Join us as QAF 2023: Queers in Space officially launches into orbit! This year, ArtParty! returns to the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre’s Exhibition Hall for the first time since 2019. Party amidst our signature Visual Art Exhibition, bumfuzzled monachopsis: innerspace out, curated by Zandi Dandizette, while enjoying delicious food and drink, gyrating to the spins of the incredible DJ Nea Stone Fox, and celebrating with the Queerdos of our community!
It’s Art. It’s a Party. It’s the best combination of both.
In this community presentation and Q&A, Dr. Kristen Hutchinson discusses the history and impact of the pioneering Vancouver-based Lesbian artist collective Kiss & Tell. Presented in partnership with Or Gallery.
Where do you draw the line between censorship and freedom of expression? Representation and exploitation? Art and pornography? In 1990, the pioneering Vancouver-based artist collective Kiss & Tell raised these provocative questions with Drawing the Line, a genre-defining and ground-breaking photographic exhibition about lesbian sexuality. With their radical images of women engaged in various erotic practices, from kissing to bondage to voyeurism, the collective—consisting of members Persimmon Blackbridge, Emma Kivisild, and Susan Stewart—not only drew attention to the lack of lesbian representation in Canadian art, but also used visual culture to address hotly debated questions within the queer community. Kristen Hutchinson’s research examines how Kiss & Tell created artworks, books and performances that allowed women to see themselves represented in art through a queer female gaze.
This presentation will include a conversation with Kiss & Tell collective member Susan Stewart, followed by an audience Q&A.
Kristen Hutchinson is an adjunct professor of art history and women’s and gender studies and an inaugural Redefining Canadian Art History Fellow at the Art Canada Institute where she is writing an online, open access book about Kiss & Tell. They received their PhD in the History of Art from University College London in 2007.
Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art – Unit 205, 268 Keefer St.
Adwait Singh, Curator. SD Holman, Visual Art Exhibition Creative Director.
Our curated visual art exhibition, Vanishing Act, becomes fully realized and fully materialized on Jul 2, when Centre A opens its doors as our festival partner. We’re celebrating our complete complement of curated artists with a building-wide tour of the entire exhibition led by the exhibition’s Curator, Adwait Singh, Visual Art Exhibition Creative Director, SD Holman, and visiting guest artists. Join us as we tour the multiple rooms that make up our most ambitious curated visual art show yet!
Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre Performance Centre – 181 Roundhouse Mews
CS Fergusson-Vaux & Ben Siegl, Curators
Did you hear that sound? What could it be? A monster, a masked assailant, a man-eating shark, a spectral haunting tethered to our plane, neither alive nor dead until suddenly…! The jump scare—a mirror, a blade, a bloodied hand on your shoulder…
The horror film is a ripe framework for queer storytelling; a tense and violent confrontation with the unknown leaves you questioning your safety while inextricably inviting an experience that is both courageous and pleasurable. A haven of expressive catharsis, queer horror offers illusionary renderings of modern fears that give room to pick apart our monsters. The malevolence witnessed in the theatre is complex and personal, reminders of a history tucked under beds and hidden inside of closets—a lot of these monsters are our former roommates. Afterall, “…if something is both queer and gothic, look under the surface to disinter the insidious trauma buried there.” (Lauren Westengard)
“Reel Eerie” showcases filmmakers who have bravely picked-up a shovel and started to dig. Sifting through everything the genre has to offer—from the delightfully campy to the existentially terrifying—the films illustrate that our “real” journey from danger is always made in the hopes of heading towards liberation. Not all of us arrive, but we all do try.
Assistant Curator Benjamin Siegl is an artist, administrator and occasional curator hailing from the great state of Florida. Born in Philadelphia, he holds a BFA from Florida State University (2011) and a MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2017) and currently resides on the unceded Coast Salish territories of Vancouver, BC. His interests include experimental animation and painting, and he is currently collaborating on a project with a PhD of molecular biology exploring the intersections of art and science.
Associate Artistic Director CS Fergusson-Vaux is a Black Carib Immigrant Artivist, and Historian with a fervent belief in decolonizing our community, encouraging and aiding in bold cultural endeavours, and constructing an ethical and inclusive artistic legacy. She uses Performative History, Transnational Studies, and JEDI based engagement to facilitate just artistic exchange between newly arrived diasporic and local queer commuities. She is currently pursuing studies in Social and Environmental Arts Practice.
Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre Performance Centre – 181 Roundhouse Mews
A comedy show. A protest. A cabaret. Winner of the 2020 Vancouver Fringe New Play Prize, Catalina La O explores the life of khattieQ and Puerto Rican singing legends Myrta Silva and Ruth Fernández. The ravages of a storm have forced Catalina La O to take shelter in an abandoned television studio. None of her live audience has arrived, but she broadcasts her one-woman show anyway to the millions of viewers she hopes are watching. Created by the duo jk jk (khattieQ, musician/performer; Jenny Larson-Quiñones, director/writer), Catalina La O is a piece for queer communities, a piece for colonized bodies, a piece for Puerto Rico, and a piece for anyone who has experienced heartbreak.
“Catalina La O gives voice to […] untold Latinx women’s stories, and to their struggle and resilience.” – Stir Vancouver
Una payasa. Una protesta. Un cabaret. Ganadora del Premio de Mejor Obra Nueva en el Festival Fringe de Vancouver 2020, Catalina La O explora la vida de khattieQ y de las cantantes legendarias de Puerto Rico, Myrta Silva y Ruth Fernandez. Los estragos de una tormenta han forzado a Catalina a refugiarse en un estudio de television abandonado. La audiencia en vivo no ha llegado así que Catalina decide transmitir el show a los millones de espectadores que, ella espera, estén viendo el show por televisión.
Creada por el duo jkjk (Jenny Larson-Quiñones directora/escritora y khattieQ músicx/ejecutante), Catalina La O es una obra para las comunidades queer. Esta pieza es para los cuerpos colonizados, para Puerto Rico, para todas las personas que conocen la angustia.
Este evento va a ser interpretado en ASL.
Productor: From The Corner Productions
Co-presentador: Rumble Theatre
Una produccion asociada de frank theatre company y Neworld Theatre
jk jk
jk jk es Arte de la Performance creada por khattieQ(músicx/ejecutante) y Jenny Larson-Quiñones(directora/guionista). La pareja crea arte de performance queer ideado en colaboración, para magnificar las historias de los marginados y perturbar el status quo.
Catalina La O presenta Ahora Conmigo fue desarrollada con la ayuda de Playwrights Theatre Centre y la dramaturgia de Joanna Garfinkel y el apoyo creativo de Adrienne Dawes.
Presenting Partner:
Presenting Partner:
Performer: khattieQ
Playwright and Director: Jenny Larson-Quiñones
Producer: Shanae Sodhi
Associate Producer: Anahita Monfared
Composer: Anton Berrios
Sound Design: Erika Champion
Lighting Designer: Abby Levis
Set Designer: Kimira Reddy
Costume Design: Michelle Thorne
Stage Manager: Katie Voravong
Assistant Stage Manager: Rachel Brew
Production Manager: Jasmin Sandhu
Technical Manager: Victoria Bell
Catalina La O presenta: Now With Me was developed with Playwrights Theatre Centre and has received dramaturgy from Joanna Garfinkel, and creative support from Adrienne Dawes and Neworld Theatre. Produced with support from Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, and Canadian Heritage
jk jk
jk jk is performance art created by khattieQ (musician/performer) and Jenny Larson-Quiñones (director/writer). The couple creates collaboratively-devised queer performance art to magnify stories of the disenfranchised and disrupt the status quo.
We’re back! What better way to kick off QAF 2022 than from the rooftop of our Chinatown digs? Stunning views, phenomenal performances, delicious food and drink, and the launch of Vanishing Act, our curated visual art exhibition curated by Adwait Singh and directed by SD Holman. Check out the exhibition on the 3rd and 4th floors of the Sun Wah Centre, then head up to the rooftop for beats provided by DJ KOTA and special performances curated by Full Circle: First Nations Performance! It’s art. It’s conviviality. And it’s damned queer.
This event is ASL Interpreted.
DJ KOTA is a trans/2s Kanyen’kehá:ka DJ and event coordinator currently living in so-called Vancouver. They’ve been co-producing events and DJing since 2018, with a focus on creating safer night life spaces for QTBIPOC event goers. Driven by their passion for music and community, they hope to contribute to the production of nightlife events that centres and gives platform to Indigiqueer brilliance and joy.
