, are woven from stratified layers of Chilean history and from diasporic and nomadic trajectories resulting from the 1973 coup. CONSTELACIONES explores the reflective remains of their series of performances: “Lake Winnipeg,” “Wrapping Atacama,” “Return Atacama,” and “Echoes: North…North.” Read our digital book! Return Atacama: Engaging Histories of Political Violence Through Performance and Durational Witnessing (2019), edited by Dr. Roewan Crowe and Dr. Helene Vosters. We are shifting; fluid and multiple. We are stardust. We share the same sky. We speak through borders with gesture, with languages of time and connection. We traverse the psychic terrain of memory and practice the art of magic, of care.
Key Members: Roewan Crowe (Winnipeg, MB), Doris Difarnecio (Chile, Argentina, Brazil), Christina Hajjar (Winnipeg, MB), Monica Martinez (Edmonton, AB), and Helene Vosters (Toronto, ON)
Other Mentions:
Don’t Forget to Count Your Blessings: Summer of 2020
Suggestions for an Endless Landscape
Tennis Club
Years active: 2015 – 2017
Primary Discipline: Multidisciplinary
Region/Location: Edmonton, AB
Description: Tennis Club was a metaphorical sports team that explored the bounds of art, femininity, sexuality, and performativity with projects across Alberta. They were featured in Canadian Art as a new Canadian collective, embarked on a pan-Albertan parade tour, and sent unsolicited holiday mail to potential fans across the nation.
Key Members: Alyson Davies, Megan Gnanasihamany, Morgan Melenka, Renee Perrot.
Other Mentions:
Doing Our Very Best Always: Tennis Club
2000 to 2010:
Panospria
Years Active: 2000 – present
Primary Discipline: Audio/Sound
Region/Location: HQ in Saskatoon, then Montreal, then Vancouver but ever pan-Canadian in scope
Description: Collective of like-minded audio explorers, online label for experimental sounds, hosting concerts to showcase up-and-coming artists, networking and touring abroad.
Key Members: Constantine Katsiris, Ruairi Matthews, Rob Doell, Jon Vaughn, Jake Hardy, Jeff Morton, Shane Turner
Other Mentions:
Sound Pollution II: An evening of textural sound
A Critical Perspective on Circuit-Bending
Artist Multiple: Dominique Pétrin and Jon Vaughn
BlackFlash Issue 29.2 – Sound Art Special Issue (2012)
1981 to 1999:
1960 to 1980:
Sioux Handcraft Co-operative
Years Active: 1967 – 1972
Primary Discipline: Textiles
Region/Location: Standing Buffalo Dakota First Nation / Fort Qu’Appelle area
Description: The Sioux Handcraft Co-operative (SHC) was a rug hooking co-operative. Their artistry, and their work as a community-engaged creative enterprise. The collective responded to a growing need for economic support in Indigenous communities, especially for Indigenous women, in the context of a developing professional craft sector in Canada.
Key Members: Martha Tawiyaka, Josephine Yuzicappi as President, Yvonne Yuzicappi as Vice-President, Mary Yuzicappi as Secretary, as well as Reta Goodwill, Margaret Ryder, and Flora Bear
- Sylvette Babin, “Collectives Without Consensus?” Esse: 104.
- Blake Stimson and Gregory Sholette, “Introduction: Periodizing Collectivism,” in Collectivism after Modernism, ed. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 3.
- Alan W Moore, “Artists’ Collectives: Focus on NY 1975-2000,” in Collectivism after Modernism, ed. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 216.
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