My upcoming exhibition at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery has a feature in Small Axe ✨

Go have a read for some behind the scenes and sneak peaks!

Transgressive Passages opens on October 12 in Oshawa and runs to December 8.

I’ll be performing Transference on October 13 at 2pm as part of the 7A*11D 2024 festival and again on November 1st in the Robert McLaughlin in Gallery A at 7pm.


Image credit: Vanessa Godden, Queen Kukoyi, from the Transmission series, 2024

I am excited to announce that I will be one of the presenting artists for this year's 7A*11D International Festival of Performance Art. I will performing a new work, 'Transmission', on Sunday October 13 at 2pm at the 630 Queen Street East location.

It is an incredible honour to be among the incredible line-up of artists for this event, featuring performance works and talks by more than 20 artists from Japan, Germany, Sweden, Pindorama/Abya Yala (colonially known as Latin America, more specifically in this case, Brazil), the United States, The Tsuut’ina Nation and various other Canadian locations.

All events are free or PWYC, at various venues, including the mainstage space at 630 Queen Street East, 401 Richmond Street West, and Hart House.

Here’s a comprehensive schedule of events: 7A*11D International Festival of Performance Art
(Best viewed on desktop to see as a grid, on mobile it appears as in list format)

The festival will be preceded by an opening reception of an exhibition at VTAPE celebrating the work of two Éminence Grises: Andrew James Paterson and Tanya Mars - October 5th at 4pm.

I hope to see you there!

I’m the current artist in residence at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. I’ll be working in their studio from June 17 to September 29. The resulting work will be included in a solo exhibition that runs from October 12 – December 8.

I’ll be doing a RMG Blog post on the RMG Instagram account on July 10 for my Welcome to the Studio Artist Talk and on September 17 for a Residency Check-in. Both virtual studio visits will be at 12pm est @rmgoshawa.

The series I am working on during the residency, Transgressive Passages, is a multi-work project that investigates the intersections between my diasporic lineage and Queer and Trans becoming. It will culminate in a series of mixed-media performance and photo-based artworks that reflect on my experience navigating multiple LGBTQIA2S+ communities across North America and Australia, and how these relationships entangle with my diasporic Caribbean identity, with a focus on the love, joy and resilience I have gained within them.

If you’re out in Oshawa between June and September, stop by to say hi while I’m in the studio!

You can find out more information about the residency, my solo exhibition happening later this year, and me through RMG.

I will be taking part in a panel discussion at OCADU on March 7 between 9 and 9:30pm. You can find more details below and here.

Futurity and Futurism: Disrupting Nation-Centrism is a panel discussion co-hosted by OCAD University in conjunction with Rah Eleh's 2023 exhibition, Spoiled Milk, at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. This public discussion will unite four leading artists and cultural historians specializing in speculative futures, counter histories, and diasporic studies. Together, the speakers—art historian Alice Ming Wai Jim, artist Vanessa Godden, educator Sameena Eidoo, and cultural researcher Marissa Largo—will navigate challenging topics affecting contemporary arts as we look to new futures that disrupt colonial philosophies in the field.

This panel will be recorded. By attending the event, audience members consent to audio and video recordings that capture the speakers' discussion. The host partners and moderator will use the recordings for promotional purposes, advertising, web material, and other artistic purposes.

Futurity and Futurism: Disrupting Nation-Centrism is presented by the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington in partnership with OCAD University and made possible with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Partners in Art.

Image credit: Rah Eleh

Diasporic Futurisms is excited to announce the launch of the virtual database Temporal Tempest at Critical Distance Centre for Curators on January 18, 2024 at 5pm.

This project has been developed to understand and disseminate how artists and organizations are utilizing and engaging with themes of diasporic futurisms in Canadian arts culture. The database showcases visual art, sound art, media art, and documentation of curatorial projects that materialize the genre of diasporic futurisms.

