Proud Deviants and Queer Multiples

Queers living in the urban centre of Toronto have a strong history of resistance and deviant practices that skirt social norms in presenting and disseminating queer knowledge and art. These practices include the self-publication of zines, newspapers, posters, wearables, and art objects made as multiples. These materials, unlike popular mass media, are presented by and for queer audiences allowing for more nuanced, complicated, and affective understandings of the city's queer communities. Using an object-based approach grounded in Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology, I present queer multiples as guideposts for understanding the inherited queer history of Toronto and its influence upon contemporary artists. For Proud Deviants and Queer Multiples, I curated an exhibit comprised of a multi-generational slate of queer artists, multiples and Toronto’s queer history by showing works from my collection. In tandem with the multiples, I have juxtaposed queer archival materials such as scans of the covers of publications like The Body Politic and gendertrash, as well as the map of the Toronto Purchase. The combination of multiples and archives chart moments of tension and jubilation for queers living within the heteronormative colonial and institutional frameworks of Toronto. By using an artist-curator methodology, this exhibition creates the opportunity to consider the past, present and future of queer art-making in Toronto