C.4.1 Repenser la collection au prisme de l’acquisition conjointe et de la garde partagée

• Jessica Minier, Université du Québec en Outaouais

Dans les dernières années, de nouvelles modalités de muséalisation font leur apparition dans les musées d’art, dont certaines qui concernent l’acquisition d’œuvres d’art. On observe entre autres une accélération de l’acquisition conjointe depuis ces dix dernières années. Cette pratique se veut un processus collaboratif par lequel une œuvre devient la propriété légale de deux ou de plusieurs musées et est intégrée simultanément dans leurs collections. Au-delà de ce type de collaboration interinstitutionnelle, on assiste à une collaboration entre musée et communautés non pas nécessairement pour l’acquisition d’œuvres d’art, mais pour définir de nouvelles modalités d’intégration des œuvres aux collections des musées qui tiennent compte de conceptions extraoccidentales. On parle alors d’une garde partagée qui permet de fonder le processus de muséalisation sur le gardiennage et le prendre soin des œuvres plutôt que sur la propriété.

Cette communication se penchera sur ces deux pratiques que sont l’acquisition conjointe et la garde partagée d’œuvres d’art comme stratégies pour queeriser, ou du moins diversifier et décoloniser, les collections. D’une part, les impacts de l’acquisition conjointe sur les collections seront étudiés en fonction de deux cas du Los Angeles County Museum (à confirmer). Le premier concerne l’acquisition, conjointement avec le Getty en 2011, de 2000 photographies de Robert Mapplethorpe.

Le second cas concerne l’acquisition, conjointement avec le Vincent Price Art Museum en 2020, de 21 photographies de Laura Aguilar et de ...we are the mountain (2019) de Rafa Esperanza. D’autre part, aucun cas de garde partagée rattachée aux artistes 2SLGBTQIA+ n’a été répertorié à ce jour. Néanmoins, la muséalisation de Witness Blanket (2014) de Carey Newman par le Musée canadien pour les droits de la personne et celle de The Echo of an Ancient Form of Knowledge (2021) par Edgar Calel et la Tate permettront d’illustrer une décolonisation les pratiques entourant les collections.

mots clés : acquisition conjointe, garde partagée, diversification, décolonisation, collections muséales

C.4.2 Aqtion Arqhive: Tracing 2SLGBTQIA+ Labour Activism in the Katarokwi-Kingston Region

Morgan Oddie & Aqtion Arqhive Collective, Public Service Alliance of Canada & Carleton University

In partnership with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) Kingston Regional Office, Aqtion Arqhive: Tracing 2SLGBTQIA+ labour activism in the Katarokwi/Kingston Region (Aqtion Arqhive) is a multimedia mapping project that celebrates and centres work by Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Agender and other gender-variant folx (2SLGBTQIA+). “Aqction Arqhive” invites 2SLGBTQIA+ artists, community organizers, academics, and activists to share their work and efforts with the broader community, and bridge connections between our organizing actions and the current social, political, and cultural events shifting the landscape of Queer representation in labour. In 2021, Dr. Susan Braedley and Christine Streeter shared a report titled “Public Services for LGBTQ2+ Older Adults and Workers”. By interviewing several Queer older adult workers, this report found that most Queer workers have experienced some form of discrimination in the workplace. As Queer activists, we know this is an area of study underdeveloped in research-creation and academic work. More pressing is the need to celebrate the work 2SLGBTQIA+ labour activists have contributed and continue to contribute to ongoing labour actions. By celebrating and archiving our achievements and creative interventions, we can assess and draw parallels between past, present, and future labour movements, while also creating new knowledges through the process of collecting, sharing, discussing, and exhibiting in itself.

As such, we have created an online digital archive using Esri Storymaps (arcGIS) of the Katorokwi/Kingston region with artworks, posters, campaign documentation, policy statements, and media coverage that centre Queer workers and solidarity. This project historicizes these events while also archiving the important work produced by Queer workers and unions in the fight for equity in the workplace. “Aqtion Arqhive” is important to Queer workers and our partner because it not only celebrates our work but invites workplace change attuned to 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusivity. This paper presentation will give a glimpse into the archive and the process of creating and working with community engaged archives, while curating and archiving with care.

keywords: archives, queer, 2SLGBTIA+, labour activism, research-creation, community based research and archiving

C.4.3 Drag as Becoming

Ryan Van Der Hout, The New School

In Drag as Becoming, I discuss my photo-based series Drag and the personal transformation of both queering my life and art practice that developed over the course of the series.

The Drag series explores the art of drag performance and its relationship to masquerade, public and private identity, and the project of self-making through a queer lens. Creating still lives, portraits of drag performers, and self portraits, I explore the space between the mask of the self as performer and the mask of the everyday.

Documenting drag performers as they put on their stage makeup, I capture moments of vulnerability and transformation.

The series began with portraits of Toronto’s local drag community, capturing drag performers as they put on their stage makeup, moments of deep vulnerability and ultimately transformation.s, I eventually turned the camera on myself, creating self-portraits in drag, exploring an entirely new persona while simultaneously exploring my queer identity. I explore the layers of imitation involved in the formation of identity, including the masquerade of gender and sexuality. Reflecting on the process of coming to my own self-understanding as queer, the series raises questions about validation. What does it mean to “pass” as queer, and how does recognition through the eyes of others relate to one's own sense of self? Drag reveals the paradox that taking on alter-egos and donning the personas of others may allow one to become their truest self.

In this talk, I will share about the personal transformations that happened through the series and how it shaped my views on art-making as a process of becoming.

I will also address about the complexities of claiming the label of queer artist as a bisexual person in a presumed straight-passing relationship, including the fear of not being “queer enough” or taking space from more marginalized queer voices. I am interested in exploring the dual nature of bi invisibility and privilege and how this may prevent other bi/pan/queer artists from claiming space within the broader queer artist community.

keywords: queer, transformation, art, photography, identity