#melanniemonoceros

[windowwinnipeg]

WINDOW 47: MELANNIE MONOCEROS (JANUARY 9 - FEBRUARY 8, 2020)

“As an individual,  I've been using image descriptions on instagram and online for a number of years, and have been curious to find ways of providing the same access to "live" or in person image sharing. For me, it is another opportunity to invite a connection with the art and it is part of my practice of intersecting my beliefs in liberation, disability justice and interdependence with my artwork.”

-melannie monoceros

[windowwinnipeg]

WINDOW 47: MELANNIE MONOCEROS (JANUARY 9 - FEBRUARY 8, 2020)

WINNIPEG’S ONLY 24 HOUR ARTIST-RUN CENTRE PRESENTS MELANNIE MONOCEROS

Location: Artspace Building, corner of Bannatyne @ Arthur [sidewalk level]

window is pleased to present our forty-seventh installation:

a n c e s t o r a d I o

Featuring work by melannie monoceros and curated by Adele Ruhdorfer, on view until February 8, 2020.

~~

'a n c e s t o r a d i o' - is a 3 part series of short films using both analog and digital techniques, the seed of which iwas the discovery of a cassette featuring my mother and myself as a baby. It was recorded shortly before she died less than 2 years later. The first, "tuning the ocean", is an experimental animation on 16mm, navigating notions of water as a channel for cross/dimensional communication; the second "artifracture", is a narrative about trauma and place, focusing on a found kitchen object; the third, titled "remapping rosepathways" and still in development, explores weaving, process, and using the body as a tool for healing.

Overall the series is about grief and ancestorship, ghosts, and trying to listen for a sound (my mother's voice) that I didn't have a living memory of hearing until I first heard the tape.

-melannie monoceros

This installation is presented in conjunction with Gallery 1C03’s exhibition Yearning for Comfort, Not Cure, curated by Adele Ruhdorfer. Yearning for Comfort, Not Cure features work by six artists who explore their varied embodied experiences with disability, chronic illness, and madness, which are materialized and given form through the labour-intensive processes of performance, craft-based, and digital media. In addition to exploring the theme of complex embodiment, the artists deal more specifically with dis/comfort, chronicity and temporality, collage and fragmentation, familial histories, interdependence, sensory variance, and the compounding social effects that race and gender have on their bodies. Artists include Yvette Cenerini, Lux Habrich, Bram Keast, melannie monoceros, Laurence Philomène, and Jesse Turner. Yearning for Comfort, Not Cure is on view at Gallery 1C03 January 9 – February 8, 2020.

- Adele Ruhdorfer

~~

About the artist:

melannie monoceros is a poet and artist exploring polysensory production through text/ile, performance, and installation. A Black and chronically ill creator, they are currently based in Treaty 1 /Winnipeg, MB; home of the Métis First Nation and the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Dene, Cree, Dakota and Oji-Cree Nations. They have read and performed at Drop the Mic (Winnipeg, MB 2019), This is Not a Sentence (Paoli, IN 2018), Republic of Inclusion (Ottawa, ON 2017), and at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto, ON 2016). monoceros is a VONA fellow (Berkeley, CA 2014) and has since been awarded grants from the Canada, Ontario, and Toronto Arts Councils. melannie has been a guest lecturer at Concordia University, Ontario College of Art and Design, Ryerson University, and Yukon College School of Visual Art.  melannie’s writing has appeared in magazines such as THIS, Make/Shift, Shameless, and The Peak as well as the When Language Runs Dry zine. Most recently, melannie ‘s work has appeared at the Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina, SK) and MAWA/Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (Winnipeg, MB). In 2019, melannie was awarded the JRG Emerging Artist Award for their continued pursuit, integrating technology and accessibility through film installation via their series “a n c e s t o r a d i o”.

About the curator:

Adele Ruhdorfer is currently in her final year of a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in Art History at The University of Winnipeg, where she’s focusing her research interests on applying critical feminist and disability frameworks to analyses of fine art and popular forms of visual culture. She is particularly interested in re-centring the politically-engaged embodied experiences of women, feminist, queer, and disabled artists, as they continue to be under-researched or, particularly in the case of chronic illnesses or disabilities, their positive connection to an artist’s creative process is overlooked. After graduating, she plans on pursuing a master’s degree in Cultural Studies, with the hopes of contributing to historical research, teaching, and curatorial practices.

window is located on Treaty 1 Territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples and the homeland of the Metis Nation. Window is co-curated by Noor Bhangu, Mariana Muñoz Gomez, and Sarah Nesbitt.

This installation was made possible in partnership with Gallery 1C03 for their exhibition, Yearning for Comfort, Not Cure (January 9 - February 8, 2020), and the generous support of the Winnipeg Arts council and Manitoba Arts Council.