Videofag

Last updated

Videofag was a storefront arts space that operated in Toronto, Ontario's Kensington Market from 2012 - 2016. Founded and run by couple William Ellis and Jordan Tannahill, who converted it from an old barbershop, the space became an influential hub for queer counterculture in the city. [1] A flexible multimedia space, Videofag was designed to serve as a cinema, art gallery, nightclub or theatre space depending on the needs of any individual event. [2] It also doubled as Ellis and Tannahill's home. [1] [3] Videofag often acted as a laboratory, in which artists were gifted residencies to explore new ideas. The space helped develop and premiere several shows that went on to high-profile presentations at major theatres and festivals internationally. [4]

Videofag's inaugural exhibition, in 2012, was a retrospective of local queer music collective Kids on TV. [1] That year, the space also presented performances by Jeremy Bailey, Casey Mecija, Nina Arsenault, as well as Salvatore Antonio and Adamo Ruggiero's Truth/Dare: A Satire (With Dance), a Madonna tribute show. [5] Screenings included video work by Mike Hoolboom, John Greyson, Matthew Rankin, Adam Garnet Jones, Albert Shin, and The Hidden Cameras.

Performances presented in 2013 included Henri Fabergé's six-hour rock opera Feint of Hart, [6] Aurora Stewart de Peña's play The Lee Press On Nail Play, [7] Jane Montgomery Griffiths' play Sappho...In 9 Fragments, [8] Daniel Karasik's play The Biographer, [2] a concert by Rae Spoon, Sky Gilbert's play To Myself at 28, Zach Russell's Grindr comi-drama Fixed, poetry performances by bill bissett, and a trilogy of dance pieces by D.A. Hoskins. Videofag also premiered Sheila Heti's play All Our Happy Days Are Stupid, the subject of her bestselling novel How Should a Person Be?, featuring a cast of fourteen mostly non-actors from Toronto's literary, music, comedy, and visual art scenes. [9] The play later enjoyed sold-out runs at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre and New York City's The Kitchen. That year, Videofag also hosted exhibitions by Vivek Shraya, Keith Cole, and Jesi the Elder, and group shows featuring work by Bridget Moser, Life of a Craphead, FASTWÜRMS, Kalup Linzy, Will Munro, and R.M. Vaughan, among others. [10] One notable exhibition saw Videofag transformed into a satirical Wal-Mart pop-up store, in response to the bargain chain's announced intention to build an outlet in Kensington Market. [11] Screenings and new media projects included those by Jennifer Chan (artist), Daniel Cockburn, Jon Moritsugu, Francesco Gagliardi, the Radical Faeries and Sissy Boy YouTube Night, a program of Internet videos of childhood queer expression, curated by Jon Davies. [12]

2014 saw Videofag presenting work by performance artist Narcissister, choreographer Andrew Tay, performance artist Jess Dobkin, artist Humboldt Magnussen, writer Jacob Wren, a gothic rock-opera by G.B. Jones and Caroline Azar of Fifth Column, an exhibition of Erik Kostiuk William's Hungry Bottom Comics, and the Queer Songbook Orchestra, in which a 12-piece chamber ensemble re-interpreted songs that have shaped the LGBTQ community. [13] Videofag also played host to the Regional Support Network, a monthly screening series featuring film and video from specific communities, curated by filmmakers from those communities. Photographer Samra Habib’s exhibition ‘Just Me & Allah: Photographs of Queer Muslims’ garnered international media attention. [14] [15] ‘Homer’s Odyssey’, an exhibition exploring the cultural impact of The Simpsons on a generation of visual artists, also drew record crowds and significant press attention. [16] [17] Videofag's 2014 artists in residence included performance artist Michael Dudeck, visual artist Sojourner Truth-Parsons, and theatre creator Stewart Legere.

Among Videofag's 2015 highlights were premieres of Karen Hines's play Crawlspace, and Greg MacArthur's play A Man Vanishes, a noir-thriller set at Videofag, and starring Tannahill and Ellis as themselves. The space also played host to exhibitions, performances, and residencies by dancer-choreographer Amanda Acorn, performance artist Alvis Choi, the post-punk band New Fries, director Alistair Newton, writer-artist Masha Tupitsyn, curator Xenia Benivolski, playwright Johnnie Walker, writer Michael V. Smith, artist Rajni Perera, drag queen Nancy Babcock, performance-maker Chad Dembski, and dancer-choreographer Dana Michel, among others. [18]

In 2016, Videofag presented work by musician Lido Pimienta, playwright-performer Haley McGee, poet Aisha Sasha John, theatre makers ted witzel and Susanna Fournier, artist Walter Scott, and premiered playwright Salvatore Antonio's play Sheets.