The premiere of Temporal Tempest features twelve projects by arts practitioners across Canada, including Quite Ourselves, Camila Salcedo, Tamil Archive Project, Kofi Oduro, nichola feldman-kiss, Karina Iskandarsjah, Candide Uyanze, Jasmine Liaw, Brigita Gedgaudas, Luis N. Del Angel, Rah Eleh, and Olivia Mc Gilchrist. Each project speaks to themes of diasporic futurisms through interactive digital worlds, coding, video performance, digital archives, and new media art. Themes of works that have been included in this database are: magical realism, fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, folklore, and related sub-genres.

This project has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. The launch event is delivered in partnership with Critical Distance and Trinity Square Video and sponsored by V-Tape and SAVAC.

My video installation 'Time traced by the sugar on my lips and and Salt on my skin' is up in the Trinity Square Video vitrine until January 13. If you find yourself at 401 Richmond (Toronto) between now and January 13, please be sure to swing by the vitrine!

Diasporic Futurisms (Adrienne Matheszik and I) have a collaborative work in Liminal Futures curated by Diane Hau Yu Wong and hosted by Centre A. The exhibition is open from June 24 - August 19.

The Asian Visual Cultures and the Americas (ADVA) Special Issue: Imagining an Interval: towards a Potential Asian and Diasporic America Art History(ies) edited by Grace Yasumura and Z. Serena Qiu -

ADVA's most recent special issue includes my review of everything slackens in a wreck curated by Andil Gosine. The exhibition was on view at the Ford Foundation between June 1 and August 20 of 2022.

Image credit:
Installation view, everything slackens in a wreck, 2022. Ford Foundation Gallery, New York, NY.
Photography by Sebastian Back. Image provided by Andil Gosine

My film 'Trudging Congealed Seas (Pilot)' is included in this year's juried exhibition at Lawndale Art Centre, The Big Show. The opening reception for the exhibition is on June 2 between 7pm and 9pm. The show runs between June 2 and August 12.

My work 'Ma' and a photograph from the series 'The Day I Met Aunty Hannah' is included in the group exhibition 'Remnants of Another' curated by Suzanne Persard. The exhibition is hosted by Twelve Gates Gallery in Philadelphia and runs from May 5 to June 24, 2023. The opening reception for the exhibition is on May 5th between 5 and 8pm.

Remnants of Another traces the contours of genealogical memory among Indo-Caribbean artists descended from indentured Indian labourers to Surname, Trinidad, and Guyana (1838 - 1917) working in the Netherlands, Canada, and the U.S. Juxtaposing historical and family archives, these artists visualise remembrance as a form of survival alongside the enduring inheritance of Indian indentureship. Featuring practices ranging from oil painting to film, quilting and printmaking to photography, this exhibit reimagines alternative visions of ancestral selves, kinship and diaspora.

Thursday, December 1 | 6—7:30pm EDT

Online Via Zoom

FREE (register here)

You're invited to join a pubic talkback session with the 'Nebulous Straits' resident artists - Rihab Essayh, Josephine Lee, and Faune Ybarra - co-hosted by Diasporic Futurisms and InterAccess.

ABOUT 'NEBULOUS STRAITS' VIRTUAL RESIDENCY:

As considerations of what futurisms of many different diasporas in art are expanded, visions of collective futures can become cloudy. However, ‘Nebulous Straits’ offers an approach to diasporic futurisms that allows diasporic artists to find tethers to vast oceans of knowledge and care that center the notion that many voices, perspectives, and visions can be made possible alongside and in support of one another.

‘Nebulous Straits’ is a virtual residency hosted by Diasporic Futurisms. The residency is facilitating space for three residents, Rihab Essayh, Josephine Lee, and Faune Ybarra, to:

- expand their community through weekly meetings
- build on their knowledge of the field of practice through group discussions, readings, and discussions
- develop a new or existing project relating to themes of diasporic futurism
- participate in a public feedback session
- and exhibit their artwork in a cumulative online exhibition

Each artist is developing their work in this residency in relation to a wide array of themes and within different modes of production—making dandelion jam and sewing leaves as de-colonial gestures, developing armour for marginalized people that cares for the wearer, and building digitized visions of textile worlds in SketchUp that honour the collective agencies of SWANA women.

