IMAGINE US
Vari Hall, York University
25 – 28 March 2013
Mobilized
in direct response to sexual and gender based violence on campus, Chase Joynt’s
IMAGINE US will be boldly installed in Vari Hall this March. By co-opting the
structures of various York University advertisements and popular poster sales,
the project utilizes still and moving image portraits to fearlessly turn the
densely populated public space into an unavoidable viewing gallery of personal
connections to these issues. Passing through, audiences quickly learn that each
face unflinchingly featured by Joynt carries a history of sexual and/or gender
based violence, the sheer size and scale of the project imploring the attention
of all people. Part Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests, and part Foucauldian
panopticon, Joynt brazenly shifts the gaze back onto the York community,
confronting viewers with the unavoidable realities of violence experienced by
so many.
Commissioned
by the Art Gallery at York University (AGYU) with support of The Woman and
Trans People Safety Committee.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
Chase
Joynt is currently seeking still and moving image submissions for this project.
Photos will be included on posters in and around York University, and on
related project websites. If you have personal experience with sexual and/or
gender-based violence, and a willingness to contribute your image please
consider participating in IMAGINE US. Affiliation with York University is not
required.
Please
note that participants will never be identified by name, as the images
displayed will have no text other than the project name, as well as the
statement “How many more stories will it take?” In addition, this project
recognizes that “sexual and/or gender-based violence” takes on a variety of
circumstances, actions and forms, and project participants will never be asked
to disclose nor justify their self-selected involvement in the piece.
FROM CHASE:
As
a PhD student at York University, I continue to feel inundated by images of
“the ideal student” on posters and in advertisements. In addition, we are
incessantly surrounded by consumer-generated opportunities to buy posters, to
absorb images, and to get the things “we want and need” while on campus every
day. IMAGINE US strategically imagines a different form of affective visual
consumption.
As
a survivor of sexual and gender-based violence, I wonder what it could mean to
bring so many faces to these issues, to break open the pockets of silence
supported by broader institutions, and to ask for levels of accountability
currently yet to be proposed or seen. As a trans person, I continually fight
against instincts that tell me I am alone and/or singular in my experiences of
the world, and I seek to align and collaborate with others to dismantle the
structures that keep us feeling disrespected, unsafe and unseen.
We
will widely publicize the project through the AGYU, and hope to involve as many
people as we can… the AGYU is fully accessible and we will work with The Woman
and Trans People Safety Committee to meet further project and participant
needs.
I
am available via e-mail and/or to meet in the Toronto area if you would like to
speak further about the project. Thank you for your time and consideration.
–
Chase Joynt
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
1. Email
a picture of yourself to chase.joynt@gmail.com or scarte@yorku.ca.
2.
If you are interested in participating in the video portrait campaign (a short
15 second portrait of you looking at the camera), please make note in your
e-mail and Chase will contact you directly.
If
you have access to a computer or phone with a camera, everything can be done
from the privacy and control of your own space. There will also be a photo
session held in the York University TBLGAY offices (449a The Student Centre),
timing to be confirmed.
Chase Joynt is
a Toronto-based filmmaker, performer, and writer. Recently awarded the EP
Canada/Canada Film Capital Award for Emerging Canadian Artist and the Jury
Award at the Regent Park Film Festival, Chase’s film Akin is currently being exhibited at festivals in Canada, the US
and Internationally. His last film, Everyday
to Stay was awarded Best Short Film while on tour with Madrid’s
International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and the Jury Award for Best
Documentary in Bangalore, India. Chase’s latest media installation project Resisterectomy was curated by The
Feminist Art Gallery in Toronto, and presented as a solo exhibition in
collaboration with Mary Bryson at Access Gallery in Vancouver, BC. He is
currently pursuing a PhD in Cinema and Media Studies at York University.
For more information or to participate or to submit please contact:
Chase Joynt at chase.joynt@gmail.com
or Suzanne Carte at scarte@yorku.ca
∞
The
Art Gallery of York University is a university-affiliated public non-profit
contemporary art gallery supported by York University, The Canada Council for
the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto
Arts Council and our membership.
The
AGYU is located in the Accolade East Building, 4700 Keele Street Toronto.
Gallery hours are: Monday to Friday, 10 am–4 pm; Wednesday, 10am–8 pm; Sunday
from noon–5 pm; and closed Saturday. Admission
to everything is free.
http://www.theAGYUisOutThere.org
***
These occasional emails are optional. To stop
receiving them, reply with remove . Let us know we sent this
to: @absolutearts.com – it’ll
help us honour your request.