Videofag presented a number of political cabarets on subjects including Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney, the Sochi 2014 Olympics and Yoko Ono. [19] Every month Videofag also hosted The Spoke, a storytelling event presented by Toronto theatre company Outside the March. [20] Videofag collaborated with a number of larger festivals and organizations to co-present events, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Pleasure Dome, Inside Out Film and Video Festival, Buddies in Bad Times, and Theatre Passe Muraille. [21]

Videofag was listed as one of Toronto's Best New Art Galleries of 2012 [22] and nominated as a Toronto Hero as part of the Torontoist's 2013 Heroes and Villains poll. [23] Its closure in June 2016 spawned an outpouring of tributes in national media, and an honorary award from The Toronto Critic's Awards for its contribution to the community. [24]

In November 2017, BookThug released The Videofag Book, a collection of essays, photos, scripts, and reflections about the space.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheila Heti</span> Canadian writer

Sheila Heti is a Canadian writer.

Glad Day Bookshop is an independent bookstore and restaurant located in Toronto, Ontario, specializing in LGBT literature. Previously located above a storefront at 598A Yonge Street for much of its history, the store moved to its current location at 499 Church Street, in the heart of the city's Church and Wellesley neighbourhood, in 2016. The store's name and logo are based on a painting by William Blake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Arsenault</span> Canadian actress

Nina Arsenault is a Canadian performance artist, freelance writer, and former sex worker who works in theatre, dance, video, photography and visual art.

Becky Johnson is a Canadian comedian, writer, actress, improviser, craftsperson and organizer.

Sandra Alland is a Glasgow-based Scottish-Canadian writer, interdisciplinary artist, small press publisher, performer, filmmaker, and curator. Alland's work focuses on social justice, language, humour, and experimental forms.

Koffler Arts is a broad-based cultural institution established in 1977 by Murray and Marvelle Koffler and based at Artscape Youngplace in the West Queen West area of downtown Toronto, Ontario.

William Grant Munro was a Toronto artist, club promoter, and restaurateur known for his work as a community builder among disparate Toronto groups. As a visual artist, he was known for fashioning artistic works out of underwear; as a club promoter, he was best known for his long-running Toronto queer club night, Vazaleen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Cole (performance artist)</span> Canadian artist

Keith Cole is a queer Canadian performance artist and political activist. Originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, he is currently based in Toronto, Ontario. An alumnus of York University's Fine Arts program, Cole has worked in film and video, dance and theatre performance, both as himself and in character as drag queen Pepper Highway.

Margaux Williamson is a Canadian painter, filmmaker, and writer based out of Toronto. Williamson’s paintings are meant to be understood in part as "a philosophical investigation of the landscape around her, as well as dedicated rigour and formal exploration into the development and possibilities of painting as a medium". Through her work she has created a highly personal visual language which she uses to explore themes of subjecthood, storytelling, life, death, aging and tension. Although dealing with dark and heavy themes, Williamson's works are ultimately hopeful, exploring the possibility of light in darkness. Williamson's works are often intertextual with her references ranging from popular culture to objects she finds lying around her studio. In her work she is unafraid to reference and draw on art history, specifically finding inspiration from artists such as "Goya, Manet, Duchamp, Luc Tuymans and Philip Guston over the years".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisha Lim</span> Artist

Elisha Lim is a scholar, artist and graphic novelist living in Toronto. Lim advocates the use of the gender-neutral pronoun "they". Lim is currently an assistant professor at York University, in the faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. Their research focuses on social media, theology, and critical race theory.

Life of a Craphead is an art duo consisting of Jon McCurley and Amy Lam, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They have presented work at The Power Plant, Gallery TPW, Hotel MariaKapel, Department of Safety, and the Banff Centre. Their work combines art and humour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordan Tannahill</span> Canadian playwright, film and theatre director

Jordan Tannahill is a Canadian author, playwright, filmmaker, and theatre director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Chuchu</span> Musical artist

Jim Chuchu is a Kenyan film director, photographer, singer-songwriter and visual artist. He first came to attention as a member of Kenyan music group Just a Band and subsequently as director of Kenyan LGBT film Stories of Our Lives.

Kim Katrin is a Canadian American writer, multidisciplinary artist, activist, consultant, and educator. She was formerly credited as Kim Crosby and Kim Katrin Milan. She speaks on panels and keynotes conferences nationally, and facilitates radical community dialogues. Her art, activism and writing has been recognized nationally.

Deanna Bowen is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes films, video installations, performances, drawing, sculpture and photography. Her work addresses issues of trauma and memory through an investigation of personal and official histories related to slavery, migration, civil rights, and white supremacy in Canada and the United States. Bowen is a dual citizen of the US and Canada. She lives and works in Montreal.

