Art Gallery of Guelph
Curated by Dallas Fellini
Robert Flack, B.G-Osborne [Oz], Benjamin Da Silva, Mirha-Soleil Ross,
Xanthra Phillippa MacKay, Cleopatria Peterson, and Daze Jefferies
By Mattea Schouten
Robert Flack emerged in the Toronto art scene in the early 1980s. His depictions of the human form grew increasingly mystical as the decade unfolded, gradually introducing acid colours and psychedelic patterns into his artistic process. Flack began depicting the image of a figure superimposed over flat tie-dye backdrops and floating through space, a development that marked the beginning of his interest in the metaphysical. Flack learned he was HIV-positive in 1988, a diagnosis that profoundly influenced his work in the years that followed. Between then and his death in 1993, Flack delved into spirituality as a means of imagining transcendence beyond his physical self and the systems that failed to provide the care he needed. Empowerment is Flack’s final body of work, a collection of photomontages that reflect the artist’s developing awareness of his mortality and his desire for something beyond the physical realm. Shown alongside an exhibition dedicated to films by transgender artists from two generations, Flack’s work communicates a broader narrative of queer inheritance, particularly in relation to the lasting influence of those lost to the AIDS epidemic.
As part of the Art Gallery of Guelph’s visible storage initiative, Flack’s series has been presented alongside four of the artist’s cibachrome prints in the Eternal Transcendent exhibition. The Empowerment series, which makes up a majority of the exhibition, is constructed of seven photographs. The images form a spiritual map of the human body, superimposing hand-drawn designs over photos of the seven energy centers along the spine. Flack’s cibachrome prints depict circular labyrinths overlaid on barely discernible micrographs, the visual contents obscured by Flack’s use of a highly magnified lens. Flack’s chakra portraits are presented in order from left to right and his cibachrome works are arranged around the series along a narrow hallway connecting the collection to its sister exhibition, Some kind of we.
Ascent (1990-91) is the first image from the series and displays the first chakra, representing safety and stability. Its location at the base of the spine is depicted in Flack’s photograph of a man’s backside. The photo is coloured in a rich purple and decorated with a multicoloured spiral design composed of dollar-store jewels. This image simultaneously speaks to Flack’s interest in spirituality, and to the gay community surrounding him. His undeniably queer representation of beauty and power in Ascent came at a time when public perception of gay men was still heavily stigmatized as a result of the AIDS crisis. Today, Ascent can be remembered as a bold and shameless response to the heteronormative culture which had denied Flack both safety and stability during the epidemic. Crown (1990-91) is the final piece from the Empowerment series. The image represents the seventh chakra, dedicated to spiritual transformation and a connection to the divine. Flack’s photomontage combines an image of the top of a man’s head, dark against a deep blue background, and a circular floral design hovering above it. Though this work is more ambiguous than others in the series, Crown is distinctly queer in its gender-bending combination of cropped hair, navy blue colouration and floral decoration. Crown is the closing statement of the series, encapsulating Flack’s interest in themes of enlightenment, divinity, and queer self-expression in a singular photo.
Down the hall, Some kind of we presents video works by transgender artists, creating a soundscape that leaks into the hallway and adds an audio component to the viewing experience of Eternal Transcendent. The physical proximity between the two exhibitions makes it impossible to experience one without experiencing the other. Gendertroublemakers (1993), a short film by trans artists Mirha-Soleil Ross and Xanthra Phillippa MacKay, is projected onto a wall and brings forward candid conversations between the women about their sexual experiences with gay and straight cisgender men, as well as with other trans women. Cut between intimate clips of the women kissing in bed, they interview each other and describe the ways in which their sex lives and personal lives have transformed as their identities evolved.
polished (2016) is a two-channel video by contemporary artists B.G-Osborne [Oz] and Benjamin Da Silva in which they discuss trans-for-trans relationship dynamics, mental health struggles, and substance abuse. They offer nuanced perspectives on transitioning while they sit in a bath together, drinking wine and shaving their faces. The couple’s conversations and the video formatting of polished echoes that of Ross and MacKay’s Gendertroublemakers. Some kind of we offers a space for dialogue between a queer past and a queer present, visually demonstrating the inheritance of queer ideas and art forms within the community.
United, Eternal Transcendent and Some kind of we serve as an homage to queer survivance and continuity. Using Robert Flack’s yearning for transcendence as a vessel to communicate the community’s continuous fight for progress, and Gendertroublemakers and polished as examples of the direct passing down of artistic legacies and ambitions, the Art Gallery of Guelph is successfully transformed into a space for reflection on how far the queer community has come in the last 40 years. The collective memory and artistic projects of those who were alive during the AIDS crisis continue to influence generations of queer creators, and though Flack passed away in October of 1993, he has since been solidified within the Canadian art historical canon. His first posthumous solo show at the Art Gallery of Guelph since his passing, Eternal Transcendent exemplifies the ways how Flack achieved a form of transcendence. Flack’s chakras have bore witness to the end of the 1980s/1990s AIDS crisis in North America and the decades that followed. If an art piece carries within it something of its maker, then Flack surely has transcended the confines of his body and transformed into something permanent and unkillable.