St Michael’s Printshop presents a conversation between Emily Critch and Simon(e) Van Saarloos about commemoration, monuments, settler colonialism and more. Moderated by Kate Lahey with poetry and music by Daze Jefferies. Drawing from themes in Simon(e)’s book Take 'Em Down: Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting, such as who determines what is remembered and commemorated, and why? How can we commemorate something that is both in the past and a daily reality? and drawing from Emily’s curatorial practice including the recent “these are our monuments”, (Owens Art Gallery, 2021) that draws from Rita Joe’s poem "Poem 10". Date, Time & Location: October 7th, 7pm-9pm, Eastern Edge Gallery ALSO AVAILABLE ONLINE.
Access Information for the event can be found here, on the EE website.
Emily Critch is a Mi’kmaw and settler artist, curator, and writer from Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk Territory (Bay of Islands, NL). She received her BFA in Visual Arts from Memorial University of Newfoundland (2018). She has exhibited her work at Grenfell Art Gallery, The Rooms, Eastern Edge, Hafnarborg, (Hafnarfjörður, Iceland), and St. Michael’s Printshop. Her art practice has been supported by ArtsNL, and has been the recipient of several awards including the Ellen Rusted Award for Print Media, the 2020 VANL Cox & Palmer Pivotal Point Grant, longlisted for the 2021 Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award, and the 2020-2021 Don Wright Scholarship at St. Michael’s Printshop. Her work has been featured in publications such as Riddle Fence, Future Possibile: An Art History of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Visual Arts News. She is currently based in St. John’s, NL working remotely as the Program Coordinator with the Indigenous Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones, and the 2021-23 Adjunct Curator with the Owen’s Art Gallery.
Simon(e) van Saarloos is the author of four books in Dutch, including a novel and an ethnographic court report about the “discrimination trial” of Geert Wilders. Two of their books were translated into English: Playing Monogamy (Publication Studio, 2019) and most recently Take ‘Em Down. Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting (Publication Studio, 2022). They are currently working on Against Ageism. A Queer Manifesto (Emily Carr University Press) and a theatre play about abortion for Ulrike Quade Company, premiering April 2023.
Van Saarloos also works as an artist and curator. Their most recent projects include Cruising Gezi Park (with Kübra Uzun), the spread of a mo(nu)ment, and Through the Window an ongoing queer solidarity project between Turkey and the Netherlands, aimed to circulate funds among queer artists. They have participated in artist residencies such as the KAVLI Institute for Nanosciences, Deltaworkers New Orleans and Be Mobile Create Together at IKSV in Istanbul. Together with Vincent van Velsen, Van Saarloos curated the ABUNDANCE exhibition, (“We must bring about the end of the world as we know it” – Denise Ferreira da Silva) at Het HEM, Amsterdam in 2022. Upcoming projects include their role as a curator for International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA) and Studium Generale Rietveld Academy. They currently pursue a PhD in Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley.
Kate Lahey is a writer, musician and PhD candidate at the Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto. As frontperson of Weary, Kate recently released their sophomore album ‘Hush’. Kate is also a course instructor at the Gender Studies Department at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Kate’s work explores intergenerational trauma, material and visual culture and memory in Newfoundland. As a Newfoundlander, Kate’s practice engages family knowledge. Kate lives in a two hundred year old salt box house on the Atlantic Ocean in Holyrood, Newfoundland with her partner and aussie shepherd Leia.
Daze Jefferies (she/her) is an artist, writer, and educator born and raised in the Bay of Exploits on the northeast coast of rural Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). Deeply informed by geographies and histories of trans women and sex workers at the North Atlantic margins, her research-creation and multidisciplinary projects have been exhibited at Eastern Edge, The Rooms, Unscripted Twillingate, Inverness County Centre for the Arts, and Cape Breton University Art Gallery, as well as performed widely at festivals, theatres, and house shows in St. John’s – including HOLD FAST, Lawnya Vawnya, FemFest, and Out of Earshot. Co-author of Autoethnography and Feminist Theory at the Water’s Edge: Unsettled Islands (2018), she has recent publications in Riddle Fence, Understorey, HELD, The Dalhousie Review, Arc, and Feral Feminisms. On Saturday October 8th: Join SMP for a Counter Monument Art Party/Workshop to follow up our Scattered Monuments discussion/event. In this workshop we will invite participants to dream up their own counter monuments. Lani Hanna (UC Santa Cruz) will present her research on counter histories and institutions, NL Queer Research Initiative will share their research on queer history in the province and Christeen (our ED) will give examples of some print based counter monuments. Following the presentations and discussion participants will get into groups to create paper based counter monuments. The workshop is free and open to anyone who wishes to attend. SMP will provide drawing materials and lino blocks and tools. We have two computers on site for folks to use but if you want to bring your own tablet/laptop you are most welcome! Lani Hanna is a doctoral student in feminist studies at University of California Santa Cruz. She lives in Oakland and is involved in community archiving in New York and San Francisco. As a volunteer at Interference Archive, she has co-organized several exhibitions, including Armed by Design: Posters and Publications of the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She is active in community organizing and practices Danzan-ryū jujutsu. Christeen Francis is a printmaker, musician and director of St Michael’s Printshop. She is committed to social and political print that engages with local communities and the public at large.Her research interests include urban wildlife and the homogenization of cities and culture. She has exhibited in Canada, the United States, Germany, and Iceland, and is a member of Justseeds Artist Cooperative.