bumfuzzled monachopsis: innerspace out

Curated Visual Art Exhibition

Sat Jun 17 – Wed Jun 28 

9am – 9pm daily

Roundhouse Exhibition Hall – 181 Roundhouse Mews

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Zandi Dandizette, Curator

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bumfuzzled monachopsis: innerspace out

Free Guided Curator Tour with Zandi Dandizette

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bumfuzzled monachopsis: innerspace out reflects the uncertain times in which our collective world does not ascertain belonging to those occupying it. Our parallel universes of experience, never quite overlapping, seeking out an idealized community, that “me-shaped” hole in which inclusion is touted. A confused subtle space of emotion as the external world points at what we are and who we are, yet never quite where we are welcome to be. 

The present state in which queer artists take up space, share space, and embody the ownership of it. Sharing our inner worlds out visually via developed characters, worlds, or visual language that provides safety in exploring identity or the relation to the spaces around them. 

Zandi Dandizette’s curation asks viewers to “wander the maze of our hearts and open them to the multiplicity of being.” We are not a homogenized whole, but many individuals all seeking that future space in which belonging can be achieved. 

Zandi Dandizette, QAF 2023 Visual Art Exhibition guest curator

Zandi Dandizette is a nonbinary settler-immigrant interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker that likens their medium as space whether 2D, 3D, or 4D. Their work vacillates between focus shifts on identity, dis/connection, and collective problem solving. Zandi utilizes repeating color and shape motifs to discuss binary and hierarchical aspects in these themes. Zandi’s practice attempts to investigate and share the lessons they’ve absorbed in navigating the complexity of existence.  Over the past ten years, Zandi’s varied collection of works — animation, interactive installations, digital and visual artworks — have been shown across Canada, the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom (2017), Tehran, Iran (2018) and Sydney, Australia (2018). They graduated with a BMA in Animation 2014 from Emily Carr University before moving into the collective space that became The James Black Gallery which is currently located on the stolen unceded ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. 

Zandi seeks to decenter colonial legacy, and empower voices affected by systems of oppression in their cultural work. This intention has had them explore the possible structures in which artists come together as a founding member of VALUCOOP (2020), in the development of Pressure Point (2022), on the board of VIVO Media Arts Centre (2018-2020), serving as the President of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres (2020-2022), and in representing British Columbia at ARCA (2019). Zandi co-founded The James Black Gallery (2014), current board member of CARFAC National, and charter member of the Arts and Cultural Workers Union (778-B). Their curatorial projects have ranged from showcasing emerging, local to international stature, while mostly being centered at The James Black Gallery.