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Pride in Craft
This Pride month Craft Ontario is proud to highlight recent works by 2SLGBTQIA+ craftspeople and share archival pieces of craft. To find archival pieces to showcase, we took time to explore The ArQuives, the world's largest independent LGBTQIA+ archives. Amidst a wealth of trans and queer ephemera, we were shown a selection of extraordinary craft-based items that speak volumes of trans and queer joy, identity, resilience, and pleasure. Continue below to see some of the items from The ArQuives and details on the practices of select queer artists, in their own words.
Current Craft by Lauren Rice
I am a glass artist from Manitoba and am now based in the GTA. After studying glassblowing at Sheridan College and achieved a Bachelor of Craft and Design. Currently I am an Artist in Residence at Harbourfront Centre’s glass studio.
In my latest body of work, I explore themes of queer joy, connection, and community through the medium of blown glass adorned with leather harnesses. These pieces serve as tangible representations of the vibrant and resilient spirit of the 2SLGBTQIAP+ community.
Purple Petal with Two Tone Harness, 2024, blown glass with leather and metal
Each unique sculpture mirrors the diverse experiences within the queer community. The addition of leather harnesses symbolizes strength, unity, and the freedom to express one's true self without fear or shame. By intertwining these materials, the aim is to celebrate the beauty of diversity and the power of solidarity. This work invites viewers to reflect on the joyous moments of connection and belonging that emerge when we embrace our authentic identities and come together as a community.
Leather Wrapped Citrus Stack, 2024
My work specifically celebrates the richness and diversity of the 2SLGBTQIAP+ community, the following pieces are a reflection of the joyous connections we share.
Purple and Lime Leather wrapped bowl form, 2024, blown glass with leather and metal
The ArQuives items donated by Paul Pancorvo, Joel Gibb
2006-053 (go-go dancer costumes), Paul P [Pancorvo] - Hidden Cameras - Joel Gibb
Current Craft by Anjelica Buha
I made this piece as a final project for my queer art and archives class at the iSchool. I wanted to find a way to represent the long history of queer spaces in Toronto, and the resilience of the queer community. I used materials from The ArQuives to find (self-determined) queer spaces dating as far back as the 1960s and extending until the late 90s. Community is so important to queer people, including myself, and so I felt it was important to represent the physical spaces we have and will continue to occupy.
I had seen a photo of a map that had been published in the body politic on The ArQuives website, and thought that maps might be an interesting place to start. I reached out and asked to visit and Daniel Payne helped me search the database for similar materials, so that the team could prepare them for my visit. When I arrived Daniel showed me some of the materials he found interesting and told me a little bit more about them, and then gave me time to look through everything. I sorted through tons of old maps and newspapers and took photos of things I liked, and allowed inspiration to come to me.
I chose to give this piece to The ArQuives because I thought it would be the best way to thank them for their help with my research. I could not have done this project without them, and specifically without Daniel. I also think it is important to contribute to the archival record, such that it contains a little piece of everyone, not just “important” figures in history. I hope that, by giving my map to The ArQuives, it will be helpful to someone else down the line.
Colour coding:
Red = community organizations
Yellow = cruising spots
Blue = bars/restaurants/clubs
Green = bathhouses
The ArQuives item donated by Glen Pelshea
90-156 12.3.5 Harrison Baths (metal plate etching)-Engraver's plate of Harrison Baths, 1908, Toronto (from TBP office). Pelshea, Glen
Current Craft by Saivani Sanassy
I am a Mauritian-Canadian artist based in Ottawa who loves to explore natural and fantastical subjects through watercolour, ceramics, and jewelry. Art has been an expressive and therapeutic tool in understanding myself, and my identity. I aim to one day build a local art studio and workshop to host works of local artists and work towards cultural revitalization and decolonize western gallery spaces.
Having intersectional identities means that we have complex stories that deserve to be heard and told. In my art I am speaking with generations of those who were silenced. I like to see my art as a way to honour and remember my ancestors as well.
