Current Issue: Spring 2021

Frequencies

Available from March 15 to June 14, 2021

This issue came together during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, at a time when separation has become a routine, although not necessarily pleasurable, experience. Lockdowns in many parts of the country have meant attuning to different ways of engaging with art, as gallery visits are restricted and art spaces offer programming online. This was an opportunity to spend time with practices that prioritize multisensory experiences, not only the visual but also the sonic and the haptic. These sit alongside registers—including different forms of communication or transmission—that exist beyond human perception. Together, these aesthetic experiences consider the role of frequencies as modulators of artistic practice. Many of the artists here focus specifically on listening, rethinking their relationships to sound and finding intimacy and connection beyond imagery. At a time when screen culture is a pervasive and all-encompassing aspect of culture at large, the artists in this issue ask for a pause, a realignment, to think about the aesthetic experiences that come through different ways of sensing.

This Issue

Features

Practising the Unattainable

Indigenous dream-world data, temporal spirals and technologies to come—a poet and performer talks to an artist and composer about transformative ways of tuning in

by Riel Bellow and Kite

Sonic Agency

When Seth Cardinal Dodginghorse cut off their own braids in an act of protest that went viral, they also demonstrated the potential of sound as resistance—a tactic of performance, protest and even ASMR videos

by Nathan Young

The Angel’s Share

Rae Johnson‘s angels catalogue the passage of a body through time

by Tess Edmonson

Listening Feels

For Black artists, when visuality doesn’t offer justice, the complexity of sound art offers an intimacy that is both political and poetic

by jamilah malika abu-bakare

Gambletron’s Technical Submission

With equal parts chance and skill, Gambletron—a performer, musician, artist, circuit-bender and career experimenter—orchestrates the perfect conditions for chaotic harmony

by Yaniya Lee

Listening in Reciprocity

The natural world invites us into the indescribable yet intimately heard—what does it mean to move beyond hearing and truly listen?

by Lindsay Dawn Dobbin

Spotlight

Circular Logics

A national survey of artists who build worlds beyond the visible, from the Frequencies issue

by Megan MacLaurin

Artist Project

A sonic score available for listening on either a phone or a turntable—technologies from different eras that unite in a register of frequency

by RUTMEAT

Cover Image

Ínyan Iyé (Telling Rock)

Detail. 2019. Immersive installation with song, power, sound, processors, machine-learning decisions, handmade circuitry, gold, silver, copper, aluminum, silicon and fibreglass. Dimensions variable. Photo: Colin Conces. Copyright Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha.

by Kite and Devin Ronneberg

Contributors

Oracle

Mirrors, Mandalas and Seeing the Self

Chrysanne Stathacos talks about her new installation for the Gwangju Biennale and psychic communications and connections amid pandemic loss

by Jayne Wilkinson

Poetry

Siren’s Radio

by Fan Wu

Collage

A How-To Guide to DIY Pirate Radio

by Jean Couteau

Adornment

Desperate Living, for E.S.

by Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill

Art Market Guide

Reviews

On Charles Campbell and the Underrepresentation of Caribbean Art in Canada

The Jamaica-born, Victoria-based artist has shown at the Brooklyn Museum and Pérez Art Museum Miami—but only recently had his first Vancouver solo show

by Krystal Paraboo

Other reviews include: Francesca Ekwuyasi on Nanuk & Bibi at Nocturne Halifax; Jayne Wilkinson on Legacy Russell’s Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto; Joni Low on “Soundings: An Exhibition in Five Parts” at Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver; Ossie Michelin on Thomassie Mangiok’s board game Nunami; Amelia Wong-Mersereau on “La machine qui enseignait des airs aux oiseaux” at the Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal; Leah Sandals on Yvonne Mullock at Norberg Hall, Calgary; Louis Fermor on Milton Lim at The New Gallery, Calgary; Adrienne Huard on Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto; Lauren Fournier on “Reflecting Dis-ease: eh ateh pahinihk ahkosiwin” at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina; Irene Bindi on Gelare Khoshgozaran at Plug In ICA, Winnipeg; and Joy Xiang on “Moving Ether Way” at Trinity Square Video, Toronto

Overheard

Resonance

As a soprano, I mastered arias in Italian, German and French first—the Inuttitut songs of my roots came later

by Deantha Edmunds