PUBLIC TALKBACK SESSION:

This public talkback session serves as an opportunity for each of the residents to present the work they’ve developed in the program and preview some of the work that will be included in the virtual exhibition.

The last thirty minutes of the session will be dedicated to responding to curator and audience questions.

The ‘Nebulous Straits’ virtual exhibition will run from December 1 – December 15 and can be accessed via diasporicfuturisms.com

‘Nebulous Straits’ is funded through the Toronto Arts Council.

If you are in Montreal on September 29 and are free at 8:15pm, go check out my film ‘Trudging Congealed Seas (Pilot)’ at Cinéma Moderne! More details on the show below and linked here.

Art POP, in collaboration with Film POP, will be presenting three films by artists who explore themes of diaspora in their work. Foreign in a Domestic Sense, is a constellation of testimonies and imaginaries of Puerto Ricans who have migrated to Central Florida in recent years, conjured by visual artists Natalia Lassalle-Morillo (she/her) and Sofía Gallisá Muriente (she/her). Trudging Congealed Seas (Pilot), a film by Vanessa Godden (they/them) that brings together research of familial history with the lived experiences of the Indo-Caribbean diaspora, and Untitled until I am no longer bored, a short film by Joyce Joumaa. This program is curated by Bettina Pérez Martínez and Tyra Maria Trono.

29 SEPT, 8:15PM — 10PM
Cinéma Moderne

Photo: Natalia Lasalle-Morillo and Sofía Gallisá Muriente and Joyce Joumaa – Design by John Mendoza

The curatorial collective Diasporic Futurisms seeks proposals from Canadian artists to participate in Nebulous Straits Virtual Residency.

Artists working with themes of alternative realities, erased histories, and possible futures are encouraged to apply. As the contemporary socio-political moment increasingly mirrors the dystopian speculative fictions of our upbringings, we look to the future to reclaim the possibility of leaning into greener pastures.

The residency will offer:

- Artist, production and presentation fees
- Group discussions, readings and screenings
- Workshops and visiting artist talks
- Public Digital exhibition and livestream event

Nebulous Straits will facilitate space for artists of a wide variety of disciplines, including musicians, performers, graphic artist, video artist, filmmakers, among others, to develop and create new artworks that respond to themes of diasporic futurisms. We welcome proposals for new or ongoing projects to be developed in community with the other residents. We will be tailoring programming for the needs and interests of our residents.

Nebulous Straits is supported by the Toronto Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts.

If you have any questions please email info@diasporicfuturisms.com

— — — — — —

About Diasporic Futurisms:

Diasporic Futurisms is a collaborative curatorial team comprised of Adrienne Matheuszik and Vanessa Godden. This collaborative curatorial endeavor works to create space for racialized and marginalized peoples whose artworks are based in the genre of diasporic futurisms.

Matheuszik and Godden define diasporic futurisms as the presentation of alternative perspectives of the present, predictions of the future, and creative approaches to reimagining the past. Within the movement of diasporic futurisms, the destabilization of white-supremacy, colonisation, and capitalism in relation to the lives of diasporic peoples are a primary concern. In diasporic futurisms, these concerns are materialized through the genres of Fantasy, Magical Realism, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, and related subgenres.

The collaborative team, Diasporic Futurisms is radically reimaging and reimagining diasporic futurisms in the arts through the impact of a global pandemic and the increased visibility of police brutality. Diasporic Futurisms is continually working to build immersive and inclusive arts experiences that radically resist patriarchal, heteronormative, ableist, and racist oppression.

