MY MONUMENT

March 6 - April 5, 2014
Gallery 1C03 & Hamilton Galleria

Featuring cam bush, Steven Leyden Cochrane, Roewan Crowe, and Paul Robles

Ghost Launch performance with Chandra Mayor: March 15 at 2:00 p.m. in front of 478 River Avenue

The Book is Happening with Roewan Crowe: March 20, 12:00 - 4:00 p.m. at Gallery 1C03

Conversation with the artists: Wednesday, March 26, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. in room 2M70 (2nd floor of Manitoba Hall) at The University of Winnipeg
Listen to the Conversation [MP3]

MY MONUMENT is a multimedia exhibition featuring artistic exchanges among artists cam bush, Steven Leyden Cochrane, Roewan Crowe, and Paul Robles using Crowe’s new book  Quivering Land as a point of connection to explore monuments and vanished feminist/queer/alternative cultural sites. The double-sited exhibit will be shown in Gallery 1C03 (1st floor, Centennial Hall) and in the Hamilton Galleria (4th floor mezzanine, Centennial Hall in the Library), both at The University of Winnipeg.

Quivering Land is a queerish Western long poem that engages with politics to reckon with the legacies of violence and colonization in the West. Robles creates intricately cut origami paper images in response to this narrative, while Crowe produces text-based works that have been altered irrevocably by the brutality of the gun. Together the artists fashion a collaborative sculpture which further elucidates shared experiences of loss and the desire to create space for reflection and memory.

MY MONUMENT includes the participatory website Ghost Launch which maps vanished feminist/queer/alternative bookstores and solicits stories, images, and experiences of these bookstores through a public call for submissions. Evidence of this interactive and intergenerational shared space will take the form of multimedia installations by Steven Leyden Cochrane in Gallery 1C03 and by cam bush in the Hamilton Galleria. All four MY MONUMENT artists will join with Chandra Mayor in front of the former site of Bold Print – The Women’s Bookstore on 478 River Avenue on March 15 in a performative event titled Ghost Launch to reanimate that location with public readings and the launch of a chapbook. Similarly, for The Book is Happening, Crowe will deliver a durational public reading of Quivering Land in the queer space of Gallery 1C03 on March 20.


Artist biographies:

cam bush is a (re)emerging, Winnipeg-based intermedia artist who holds a BFA (Hons.) from the University of Manitoba. His work frequently investigates locality, human relationships, and language and communication, and has been exhibited in galleries, festivals and alternative exhibition spaces across Canada.

Steven Leyden Cochrane is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and educator. He holds a BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA in studio art from the University of Windsor. Originally from Tampa, Florida, he is currently based in Winnipeg.

Roewan Crowe is a trans-disciplinary artist, theorist, and teacher living in Winnipeg who explores the rich terrain of video, photography, installation, performance, digital and new media technologies, theory, text, and activism. She investigates the transformational possibilities that open up through artistic and pedagogical practices. She has a particular passion for queer/trans/feminist art, creating community, and facilitating initiatives in cultural democracy.

Born in the Philippines, Paul Robles is a Canadian artist based in Winnipeg. Recognized for his intricate origami cut paper works, Robles combines the delicacy associated with fine and traditional handwork with the portrayal of subjects such as violence, loneliness and intimacy. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (Gold Medal) from University of Manitoba School of Art and Bachelor of Arts degree (Sociology) from The University of Winnipeg.

Chandra Mayor is the current Carol Shields Writer-in-Residence at The University of Winnipeg. The author of three books of poetry and fiction, she has received numerous awards for her writing, including a Lambda Literary Award. She has performed her work in venues and festivals across the country.


MY MONUMENT has been made possible thanks to funding from the Winnipeg Arts Council and with support from the Institute for Women's and Gender Studies and The University of Winnipeg.

Contact:
Jennifer Gibson
Director/Curator
Gallery 1C03
The University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, MB  R3B 2E9
Ph: 204.786.9253
F: 204.774.4134
E: j.gibson@uwinnipeg.ca