A Room Of Our Own is curated by Rachael Duval – featuring works from Alice Senescall, Anna Sisson, Prairie Hatchard-McGill, Emmanuel Sarmiento, Jah, Clara Chon, Diva Blair, Joanna Neumegen, Juliet Carpenter, Cameron Ah Loo-Matamua, Sorawit Songsataya, Te Ariki Campbell, Rachael Duval, Ella Scott-Fleming, Oliver Gilbert, Tash Keddy and Daniel John Corbett Sanders.

Politics are personal and queerness falls in the canon of tragedy.  One can often feel as though they are in a procession of jesters, all vying for the adoration of the Queen’s court.  Who has the most wit?  Intellect?  Sex appeal?  Who can shock without being beheaded?  This is the circus we navigate through daily, and have done so since birth.  Sometimes we fall prey to the court, and sometimes we create rooms of our own.

In an address to the Republican National Convention, Caitlyn Jenner said that “it was easy to come out as trans, it was hard to come out as Republican.”

I’m not including her to be facetious; I think she’s relevant to this.  Her embodiment of queerness in connection to her personal views seems surreal and crude, but it shouldn’t.  As attractive as it can be to reduce it to platitudes, queerness is not one singular vision, nor is it a liberal politic.  Queerness is a beautiful and incongruous mess – quiet and internal – churning through births and rebirths as it transcends itself with every passing voice.

Artist statement written by Cameron Ah Loo-Matamua.