The ArQuives item donated by KHUSH
2007-081/01CF , F0015 , KHUSH , CC.01.01.01
Khush: South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association is a queer collective activist organization, whose goal was to promote a better understanding of South Asian culture and values within the lesbian and gay community. Khush, along with Gay Asians of Toronto, coordinated "Unity Among Asians" in 1989, the first Asian LGBTQ+ conference to be held in North America.
Current Craft by Alisa McRonald
I am a contemporary textile artist who experiments with themes of folklore, fables and the esoteric. Autobiographically, as a queer woman with an invisible disability, I live my life “queerly” or to some degree of abstraction from “the norm”. This perspective in the context of my work takes my love for story-telling, folklore, abstraction, kitsch and queerness and puts them in a blender!
This piece is called, "The Witness" and is based on a Scottish fairy who observes and witnesses travelers. My version is a witness standing and witnessing all the challenges, hatred and erasure of the queer community, but also, witnessing the resilience and joy of the queer community.
"The Hag". She is well known as a witch or ugly old woman. I am speaking back to concept of women becoming redundant as they age. To me, they become part of the universe. My hag's hair is becoming one with the sky and her body is forming roots in the earth, she is becoming nature itself.
"Sorceresses' Business", created for the 2023 Interior Design Show prototype exhibition.
The ArQuives items donated by Craft Action Toronto
F0200 - MCC Toronto (Textiles) (Box 2 0f 2)(right)This memorial crocheted banner was made by the group Craft Action Toronto in 2016 to remember the homophobic attack at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, resulting in 49 lives lost and 53 people wounded.
Current Craft by Lindsey Adelman
My identity as a queer femme influences my practice as a glass blower and designer while situating me in a community where I feel seen and welcomed. Living life as a femme person I often feel erased or unseen and I strive to make my pieces bold in opposition of that feeling. Through drawing from maximalism and using an abundance of colour I create objects that are whimsical and joyous. Even sculptures that are more representational are made in the whole rainbow of colour ways to reject the increasingly dull and muted design standards of our contemporary world. I will frequently select colour schemes from different pride flags as a way of signaling my queerness to other people in my community.
The Rainbow Vase was fabricated by layering up opaque colours on a white bubble. I've been riffing off of the flame working technique of dot-stacking to apply these two-toned splotches that expand, stretch and distort as the glass is blown out. I'm intrigued by the way the movement inherent in the glassblowing process is preserved in these pieces and their psychedelic appearance. This piece presented some additional challenges with the variety of colours having different levels of stiffness or hardness, expanding differently from each other.
(left) Lime, Purple and Orange Bowl, Blown glass, 2024, (right) Lime, Pink and White Vase, Blown glass, 2024
The ArQuives item donated by Linda Wilson
(left) 2018-114, Wilson, Linda (wood labrys)
Current Craft by Em McDonald
I have created this a series of sculptures that translate blind contours of queer people in flameworked glass. This is a portrait distilled to its essence and is the physical manifestation of really looking at someone. Blind contours are simply a drawing of looking. I want to create a series of these drawings with queer individuals as the subjects to fabricate a body of work dedicated to the looking and seeing of 2SLGBTQ+ people who often get viewed as a political body rather than an individual with their own unique concept of self and queerness.
I believe it is an especially important time to engage not only with my own view of my queerness, but create art that helps celebrate and highlight others’. The validity of experiences within the 2SLGBTQ+ realm is often called into question and the political reality of living out and proud lives can at times be bleak. Given the current political climate I believe it is important to create this work now, when there is a threat to the health and well being of many queer and trans folks here in Canada and abroad. I want to create work that celebrates the individual and communal queer life, that highlights our joy and perseverance in an untenable world. Fabricating queer sculptures is an excellent opportunity to expand my network of 2SLGBTQ+ folks and welcome them into an art space where they see their bodies being celebrated and elevated.
Flame-worked borosilicate glass sculptures
The ArQuives item donated by Paul Aboud
WE'RE STILL HERE - banner, commissioned for the 1 year anniversary protest of the bathhouse raids, Feb 6, 1982, Paul Aboud
Craft Ontario hopes everyone has a happy Pride and feels powerful in continuing to express themselves through craft!
