Re-Imaging Normal

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Daniel Beaudin, “Princesses,” 2017

digital illustration, 12” x 16” (collection of Daniel Beaudin)

At the Pride Parade in Edmonton a couple weeks back, a group of protestors briefly stopped floats packed with glittery community dignitaries and waving, photo-op corporate allies. It being Alberta, many of us were sure who threw up the dam – though we were stunned that the terrified rednecks among us could be so brazen and, frankly, organized.

But it wasn’t hillbillies with ridiculous Confederate flags – it was a young group of diverse people at the edge of the LGBTQ+ community who handed out a brief manifesto: “Join us!” They demanded adjustments to representation within the festival, and – in honour of Pride’s Stonewall history and continuing issues with uniformed people with guns – that police and military pull out from the parade. And, indeed, the uniforms stepped out, and the parade continued.

Confronting the status quo: It was an exhilarating, controversial moment, images of which would fit right into Re-Imaging Normal, a compelling little whirl of a show on view until July 21 at the project space at Visual Arts Alberta–CARFAC, a non-profit arts service group. After that, the show tours schools, libraries and other venues in communities like Camrose, Lacombe, Slave Lake, Fort McMurray and Spruce Grove. Think of the semi-trailer museums you may have seen in the ’70s and ’80s, but full of content that could save more than a few lives with its suggestion that Barbie or Ken aren’t the only checkboxes.

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Trudi Sissons, “No Trump 3,” 2017

digital collage on paper, 10” x 14” (private collection)

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Trudi Sissons, “No Trump 1,” 2017

digital collage on paper, 14” x 10” (private collection)

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The show, curated by Shane Golby and Michelle Lavoie of the Edmonton Queer History Project, is half local-grown visual art, half historical documents – and even collages of both. Indeed, one of the show’s most moving images sits within a collage – a handout pairing a sad-looking boy and the phrase “that’s so gay.”

On the non-documentary side, Daniel Beaudin’s digital illustrations show dragon-slaying princesses kissing and hunks making out in post-apocalyptic ruins. There’s Adebayo Katiiti, who was granted asylum when he was outed in his home country of Uganda as a transgendered gay man while competing in an international swimming meet in Edmonton. His tense, therapeutic woodblock portraits were made at Edmonton’s SNAP studio. Trudi Sissons’ baroque, oversized triptych of numbered “No Trump” playing cards, meanwhile, makes you crave the whole uncomfortable deck.

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Adebayo Katiiti, “Untitled #1,” 2016

oil-based woodblock print, 10” x 8” (collection of the artist)

And, of course, there are allies like Frater Tham, who grew up in small-town British Columbia, where his playing with dolls was frowned upon. So, now, as a straight man, he makes sepia selfies of himself as a fairy, flicking dust at concepts of prescribed masculinity.

It’s a mixed bag of work shooting from all directions, but that’s kind of the point.

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Frater Tham, “When You Support Others You Nurture Creation, When You Disparage Others You Murder Worlds, whispered the fairies,” 2016

faux vintage photo, 18” x 12” (collection of the artist)

According to Chris W. Carson, the executive director at Visual Arts Alberta, some of the artists here helped organize the Pride protest. It’s an interesting juxtaposition to the historical touchstone of Edmonton’s then-mayor Jan Reimer’s best-of-luck message to the inaugural Gay and Lesbian Pride Day in 1993, which is displayed on one wall.

Times change, situations evolve and people who feel disenfranchised or left behind as the new “normal” settles are driven to speak up again.

Consider this: Prior to 1969, homosexuality was illegal in Canada, and same-sex marriages were allowed only in 2005. That’s 36 years. It’s impossible to imagine how much things will change by 2050, but this exhibition boldly declares that whatever your current idea of normal, it will be long gone, baby. ■

Re-Imaging Normal is on view at the Visual Arts Alberta-CARFAC project space in Edmonton until July 21, 2018.