The Centre for Experimental Art and Communication (CEAC) was a Canadian artist-run centre that developed out of the Kensington Arts Association (KAA) [1973-1978] in 1976 as a multimedia space that provided an important venue for experimental and avant-garde art in Toronto, Ontario and beyond. CEAC was the first ever multi-media centre owned and operated by an artist-run centre in Toronto and the largest non-institutional art space during its time. The centre engaged with artists, musicians, and activists from across North America through organized exhibitions, in addition to hosting video production facilities, workshops, screening, and performance series'. CEAC encouraged artist-to-artist communication and provided a platform for Canadian artists to expand their knowledge through international tours. The centre was also home to the radical art magazine Art Communication Edition, later renamed STRIKE. Despite its success as an artist-run centre from 1976 through to 1978, CEAC was disbanded in the summer of 1978 following scandal and the withdrawal of government funding from the Ontario Arts Council

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dainty Smith</span> Toronto-based actor, playwright, and burlesque performer

Dainty Smith is a Toronto-based actor, playwright, and burlesque performer. She is the founder of Les Femmes Fatales: Women of Colour Burlesque Troupe, Canada's first burlesque troupe for Black women and women of colour, femmes and gender non-conforming persons. Her interdisciplinary work engages themes of glamour, afrofuturism, queer thriving, body positivity, and Blackness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FAFSWAG</span> Arts collective

FAFSWAG is an arts collective of Māori and Pacific LGBTQI+ artists and activists founded in Auckland, New Zealand in 2013. They explore and celebrate the unique identity of gender fluid Pacific people and LGBTQI+ communities in multi-disciplinary art forms. In 2020 FAFSWAG was awarded an Arts Laureate from the New Zealand Arts Foundation, and they also represented New Zealand at the Biennale of Sydney.

Pati Solomona Tyrell is an interdisciplinary artist from New Zealand who focuses on performance, videography and photography. Tyrell is a founding member of art collective FAFSWAG. In 2018 Tyrell became the youngest nominee for the Walters Prize, New Zealand's most prestigious contemporary art award, for the video work Fāgogo, subsequently purchased by Auckland Art Gallery. In 2020 Tyrell won the Arts Pasifika Awards' Emerging Pacific Artist Award.

Aleesa Cohene is a Canadian visual artist based in Los Angeles.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Videofags: A new queer art space in Kensington - ready to blow your mind". fab , October 17, 2012.
  2. 1 2 "The Biographer Is a Great First Draft". Torontoist , May 9, 2013.
  3. ↑ "A year of Videofaggery". Xtra! , November 14, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Revenge of the Impossible Play". The New York Times , February 4, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Truth/Dare takes on the Material Girl". NOW , June 20, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Henri Fabergé’s Feint of Hart". Torontoist , July 4, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Friends and Outsiders". Torontoist , June 21, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Sappho…In 9 Fragments". Torontoist , June 14, 2013.
  9. ↑ "How Sheila Heti’s long-abandoned play went from her bottom drawer to a Toronto stage". The Globe and Mail , October 23, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Video fags: Couple creates queer Kensington salon". Xtra! , October 16, 2012.
  11. ↑ "How a fake Walmart stoked dissent in Toronto’s Kensington Market". Toronto Star , August 9, 2013.
  12. ↑ Davies, Jon (Spring 2014). "Sissy Boys on YouTube: Notes Towards a Cultural History of Online Queer Childhood by Jon Davies". C Magazine (121).
  13. ↑ "Repression in Rhapsody". Xtra! , March 26, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Just Me and Allah Photography Series Documents Queer Muslims". BuzzFeed , May 23, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Queer Toronto Muslims Are in the Spotlight with the 'Just Me and Allah' Photo Series". Vice (magazine) , June 25, 2014.
  16. ↑ "Pay homage-er, Homerage- to a cartoon classic at a Simpsons-themed art show". Toronto Life , September 3, 2014.
  17. ↑ "New Simpsons-themed art exhibit is one you doh not want to miss". Torontoist, September 3, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Videofag announces new, final season". Daily Xtra , August 25, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Videofag's website". Videofag, accessed January 16, 2013.
  20. ↑ "The Spoke - True Life Spun". outsidethemarch.ca. Archived from the original on 2014-05-01.
  21. ↑ "Bright lights, big city" Archived 2013-07-02 at the Wayback Machine . The Grid , February 20, 2013.
  22. ↑ "The Best New Art Galleries in Toronto, 2012". BlogTO , January 8, 2013.
  23. ↑ "Hero 2013: Videofag". Torontoist , December 30, 2013.
  24. ↑ "The Winners from the 2016 Toronto Theatre Critics Awards". Torontoist , May 27, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.