Exposure Festival

Queer art Matters

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One of the coolest things about Edmonton is the way our queer culture has so wholly embraced art. I know that every town has its share of art fags, but ours is a true community, a vibrant and diverse one that seems dedicated to not just creating and sharing art, but to making sure the ways to view and create it are available to everyone. It's hard to believe that the Exposure Festival is only entering its third year, as it seems already such an entrenched and invaluable cornerstone of Edmonton's gay art scene.

Exposure has once again this year included youth curators in their programming to give young queers a chance to see what goes on behind the scenes of putting on an art exhibit. This year it also held a print making workshop at SNAP (Society of Northern Alberta Print Artists) Gallery to assist youth in creating works for the festival. I had a chance to sit in on the session, check out some of the incredible work and to chat with Jolanda Thomas, one of this year's youth curators.

VUE WEEKLY: What is your role with Exposure?

JOLANDA THOMAS: I was one of three people chosen to be a youth curator for a youth-submitted, print-based exhibition. Exposure organizes it so that youth have a way to view the backside of art and how the processes happen, how getting a show together works, and at the same time we get youth in the community involved by submitting their art and possibly showing at the gallery.

VW: Why did you want to get involved?

JT: For me it was really about seeing that side of the sort of business of art and how and what you actually have to go through to create an exhibition. I'm really interested in seeing if that's something I want to work towards in my own life.

VW: We were at a workshop today that offered youth a special opportunity to create art, can you describe that?

JT: It was a chance for people who don't have access to the equipment—which is basically most people—a chance for the youth to come down and be able to make silkscreened work.

VW: What is the exhibit you're curating?

JT: It's called Printed Matters: Creating & Curating Queer. The idea behind the show is to get youth submissions, so people from 14 to 24, to submit their print art. Once we make submissions there's going to be an exhibit, half of which will show at SNAP and the other half at the Alberta Gallery of Art.

VW: What kind of submissions are you interested in?

JT: We're looking for print-based art, so anything that's reproducible. Silkscreening is one example; you could work with photography or something you design on the computer. Anything that you can print and make multiples of is the sort of idea of what we're looking for.

VW: What have you seen so far that's been interesting to you?

JT: All of it has, actually. I kind of came in not knowing what people were going to come up with, and even just some of the stuff I've seen today has just been amazing. It blows me away what people can do and the things they feel like they want to say.

VW: Was there anything at today's workshop that you really liked or surprised you?

JT: Well, the uterus is a good one: it's a uterus that reads "eggs for breakfast." Another involved a virus and some sort of microbe [a T-shirt and poster captioned with Queer Nerd Pride]. I guess I've seen enough silkscreen that nothing really surprises me because I know the possibilities are endless. You're always just surprised.

VW: What are you most excited for with this upcoming exhibition and the Exposure festival?

JT: To actually be at our opening and first get to see people's reactions and get to see the process come to fruition, I think that's going to be a really cool moment. V

Printed Matters is looking for queer-themed art from LGBTTQA youth under 25. All submissions must be dropped off at the Art Gallery of Alberta (100, 10230 Jasper Ave). Deadline is October 1 at 7 pm. Please include title, medium, contact information and description or artist statement. Name can be kept confidential on request.

For more information on the exhibit that opens in late October, check out "Printed Matters: Creating & Curating Queer" on Facebook.

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Exposure Festival

Queer art Matters

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