Submission Guidelines:

- Artist Bio (100 words) and CV (1 page)
- Project Proposal describing project and how it relates to body of work and research interests
- Website/Social Media/Portfolio links
- Support Images: Sketches, work in progress, past works

Please submit via email to diasporicfurturisms@gmail.com

Due by September 27 before 11:59pm est

Temporal Tempest Database
Updated Deadline: June 30, 2022 11:59pm

Call for Visual Art, Media Art, Sonic Art, Documentation of Curatorial Projects, and Writing Project Submissions

Temporal Tempest is a research and virtual database project developed by the curatorial collective, Diasporic Futurisms. Diasporic Futurisms is building this virtual database to understand and disseminate how artists and organizations are utilizing and engaging with themes of diasporic futurisms in Canadian arts culture. We are seeking visual art, media art, sonic art, documentation of curatorial projects, and writing project submissions that materialize the genre of diasporic futurisms to populate this open source database.
Diasporic Futurisms are defining futurisms as the presentation of alternative perspectives of the present, predictions of the future, and creative approaches to reimagining the past. Diasporic Futurisms is seeking artworks, documentation of creative projects, writing, and curatorial projects related to the theme of futurisms by members of diasporic communities in Canada. The primary considerations born out of this research that will help the development of this database are:

- What is the legacy of artistic representation of diasporic futurisms in Canada and how they have developed into the present in the arts and arts organizations?

- How can we broaden visibility of creatives working in the genre of diasporic futurisms and create an inclusive platform for artists and arts practitioners to thrive beyond tokenization?

- How can we engage futures without relying on common tropes that perpetuate, reify and oppress?

Themes of works that will be considered to be included in this database are: magical realism, fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, folklore, and related sub-genres. Examples of the kinds of art, writing, and curatorial practices we will consider for this database are (but not limited to): video art, sound art, performance art, creative writing, art criticism, documentation of curatorial projects, collage, photography, drawing, documentation of sculpture, documentation of painting, and animation. As we critique current systems of xenophobic oppression of the arts sector in Canada, Temporal Tempest offers possibilities for new structures of care, respect and imagination to replace them.

Both of the Caribbean diaspora, Adrienne Matheuszik and Vanessa Godden [Diasporic Futurisms] build mythologies of distant homelands into their arts practices. Temporal Tempest draws from these experiences to construct this event.


Submission Guidelines
Please apply using the provided Google form or by emailing your submissions to diasporicfuturisms@gmail.com
Due date: June 20, 2022 by 11:59pm est
Bio (50 words):
CV:
Project Statement (150 words):
In this statement, please include a short blurb on how you feel the proposed work fits into the theme of the database
Medium:
Duration/length of work (for time based practices):
Files or links to proposed projects to be included in database (Follow name convention: LastnameFirstname_Title.jpg):

‘Temporal Tempest’ has been developed in partnership with Subtle Technologies. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts in the production of this project.

Diasporic Futurisms (Adrienne Matheuszik and I) are pleased to announce our new collaborative video 'Galvanized Suns in Retrograde' is part of the exhibition 'capsize // together: building collective futures' curated by Diane Hau Yu Wong hosted by Articule Montreal

The show is up between May 13 and June 11. It also features the work of Quentin VerCetty and Devin Ronneberg

The 'capsize // together: building collective futures' exhibition strives towards an equitable future through the different lenses of Futurism and the intersection of diverse knowledge and new technology to resist colonial structures of repression and suppression.

My work ‘Reburying My Navel String’ is part of this incredible exhibition organized and designed by Maya Mackrandilal and also featuring artworks by Mackrandilal, Andil Gosine, Sarojini Lewis, Dhiradj Ramsamoedj, and Seema Shakti. Here is the link to the virtual exhibition space.

Please mark your calendars for an exhibition walkthrough on November 20th at 4pm est. More details on how to attend the walkthrough can be found here.

Exhibition Statement: LACUNA is a multi-disciplinary art project that bridges the past, present, and future, the material world and the digital world, to create a space for community, collaboration, and reflections on the role of identity within contemporary art practices. Built on the open-source interactive VR platform Mozilla Hubs, LACUNA is a rhizomatic art installation that speaks to relationships between family, ancestry, and cultural communities of indenture descended artists. The six artists who make up this initiating version of the project are based in Los Angeles, Toronto, New York, Suriname, and the Netherlands, tied together by the legacy of South Asian indenture in the Caribbean, and the intersecting forces of European colonialism and capitalism in the Americas that continue to constitute their lived experience. As products of a racially and ethnically intermixed culture, their work is in conversation with global histories or survival and trauma and involves the interrogation of spaces similar to what Dionne Brand described in A Map to the Door of No Return: “Imagining our ancestors stepping through these portals one senses people stepping out into nothing; one senses a surreal space, an inexplicable space… the frame of the doorway is the only space of true existence.” The virtual reality world of LACUNA offers a series of doorways to unknown, inexplicable, liminal spaces - the spaces missing from the fractured narratives handed down to us through language, gesture, body.

