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Tape Condition: degraded
VHS, queer porn and digital histories at the CLGA
Hazel Meyer and Cait McKinney
June 16 – Sept 18, 2016
Opening reception: June 16, 7–10pm @ the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, 34 Isabella St.
Tape Condition: degraded is an immersive installation and community digitization station that engages with the CLGA’s collection of more than 3,000 VHS tapes, about one-third of which are porn. From commercially produced movies, to homemade tapes and hand-dubbed compilations, these cassettes are vital records of the archives’ role in preserving and protecting queer desires, sexual subcultures, and the pleasures of collecting. As VHS tapes age and degrade, what kinds of digital strategies might bring the histories they record into the present? How might digital interventions broaden, diversify, or queer the kinds of bodies, pleasures, and identities the archives collects?
Throughout the summer, a working digital transfer station will be situated in an immersive installation designed to evoke the CLGA of the 1980’s—the heyday of both VHS and Canadian police censorship of queer porn. Hidden behind a “false wall” that references the archives’ attempts to protect the porn collection from police raids in the 1980s, this station will be staffed by a technician and available for community-use on select days throughout the summer. New video work by Aidan Cowling titled Landscapes of Infinities will screen on a loop within the installation.
A publication with essay, drawings by Hazel Meyer, comic by Morgan Sea, and “Dream Tape” archival interventions written by 11 queer and trans artists and activists available online and in print. Dream Tape Contributors: Anthea Black, Derek McCormack, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Guillermina Buzio, jes sachse, Jessica Karuhanga, Kiley May, Morgan M Page, Nica Ross, Nick Matte, Syrus Marcus Ware.
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A series of public programs throughout the summer will invite artists, activists, porn makers and scholars to think about VHS, porn collecting, and digital histories at the archives:
June 16, 7pm
Opening Party at CLGA, 34 Isabella Street, 2nd Floor
Remarks and Digitization Demo at 8pm
June 18, 10am – 4pm
Community Digitization Day, CLGA, 34 Isabella Street
Bring in your VHS (Book an appointment online: http://goo.gl/forms/cFXvB4EH68)
Digitization can occur on 1st floor for those with accessibility needs
July 8, 2016, 7:30pm – Midnight
Artist Talk and Party at Buddies in Bad Times, 12 Alexander Street
7:30pm: Performance Lecture by Cait McKinney and Hazel Meyer
9pm: VJ Party with tapes from CLGA collection, Nica Ross and Ginger Brooks Takahashi
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Accessibility Note: The second-floor gallery space of the CLGA building at 34 Isabella is unfortunately not currently wheelchair accessible; the building’s elevator broke this year and is being rebuilt. All public programming events for this show will be held either on the first floor of the CLGA (accessible by ramp at back of building) or in off-site accessible venues. Documentation and a take-away publication are also available.
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Hazel Meyer is an interdisciplinary artist who works with installation, performance, and textiles to investigate the relationships between sport, sexuality, feminism, and material culture. Recent projects include a solo exhibition at MacLaren Art Centre (Barrie) and a public art commission for Cambridge Gallery’s Idea Exchange. In 2015 she was Scrap Metal Gallery’s (Toronto) inaugural artist in residence. She is currently at work on an iteration of her ongoing project Muscle Panic (2014– ) for the CAG in Vancouver. Hazel holds an MFA from OCAD University (Toronto) and a BFA from Concordia University (Montréal). http://hazelmeyer.com
Cait McKinney’s research examines the media practices of feminist and LGBTQ social movements, emphasizing the late-20th century adoption of digital and online tools. Recent writing appears in Feminist Theory and the Radical History Review’s special issue on queer archives. Cait is the 2015/16 Media@McGill postdoctoral fellow at McGill University, where she has also taught at the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. http://caitmckinney.com
Hazel and Cait’s collaborations explore their shared attachments to queer histories through research, writing, and archival interventions. Past projects include an essay in Little Joe: Queers and Cinema (2015), the Muscle Panic Handbook (2014), In the Equipment Room, a performance workshop for art)work(sport)work(sex)work by YES! Association/Föreningen JA! (The Power Plant, Toronto 2015), and a feminist tool catalog recently published in No More Potlucks.
Image: Hazel Meyer, Tape Condition: degraded (Close Shave), 2015.
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