BLESSED ARE THE DIS-IDENTIFIERS

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Marsel Reddick, “Want,” no date

video still (courtesy of the Gallery)

Opening reception: Saturday, June 8 from 7-10pm

Featured Artists: Arielle Twist, Eish Van Wieren, Frankie Elouise, Friday Smith, Kama La Mackerel, Marsel Reddick, Hollis Hunter (window display)

BLESSED ARE THE DIS-IDENTIFIERS playfully challenges assumptions about “what is trans art” and what it means to defy gender expectations as a direct response to the hyper-identifying and targeting of trans and non-binary people in this province by the government and the media. Curated by Vivek Shraya and Latitude 53.

According to Collins Dictionary, an identifier is “a person or thing that establishes the identity of someone or something.” When I hear the word, I think of criticisms I hear about marginalised people—that we are obsessed with our identities. All the jokes about “woke culture” and pronouns imply that we are obsessive identifiers. 

And yet, when we look at the media and government’s insistence on invoking and attacking trans lives and rights into their agendas to polarise and divide, it would seem that the opposite is true: they are obsessed with our identities, who we are, how we should and shouldn’t live. They are the identifiers.