What are you reading? is a dialogue across time and space: we mine the Union Gallery's archives to transport viewers into other dimensions, tell new stories and imagine new possibilities. Similar to our lives and spaces, time is fluid and transitioning. Rather than presenting a linear pattern of social and cultural history, we trace the push and pull of different historical moments in time with future-oriented texts and utopic readings of the world.

Our reading list foregrounds queer authors and illustrated histories to demonstrate how writing and reading can be radical acts of asserting oneself into the past, present and future; envisioning possibilities into existence. Included in the exhibition is Kai Cheng Thom’s collection of personal essays and prose poems, I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World. The nonlinear narrative of this collection reflects the importance of how past experiences inform our present, demonstrating the relationship across time which is explored through our collection of texts and archival ephemera.

Nostalgia plays an important role in how we attempt to curate our experiences. By accessing interviews and exhibition materials produced by Union Gallery alum, What are you reading? delves into the relationship between scholarship and visual culture. The exhibition allows us to gain insight into the many ways that Queen’s students have shaped the gallery into what it is today: a community space; an experimental lab; a breathing archive and living classroom.

Disco balls dance above the installation: reflecting light and spinning viewers into a utopia fuelled by the imaginary potentials of reading and writing ourselves across space and time. The disco balls serve as a metaphor for community, excess, escapism, reflection, and even, self-fashioned identity. Overall, the use of new millennium aesthetics and archival materials from a not-so-distant past—in combination with future-oriented writing—demonstrate the porous borders of temporality.

ALIGNING PROGRAMS

Queer Kinship: Chosen Family
February 2, 2022, 6–8pm
Free + Virtual Program

Bookmarking Social
March 5, 2022, 1–3pm
Free + Virtual Program

Workshop with Tee Kundu
March 9, 2022, 6–8pm
Free + Virtual Program

Beyond Words: BIPOC Art Series
Real Talk: Mental Health
March 12, 2022, 1–3pm
Free + Virtual Program

THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This iteration of What are you reading? takes inspiration from Queen’s Reads 2021-2022 selection, I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World by Kai Cheng Thom. Many thanks to Clarissa de Leon for her thoughtful collaboration on a series of programs that will be activated throughout the duration of this curatorial project at Union Gallery. We invite everyone to join us in the Queen’s Reads program. Copies of Thom’s publication are available for pick-up across campus, including Union Gallery, Stauffer Library and Four Directions. Learn more:

CICELY HAGGERTY

Cicely Haggerty is an MA candidate in the Department of Art History and Conservation at Queen’s University and holds a BAH in Gender Studies. Cicely's research interests include Queer/Feminist Contemporary art, Queer/Feminist Formalism, and the intersections of art, education, and activism. Through her research, volunteer work, and emerging museum practice, Cicely is motivated by care/collaboration, weaving together disparate ideas/fields, mining the archive to tell synchronous stories, and expanding artistic experience beyond museum walls. When she is not reading, writing, or volunteering at the gallery, Cicely likes running and dancing to techno music with friends.

RACHEL SALEM-WISEMAN

Rachel Salem-Wiseman is a fourth-year undergraduate student, majoring in Art History and Conservation at Queen’s University. Rachel wants to one day become a curator at an art gallery or museum, specializing in fashion, textiles, and design objects. Her primary research interests are historical textiles and interior furnishings, particularly how they can give insight into underrepresented histories within the Western canon. When she is not doing schoolwork, Rachel writes for MUSE magazine, volunteers at the Union Gallery, and sits on the Board of Directors at Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre. In her free time, Rachel enjoys playing video games and Dungeons and Dragons.