Please join Trinity Square Video and I for a presentation of works by Monique Todd, Yuula Benivolski, Camila Salcedo, Katayoun Jalilipour, and myself from the exhibition Archival Affections, followed by a group conversation moderated by Melina Mehr!

Archival Affections presents the 2021 Themed Commissions, which were produced over a summer residency. This year’s theme invites projects that critically look at one’s relationship to archives; both non-fiction and fictional materials that account for public, private, and cultural memory.

THIS IS AN ONLINE EVENT - register here.

Thursday, November 18th, 2021

3:30pm - Short presentation of works
4:00pm - Group conversation moderated by Melina Mehr

Julia Huynh, Toronto based artist and archivist, recently published an essay on Archival Affections. To read the full essay, visit her featured page on the Archival Affections website here.

Archival Affections [Themed Commission 2021]
August 27 – November 25, 2021

Presented by Trinity Square Video and supported by the EQ Bank

Vanessa Godden
Monique Todd
Lana Lovell
Yuula Benivolski
Camila Salcedo
Katayoun Jalilipour

Curated by Karina Iskandarsjah

Archival Affections presents the 2021 Themed Commissions, which were produced over a summer residency. This year’s theme invites projects that critically look at one’s relationship to archives; both non-fiction and fictional materials that account for public, private, and cultural memory. Six artists create new digital work that speculates upon unfinished, historical narratives and buried family histories, and re-imagines the physical and metaphorical traces of lost people and places.

In this online presentation, each digital work grapples with various subjects of personal importance: 19th century Iranian imagery through a queer lens; remembering Black resistance and slavery in Canada; sonic representations of the experience of Venezuelan-Canadian diaspora; disappeared citizens of the USSR; Indo-Caribbean migration; and cataloguing spaces of queer joy and pleasure in London (UK). Taking form as a transmedia, online exhibition, each work convenes a broad range of forms, including: field recording, mapping, oral narratives, 3D imaging, forensic fingerprinting, and ASMR. Archival Affections centres modalities of curiosity, speculation, and fiction to meaningfully resurrect and build upon archival material; reimagining and reclaiming the past and present as acts of survivance and resistance.

Visit www.archivalaffections.com to explore the rich subjects and dynamic presentations of this year’s 2021 Themed Commission! (launching 27th August)

'Constellation of Oracles' is now live on the Vector Festival 2021: 'Network Dependencies' website. Please be sure to check out the artworks featured in this exhibition curated by Diasporic Futurisms (Adrienne Matheuszik and myself) between July 15 - August 8.

‘Constellation of Oracles’ is a virtual exhibition that features artworks by Alyssa Bistonath, Rah Eleh, Victoria Kamila, and Quentin VerCetty. The program explores digital collage, multi-channel video, and digital animation through multiple futurist lenses. Constellation of Oracles brings together a broad range of influences—from internet and digital culture to sci-fi and fantasy aesthetics—to envision and build alternate realities and worlds that generatively speak to one another through mythologies of the body, space, and culture. Each artwork represents a constellation of possibilities wherein the artist becomes an oracle for collective futures. 

Image credit: still from 'Portals' by Alyssa Bistonath

Diasporic Futurisms (Adrienne Matheuszik and myself) are curating an online exhibition, titled 'Constellation of Oracles', for the Inter/Access Vector Festival 2021 as part of their Local Host program. Keep an eye out for more details on 'Constellation of Oracles' and be sure to mark your calendars for July 15 - August 8 to see the show.

