‘Do Weeds Still Grow in Heaven?’ features the kinship of weeds with racialized queerness/transness, viewed as undesirable or unorganizable excess. As a taxonomic category, weeds are not an actual species of plant, but a behaviour of appearing and thriving in a place where they are unwanted. The exhibition then looks inwards: the treatment of weeds can mirror the experience of abuse in queer relationships. It is a subject often cast aside in the narrow celebratory refrain of queer love–a flawed but strategic way of advocating for belonging. The allusion to ‘heaven’ emerges from this common tactic of hinging hope on a queer utopia. It also nods to the popular use of Belinda Carlisle’s 1987 song Heaven is a Place on Earth as a sapphic anthem. In revisiting the song again, it finds new meaning in living through survivorship as an afterlife. Rather than displaying evidence, the exhibition examines the loss and recovery of personhood while traversing violence. Across embroidered text, fabric prints, and sculptural installation, these undomesticated interiors become tentatively hospitable containers for disparate weeds to crop up.
An essay about this body of work was written by Casey Mecija. It was also translated into French by Catherine Barnabé.
This exhibition takes place at Gallery 101 (Ottawa) from November 9 to December 14, 2024. It continues at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (Lethbridge) from January 25 to April 12, 2025. Some artwork was included in group exhibitions The Traces that Remain at MAI (Montreal), measured by hand at Artspeak (Vancouver), and indiscernible thresholds, escaped veillances at the University of Toronto Art Museum.
I would like to thank the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council in the making of this work.
