Oily: on fandom
July 5- August 2
Conor McNally, MCDAVID film still
Upcoming Events:
Opening Reception: July 5, 3-8 PM
FEATURED ARTISTS
Maria Buffalo
John Cardinal
Veronica Fuentes
AJA Louden
Conor McNally
Emily Riddle
Hanif Abdurraquib writes about his hometown of Cleveland as its basketball team chases a national championship: “Cleveland is a city that is overwhelmed by a desire to believe in something beyond what people outside of the place have ascribed to it.”
The parallels between Edmonton and Cleveland jump out of every page of Hanif’s book “There’s Always This Year”. While the City of Edmonton removed its “City of Champions” slogan from welcome signs on the highway, many are still banking on a return to those glory days of back to back championships in the late 1980s.
But what is Edmonton without hockey?
In the early 00s, some in the local arts scene tried to cement Edmonton’s identity as blue collar and gritty by deeming it “Dirt City”. While this moniker seemed to encompass some accuracy in its attempt to describe us as underdogs, fish philosopher Dr. Zoe Todd rightfully critiqued how there was nothing dirty about a land that has held, fed and nourished people since time immemorial.
Whether a fan of the sport and the local team or not, it’s impossible to deny the power a franchise has on this city. There seems to be no hesitation to hand over blank cheques for an arena while cutting vital services, and displacing the most vulnerable population for the optics, to appear “world class”—desperately trying to believe we are something else.
Oily examines the joy, representation, and unity within a fandom while also never forgetting those who are left without when the party's over.
Veronica Fuentes, Stop the Sweeps, 2023
(COMING SOON)
About the Artists
About the work
Veronica Fuentes is a mixed Salvadoran and Anishinaabe (Saulteaux, Yellow Quill First Nation). An artist, organizer, direct action trainer and community helper, she is born and based out of amiskwaciwâskahikan in Treaty Six Territory. Her role in the community is
most centered on areas of harm reduction advocacy, urban Indigenous house-lessness, and intersectional climate justice but she is flexible in her role as a helper. Her deep love for relationships and solidarity within the prairies is paramount to creating art that places itself in Land Back movement(s) in her community, online platforms, or on the frontlines. Veronica works with multi-disciplinary mediums to express her experiences as an urban, diasporic femme - while also using her creativity to serve community, kin and her imagination of Indigenous futurisms. Veronica believes that Indigenous peoples have a lot to teach the world about living a way of life we all deserve. In her free time, Veronica can be found scheming creative resistance projects, traditional textile and regalia crafting, printmaking, and working on radio with her friends.
About the work
Stop The Sweeps, 2023.
Stop the Sweeps is a commentary that demands an end to the violent practice of encampment evictions (Sweeps). Stop the Sweeps focuses on the $613.7 million Rogers Place arena, which is the new home for the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Edmonton Oilers, a franchise owned by billionaire Daryl Katz. Stop the Sweeps brings forward the connection between the development of the Ice District, The Edmonton Oilers, Oilers Entertainment Group, Edmonton Police Services and Rogers Place - naming the harm and collusion of these organizations. Stop The Sweeps confronts gentrification, and the corporate, provincial and municipal manipulation that continues to criminalize, racialize, displace and systemically un-alive unhoused city center residents. Stop The Sweeps demands locals to call for an end to the police violence and banishing of community that continues to escalate with the reshaping of City Centre Edmonton. Stop the Sweeps was mass produced as a sticker to be radically displayed all over the city, in solidarity with impacted peoples and beyond.
About the work
About the work
SOURCES & Resources
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