I'm really excited to be a part of such a wonderful group of artists for this year's Themed Commission Residency 2021 at Trinity Square Video. This residency will culminate in a group exhibition taking place in August, 2021. This year’s open call, titled 'Archival Affections' invited project proposals that critically look at one’s relationship to archives; both non-fiction and fictional materials that account for public, private, and cultural memory. More information on all the amazing artists participating in this residency can be found here.

Liquid Architecture has published Thembi Soddell's audio paper on 'Love Songs'. One of my short films, 'Epilogue' (still featured here), made for this album is featured in the audio paper. To experience the paper, click here.

On May 7th at 10am, I will presenting some work from my PhD research and most recent MARLAS publication at the 'Uncommon Senses III' conference. For registration information and a detailed outline of the schedule, please visit the 'Uncommon Senses III' portal. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Diasporic Futurisms (Adrienne Matheuszik and I) are giving a keynote presentation on March 12th at 5:30pm EST. Be sure to register HERE to hear us speak about our last curatorial project Galvanized Suns.

My article 'Materializing Voice: A Diasporic Lineage of Flour, Spice, and Hair' in 'From Indenture to Double Diaspora: Music, Film, and Visual Art of the Indian Caribbean' edited by Christopher Ballengee and Darrell Baksh is available for you to read now. I am beyond thrilled to have my work situated alongside this phenomenal group of writers. Please show your support by reading this MARLAS Issue and sharing widely.

Photo by Clare Rae

GalvanizedSuns successfully live streamed Orbits 1, 2 and 3 between Oct. 15 – 17. We couldn’t be prouder of our curatorial debut in Canada as Diasporic Futurisms and are eternally grateful to everyone involved.

We would like to extend a massive thank you to Subtle Technologies for mentoring us through this event. We’d also like to express an enormous amount of gratitude to the Canada Council for the Arts for helping to fund this endeavor through the CBC Digital Originals Grant. Diasporic Futurisms would also like to share our unending gratitude to the all of the phenomenal artists featured in this program. You helped make our vision come to life beyond what we could have anticipated for. Thank you to: Aisha and Anda Ali, Ana Luisa Bernardez Notz, Michaela Bridgemohan, Jonathan Chan-Choong, Antonio Coello, Luis Navarro Del Angel, Roya DelSol, Kanika Gordon, Queen Kukoyi, Olivia McGilchrist, Jean-Pierre Marchant, Sarah Mo, Marc Ngui, Kofi Oduro, and Faune Ybarra. Last, but not least, thank you to everyone who tuned in during Galvanized Suns! Your views made putting this event together that much more exciting.

The next few months involve diving back into the grant writing process, through the mentorship of Subtle Technologies, in preparation for next year’s programming initiatives. We wish everyone a safe and healthy new year. Please keep an eye out for more news regarding next year’s events here on our website, Instagram, or via Subtle Technologies fb page.

Hey y'all! Adrienne Matheuszik and I are curating our first event as the collaborative duo: Diasporic Futurisms. We're looking for art that can be optimised for online purposes for a three day event in October. The program is based around the theme of Caribbean and Latin American futurisms of the diaspora in Canada. So, if you or someone you know has work that would fit this theme please be sure to submit and share! More details can be found on Aikmbo, the fb event page and our website. Submissions are due on August 31, 2020 by 11:59pm. Spread the word and share widely! This is a paid gig!

Adrienne Matheuszik and I have formed a collaborative curatorial endeavour named Diasporic Futurisms. We've been selected to be part of Subtle Technologies' 2020 Curatorial Mentorship Program. Keep an eye out for more details soon to come!

Due to COVID-19 precautions, the Uncommon Senses III conference I was meant to present in has been postponed until May 2021.

Registration is now open for Toronto's Feminist Art Collective's Feminist Art Fest, taking place at OCADU in March 5-7, 2020. There will be an Exhibition, Film Night, Market, and Conference. Visit here for program and tickets.

I'm excited to be participating in this year's Feminist Art Fest in Toronto. I will be speaking on a panel called 'Keeping it Corporeal' and performing 'Cartography' on March 7th. Register now to hear me speak and see me perform.