“My Monument” Events

Gallery 1C03 at The University of Winnipeg proudly presents

MY MONUMENT

featuring cam bush, steven leyden cochrane, roewan crowe, and paul robles
March 6 – April 5, 2014

Reception: Thursday, March 6, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. at Gallery 1C03

Remarks by Winnipeg Arts Council Executive Director Carol Phillips and University of Winnipeg Associate Dean of Arts Fiona Green at approximately 4:30 p.m.

Ghost Launch performance with Chandra Mayor: March 15 at 2:00 p.m. in front of 478 River Avenue

The Book is Happening with Roewan Crowe: March 20, 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. at Gallery 1C03

Conversation with the artists: March 26 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 2M70 (2^nd floor of Manitoba Hall) at The University of Winnipeg

MY MONUMENT is a multimedia exhibition featuring artistic exchanges among artists cam bush, Steven Leyden Cochrane, Roewan Crowe, and Paul Robles using Crowe’s new book Quivering Landas a point of connection to explore monuments and vanished feminist/queer/alternative cultural sites. The double-sited exhibit will be shown in Gallery 1C03 (1^st floor, Centennial Hall) and in the Hamilton Galleria (4^th floor mezzanine, Centennial Hall in the Library), both at The University of Winnipeg.

Quivering Land is a queerish Western long poem that engages with politics to reckon with the legacies of violence and colonization in the West. Robles creates intricately cut origami paper images in response to this narrative, while Crowe produces text-based works that have been altered irrevocably by the brutality of the gun. Together the artists fashion a collaborative sculpture which further elucidates shared experiences of loss and the desire to create space for reflection and memory.

MY MONUMENT includes the participatory website www.ghostlaunch.ca which maps vanished feminist/queer/alternative bookstores and solicits stories, images, and experiences of these bookstores through a public call for submissions. Evidence of this interactive and intergenerational shared space will take the form of multimedia installations by Steven Leyden Cochrane in Gallery 1C03 and by cam bush in the Hamilton Galleria. All four MY MONUMENT artists will join with Chandra Mayor in front of the former site of Bold Print – The Women’s Bookstore on 478 River Avenue on March 15 in an event titled Ghost Launch to reanimate that location with public readings and the launch of a chapbook. Similarly, for The Book is Happening, Crowe will deliver a durational public reading of Quivering Land in the queer space of Gallery 1C03 on March 20.

Artist biographies:

cam bush is a (re)emerging, Winnipeg-based intermedia artist who holds a BFA (Hons.) from the University of Manitoba. His work frequently investigates locality, human relationships, and language and communication, and has been exhibited in galleries, festivals and alternative exhibition spaces across Canada.

Steven Leyden Cochrane is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and educator. He holds a BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA in studio art from the University of Windsor. Originally from Tampa, Florida, he is currently based in Winnipeg.

Roewan Crowe is a trans-disciplinary artist, theorist, and teacher living in Winnipeg who explores the rich terrain of video, photography, installation, performance, digital and new media technologies, theory, text, and activism. She investigates the transformational possibilities that open up through artistic and pedagogical practices. She has a particular passion for queer/trans/feminist art, creating community, and facilitating initiatives in cultural democracy.

Born in the Philippines, Paul Robles is a Canadian artist based in Winnipeg. Recognized for his intricate origami cut paper works, Robles combines the delicacy associated with fine and traditional handwork with the portrayal of subjects such as violence, loneliness and intimacy. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (Gold Medal) from University of Manitoba School of Art and Bachelor of Arts degree (Sociology) from The University of Winnipeg.

Chandra Mayor is the current Carol Shields Writer-in-Residence at The University of Winnipeg. The author of three books of poetry and fiction, she has received numerous awards for her writing, including a Lambda Literary Award. She has performed her work in venues and festivals across the country.

MY MONUMENT has been made possible thanks to funding from the Winnipeg Arts Council and with support from the Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies and The University of Winnipeg.

Exhibition: My Monument

Gallery 1C03 at The University of Winnipeg is hosting an exhibition and affiliated programming inspired by Winnipeg artist/writer/academic Roewan Crowe’s recently released queer western long poem “Quivering Land”. The exhibition MY MONUMENT (which includes work by Roewan Crowe, Paul Robles, Steven Leyden Cochrane) will run at Gallery 1C03 from March 6 – April 5, 2014. However, in anticipation of and connection with the exhibition, we are launching a call for submissions on feminist and queer oriented bookstores via the website “Ghost Launch”. 

Call for Submissions

Ghost Launch

The past twenty years have seen the near-complete disappearance of feminist- and queer-oriented bookstores in Canada, echoing the broader decline of independent, brick-and-mortar booksellers across North America. Ghost Launch(www.GhostLaunch.ca) is an online project that seeks to remember and reanimate these once-vital nexuses of community and culture.

Produced in conjunction with MY MONUMENT, the forthcoming exhibition at The University of Winnipeg’s Gallery 1C03 by cam bush, Steven Leyden Cochrane, Roewan Crowe, and Paul Robles, Ghost Launch is conceived of as an unstructured archive and “living monument.” The website will serve as a space to remember and reflect on vanished bookstores and as a platform for the virtual “launch” of works that continue to be made in their absence.                        

Ghost Launch is currently seeking submissions of personal accounts, historical ephemera, writing, and art that record, remember, or respond to feminist and queer bookstores that no longer exist.

Submissions may include (but are not restricted to) the following:

• ·         Written and oral histories, personal recollections, and reflections
• ·         Photographs taken at now-closed bookstores or bookstore events
• ·         Ephemera and documents (newspaper clippings, event flyers, handbills, buttons, stickers, etc.)
• ·         Artwork, poetry, and writing that reflects on or relates to a particular bookstore or to vanished bookstores generally

Ghost Launch welcomes submissions from those who might never have set foot in a feminist/queer bookstore (or even had the chance to). Responses to the absence of such spaces are strongly encouraged, as are fictional or fictionalized accounts and documents.

Submissions may consist of text, images, video or audio files, or links to hosted media (YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.) and can be uploaded using the online form at http://www.ghostlaunch.ca. Submissions may also be emailed as attachments or file-sharing links to ghostlaunch@gmail.com. Please indicate if you would prefer to have your submission published anonymously. Audio files can only be accepted via email at this time. Electronic submissions only.

Throughout the year, the website will also feature a variety of projects by feminist- and queer-identified artists, writers, performers, and activists. If you have a work (a book, zine, chapbook, play, performance, visual art, etc.) to “launch,” please contact Ghost Launch.

Deadline for submissions: March 6, 2014. 

The production of Ghost Launch is made possible thanks to funding from the Winnipeg Arts Council and with support from Gallery 1C03 and the Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies at The University of Winnipeg.