Some kind of we
Some kind of we brings together works that approach t4t sensibilities, emphasizing networks of trans relationality, self-representation, cross-generational inheritance, desire, and love. A shorthand that emerged in the early 2000s, t4t was first used in Craigslist Personals by transgender and transsexual people seeking relationships with other trans people. Today, t4t has come to encompass not only circuits of desire between trans people, but also practices of solidarity and mutual aid within trans communities.
Reflecting an ongoing tradition of trans-centered artistic production in Canada over the course of three decades, Some kind of we includes video and print works by B.G-Osborne, Daze Jefferies, Cleopatria Peterson, Xanthra Phillippa MacKay, and Mirha-Soleil Ross. These works unfold in the Art Gallery of Guelph’s physical space, and are paralleled by a distributed exhibition, emphasizing the connective role of distributed media such as video and self-published zines and newsletters within trans histories of pre- and early-internet activism and community-building.
Trans and non-binary people can register to receive the distributed exhibition here.
The title of this exhibition, Some kind of we, is borrowed from an Ari Banias poem from his 2016 book Anybody.
Please note: This exhibition contains videos that include depictions of nudity and physical intimacy, as well as mature language and conversations. These artworks explore themes related to trans experience and relationships.
Image detail: Mirha-Soleil Ross and Xanthra Phillippa MacKay, Gendertroublemakers, digital still, 1993, video, 20:00. Courtesy of Vtape.
Organized by the Art Gallery of Guelph and presented with the support of the Centre Wellington Community Foundation’s Middlebrook Social Innovation Fund as well as the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, and agency of the Government of Ontario. B.G-Osborne gratefully acknowledges funding from ArtsNL.
About the curator
Dallas Fellini
Dallas Fellini is a curator and writer living and working in Toronto. Their research is situated at the intersection of trans studies and archival studies, considering representational and archival alternatives to trans hyper-visibility. Dallas holds a Master of Visual Studies in Curatorial Studies from the University of Toronto. They have curated exhibitions and screenings for Gallery 44, Vtape, Trinity Square Video, Xpace Cultural Centre, Hearth, Riverdale Hub Gallery, and the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. They are a cofounder of Silverfish, an arts publication devoted to interdisciplinary collaboration, skill-sharing, and cultivating sustained dialogue between emerging artists and writers. Dallas is the recipient of the 2024 Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators.
About the artists
B.G-Osborne [Oz]
B.G-Osborne [Oz] is a gender variant autistic settler of Scottish and British descent. They were born and raised on Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg Territory [Kawartha Lakes], and are a current uninvited guest on the Southeast coast of Ktaqmkuk [Newfoundland]. Oz’s ongoing projects seek to unpack and share their experiences with mental illness, neurodivergence, transness and familial bonds. They place great importance in showcasing their work in artist-run centres and non-commercial galleries across Turtle Island.
Daze Jefferies
Daze Jefferies (she/her) is a white settler artist, writer, and educator born and raised in the Bay of Exploits on the northeast coast of rural Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). Her multidisciplinary and research-based creative practice explores queer, trans, and sex worker embodiments, counter-histories, and intergenerational relationships in Atlantic Canada. Her work has been exhibited and performed at The Rooms, Eastern Edge Artist-Run-Centre, Owens Art Gallery, Galerie de l’UQAM, and the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador Gallery, among others. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2023 Emerging Artist Award from VANL-CARFAC.
Benjamin Da Silva
Benjamin Da Silva is a graphic artist currently living on the traditional homelands of the Kanien’kehá:ka.
Mirha-Soleil Ross
Mirha-Soleil Ross is a Québécois performance artist, videomaker, transsexual activist, curator, and sexworker. The star of the National Film Board’s well-intentioned documentary In the Flesh (Gordon McLennan, 2000), Ross’s sixteen or so own video productions have much more raw artistic energy and political bite—“gut-busting, ass-erupting and immoderately whorish,” as she says in the compilation of video excerpts. The tapes, often made in collaboration with Xanthra Phillippa MacKay and Mark Karbusicky, blur boundaries among document, demonstration, performance, narrative, autobiography, representation, and provocation. From her own personal body, history, and experience, to the political fields of reproductive technology and animal rights, Ross’s restless art covers a broad landscape of politics and desire. Ross founded Toronto’s Counting Past Two trans-arts festival in 1998.
Xanthra Phillippa MacKay
Xanthra Phillippa MacKay was a transsexual cultural producer, videomaker, writer, zine editor/publisher, and radio host. Along with Mirha-Soleil Ross, she produced gendertrash from hell in the early 1990s. She was involved with trans-arts festival Counting Past 2 since its inception in 1997. Her writing appeared in gendertrash and Willyboy, and she hosted the bi-weekly radio program Psychopathia Transsexualis: transsexual news, information and culture. She volunteered at the Meal Trans program, a meal drop in for low income, street active, and marginalized transsexual and transgendered people at the 519 Church Street Community Centre in Toronto.
Cleopatria Peterson
Cleopatria Peterson (they/them) is a multi-disciplinary artist that explores the intersectionality of their identities as a black, non-binary transgender crip artist through the mediums of narrative, printmaking, illustration and education. They are a member of the Crip Arts Collective, have had their work shown at The Canadian Textile Museum, and are one of the co-founders of Old Growth Press. They graduated from the Cross Disciplinary Art: Publications program at OCAD U as the medal winner for their class (2020) and also hold a Bachelor’s of Design from TMU’s Fashion Communication program.
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