Possibilities unbound

Blurred Boundaries: Queer Visions in Canadian Art features a select 13 works, all pulled from the AGO Collection, by the likes of General Idea, Will Munro and Frances Norma Loring, alongside some recent acquisitions of Cassils, David Buchan and Robert Flack. Curated by Renata Azevedo Moreira, AGO Assistant Curator, Canadian Art, Blurred Boundaries is not intended to be an exhaustive survey of queer art in Canada, but rather, an entry point into broader conversations on the topic. Visitors are asked to consider how queerness is understood and visualized within the landscape of Canadian art. “This exhibition,” explains Moreira, “suggests queer readings in contemporary and historical works, offering connections that are not exclusively bound by gender or sexuality, but rather focus on how the works question the status quo of their time. What does it mean to explore, from a queer lens, our understanding of artistic practices today and 100 years ago? That’s the challenge.”

Blurred Boundaries, opening April 9 at the AGO on Level 2 in galleries 201 and 247, spans 150 years of artistic production. Uniting artists whose work is on view is a desire and impulse to push past societal norms of their day. Before the 1980s and into the ‘90s, when the term was reclaimed by activists during the HIV/AIDS global health crisis, “queer” was used as a slur against gay, lesbian and transgender folks. Today, “queer” is often used as an all-encompassing, and sometimes contested, umbrella term for the broader 2SLGBTQIA+ community. The reason for the controversy is that not all who belong to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community would identify themselves as being queer, an important distinction reflected by some of the artists included in this very exhibition.

A highlight in Blurred Boundaries is Advertisement: Homage to Benglis (2011); an archival pigment print from the ever-evolving, interdisciplinary practice of Toronto-born, Montreal-raised, and Los Angeles-based artist Cassils (image at top). The photograph is a nod to Lynda Benglis’ advertisement, published in 1974 in the centrefold of the magazine Artforum, in which the artist posed nude with a double-ended phallus. In their tribute, Cassils appears in a proud celebration of trans representation, with a muscular physique, photographed by collaborator Robin Black. The images from this work tie in with another work by Cassils titled Cuts: A Traditional Sculpture, conceptualized with reference to Eleanor Antin’s 1972 work Carving: A Traditional Sculpture in which Antin dramatically reduced her food intake with a 45-day crash diet. Cassils transformed their body into a traditionally masculine bodybuilder physique with gruelling 23 weeks of strict dieting and exercise regimen. 

Will Munro, Miserable Mondays, March 27, 2006. Poster: 43 x 28 cm. E.P. Taylor Library and Archives. Gift of the Estate of Will Munro, 2011. © Art Gallery of Ontario. LA.SC121.S5.1.

Blurred Boundaries: Queer Visions in Canadian Art opens Saturday, April 9 and features work by Stephen Andrews, David Buchan, Cassils, Louis de Niverville, Andy Fabo and Michael Balser, Robert Flaherty, General Idea, Zachari Logan, Frances Norma Loring, Eric Metcalfe, Will Munro, and Edith S. Watson.

Plan your next visit to the AGO here. Keep reading AGOinsider for more stories about Blurred Boundaries and all AGO exhibitions.