Upcoming workshop, curated performance series, and residency:
TORONTO / WORKSHOP
I’ll be presenting an in-person workshop at Xpace Cultural Centre on Saturday, Feb 8, at 2PM (MAP):
Flyer Design: https://www.instagram.com/__kaspr/
Rejecting Rejection: Navigating Experiences of Rejection for Emerging Artists
How do emerging artists handle inevitable experiences of rejection as they begin applying to calls, residencies, grants, job applications, and cold-call emails? Developing a thick skin takes time, and every single working artist has experiences of rejection.
In this workshop, multidisciplinary artist Jordan King offers an alternative to thinking of “rejection-as-failure”, instead utilizing it as part of a lifelong artistic process. Even the most successful and well established artists experience rejection!
The workshop will offer concrete takeaways, strategies to prepare for responses on applications, as well as grant writing/time management tips. Rejection can serve as a guide, directing where to focus one’s time + energy, and when it may be time to refocus.
TORONTO / CURATED PERFORMANCE SERIES
I’ve curated a series of performances as part of FADO Performance Art Centre’s Emerging Artists & Curators series, titled On View.
Performances will take place at 401 Richmond’s Fourth Floor Commons (MAP)
Saturday Feb 22, Saturday March 1, and Saturday March 8th between 1PM and 5PM. These are not timed performances, rather the artists are on view during this time, with aspects of the performance changing over the course of the afternoon.
Simultaneously, each performance will be streamed to the adjacent Yachir Berex gallery space. You choose - view the performance live, or livestreamed?
The camera takes up a position in the performance space, but this is not a performance for the camera. Is it possible to be oblivious (or obliterate) the impact of the presence of the camera? How might the camera inform considerations for movement, activity, or perhaps lack thereof that you engage in for the performance, while not performing for the camera?
Artist Bios:
甄念菻 / Kendell Yan (she/they) is a multifaceted and multidisciplinary trans girl artist on the precipice of tomorrow. In one hand she holds grace and in the other she holds steadfastness. Emotive, sure and firm, Kendell sings to the tomorrow we all deserve. Combining intergenerational culture and liberationist dreams, Yan strives for a collective future. Take her hand and trust the journey, this is an epic created together.
Performance: Saturday Feb 22, 1:00PM - 5:00PM
Artist talk: Sunday Feb 23 2:00PM
Camille Kiku Belair (they/them) is a composer, classical guitarist and interdisciplinary artist. They are interested in working with field recordings, creating handmade artist books, and exploring connections between music and art making. A graduate of OCAD University’s Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design MFA program, they previously completed a BMus specialising in composition at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music, and studied at California Institute of the Arts in both the Performer-Composer and Experimental Sound Practices MFA programs. Current work involves developing handmade book-objects that function as compositional tools and generating grid-based visual patterns from melodies.
Artist talk: Friday Feb 28 5:00PM
Performance: Saturday March 1, 1:00PM - 5:00PM
Brigita Gedgaudas is an emerging, interdisciplinary, trans*, and diasporic-Lithuanian artist working in so-called Toronto. Coalescing from a life-long practice of Lithuanian folk dance, a recent involvement in the Punking/Whacking/Waacking community, and training in new media art and vertical dance techniques — Brigita amalgamates these histories into one human shell. Finding home in a glitch’s persistent ability to reconfigure and reframe a person’s approach to digital systems, Brigita extends this into explorations of the queer body in heteronormative reality. Their work is in constant conversation with trans*mutation, translating the body between physical and digital/human and alien through interactive and immersive installations.
Performance: Saturday March 8, 1:00PM - 5:00PM
Artist talk: Sunday March 9, 2:00PM
TORONTO / ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
I’m excited to announce that from January to December 2025, I’ll be Artist-In-Residence at Gallery 44 Contemporary Photography Gallery.
The residency period will include two artist talks, tentatively scheduled for early June and early December, where I’ll share about my creative process and exploration in the upcoming year. This includes: my relationship to photographic imagery and self-portraiture, analogue film methods, as well as movement captured on film, including stills from motion picture film.
Polaroid, 2024