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February 2025
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Editorial Note: Aftertaste
This issue emerged from many overlapping conversations that began when I joined BlackFlash as Guest Editor this past August. 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. Taste isn’t often accounted for in art writing, yet the question of how it operates in the arts is one I return to. As critics, artists, and curators, we professionally leverage taste; art institutions claim (diminishing) authority over it, and in a sector where clout ostensibly translates to capital, taste is not something we can afford to leave unexamined.
Though the threads may seem oblique at first, I see this issue as a pseudo-sequel to the previous one (Labour, 41.2). This connection is most evident in Some Call it DIY, Others Call it Workers’ Control, a conversation between curator, critic, and organizer Steff Huì Cí Ling and artist-filmmaker Lily Jue Sheng. Expanding on a discussion that took place at Anthology Film Archives following a screening of Jue Sheng’s work, the piece examines what it means to organize as arts workers while building solidarity beyond the sector and create art with “working-class intention” in a “bourgeois context.”
Several articles and projects in this issue align with the longstanding practice in contemporary art of dismantling the hegemony of “good” taste. While “Some Call it DIY…” critiques how art circulates under capitalism, artist duo Phomohobes’ project Perverse Luxury inverts that dynamic, recontextualizing vintage magazine ads into absurd compositions that reveal a latent queerness and class consciousness in the source material. In Kiki Dishes it Out, writer and curator Luther Konadu profiles artist Kiera Boult’s performance art alter-ego Kiki, whose mannerisms channel reality television stars and talk show hosts to deliver biting and poignant institutional critique. Writer Gabrielle Willms explores the art of cringe in Erica Eyres’ ceramics, paintings, and video practice. In her profile, Deadpan Drama: Erica Eyres’ Art of Surreal Subjectivity, Willms notes that Eyres uses “deadpan humour and self-consciously amateur aesthetics… to probe and unsettle social constructions related to femininity, heterosexuality, and class.”
Eyres’ penchant for transformation through disguise and costume finds a parallel in the work of Judah Iyunade, who often adopts various guises in his photography and films. In Our Gossip is Top Notch, a conversation with artist and scholar Clint Enns, the Nigerian-born, Winnipeg-based filmmaker and photographer reflects on spirituality, community, and his artistic practice, which blends cultural influences with striking visual sensibility. Their dialogue reveals a shared spirit of discovery and a deep appreciation for the history of film and photography.
Cole Thompson’s feature, Be Careful, the Top Plate is Very Hot or The Death and Life of Licensed Family Restaurants, explores taste in its precognitive state: affect. Beginning with a visceral recollection of food poisoning, Thompson examines how this raw energy might inform a writing practice, concluding with a reflection on the architecture of licensed family restaurants—spaces that are both familiar and strangely elusive.
The role of technology in influencing taste is a critical thread throughout this issue. Juan Ortiz-Apuy’s project SHIRLEY CARDS: A History of Photography’s Bias critiques the myth of technological neutrality through thrifted Kodak colour cards, exposing the biases behind the lens. In a feature titled Tastes Like Abundance, writer and curator Noor Bhangu explores how AI’s mainstream adoption is reshaping the archive, and how artists navigate the tensions between technology’s risks and creative potential. Rah Eleh’s augmented reality project included in this issue embodies this critically attuned approach to technology, drawing inspiration from her work, Celestial Throne. The project cleverly uses the format of Jeopardy to unveil the coded language prevalent in red-pilled online subcultures. To access the clues, you can download the free app Artivive here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/artivive/id1188737494.
As an art writer, I’m acutely aware of how endangered arts publications in Canada have become. My aim with this issue was to create space for the kind of writing I want to see more of: writing that interprets the world through visual culture, provides context, and delivers critically engaged perspectives.
I’m deeply grateful to BlackFlash for entrusting me with the editorial content of this issue. Special thanks to Travis Cole, Interim Director/Publisher, and Breanne Bandur, Board Chair, for their integral roles in shaping this issue; my colleague Scott Fitzpatrick for his relentless probing of his own (flawless) taste, which inspired the theme; Emilie Neudorf for her sharp design; Michael Pace for incisive copy editing; Carmelle Pretzlaw for thorough proofreading; the editorial committee and board for their insights; and, of course, the contributors for sharing their remarkable work.
~ Madeline Bogoch, Guest Editor, BlackFlash Issue 41.3
EDITORIAL NOTE: Above
CONVERSATION:
Some call it DIY, others call it workers’ control: Interview with Lily Jue Sheng Steff Huì Cí Ling
ARTIST PROJECT:
Perverse Luxury
Phomohobes
ARTIST PROFILE:
Kiki Dishes it Out: Kiera Boult’s performance art practice
Luther Konadu
ARTIST PROFILE:
Deadpan Drama: Erica Eyres’ Art of Surreal Subjectivity
Gabrielle Willms
CONVERSATION:
Our Gossip is Top Notch: An Interview with Judah Iyunade
Clint Enns
FEATURE:
Be Careful, the Top Plate is Very Hot or The Death and Life of Licensed Family Restaurants
Cole Thompson
ARTIST PROJECT:
SHIRLEY CARDS: A history of photography’s bias
Juan Ortiz-Apuy
FEATURE:
Tastes Like Abundance: The Open and Closing Circuits of Artificial Intelligence in Contemporary Art
Noor Bhangu
DIGITAL PROJECT:
Celestial Throne: Augmented Reality
Rah Eleh
Cover: Phomohobes. Perverted 1950s Child’s Bedroom Wallpaper, 2021. Collage. Image courtesy of the artists.
BlackFlash is grateful to Canada Council for the Arts and SK Arts for the production and dissemination of this issue.
To be distributed in February 2025. Consider gifting a subscription to yourself or a friend.
