Artist Highlight: Marginalized Voices
Where would you be if your story was not told? Five artists are telling stories that matter to them and their communities in a unique and beautiful way.
BY: POLEN LIGHT
La Cueva de las Manos (Cave of Hands), Argentina // Photo courtesy of Mariano Cecowski
We see art all throughout our life. But why do we make art? Art doesn’t provide shelter , nor it is not something you can eat and get nutrition from (unless it is one of those contemporary ones). Sure making art is fun, but there are many other ways you can have fun, and trust me, trying to making good art is frustrating and painful as fuck. So despite all of it, why do we keep making art?
Art is a form of storytelling. The earliest forms of art are cave paintings, clay statues, and religious architecture. The cave paintings depict what life was like, what people found beauty in, and what they considered important. The art they made told us their stories. But why is telling stories important? To tell your story is to express your thoughts, to make changes that you want to see in this world leave your mark. The saying “You die twice: first when you stop breathing, and second when no one remembers your name" speaks more to this: your body will undeniably die, but the stories you tell or retell will go on. As long as your story is carried on, so will your ideas, ideals, and memory.
Regardless of who we are, just like these five artists, we need to find ways to tell and retell stories that matter to us; it is the only way to live in an identity we want and in a community we want. Thus when the voices that tell a story get overwhelmed, muffled, or even oppressed, it is even more important for us to tell it again and again. The five artists featured in this article have contributed to their communities’ stories in many ways. Some are building on familiar stories while some are restoring them. While they all have great accomplishments to come, let’s take a look at what remarkable stories they have told so far.
Jalani Morgan
Photo courtesy of Jalani Morgan
Jalani Morgan is a photographer and visual historian from Scarborough, Toronto with Vincentian heritage. Morgan has a diverse portfolio of exhibitions, documentaries, and photo series in which he centres Black culture. He also works as the photo editor of West End Phoenix and is a commissioned photographer for many entities.
But Jalani Morgan is more than your skilled photographer who can capture the beauty and power of the moment. His work takes the dust off forgotten pages of history and even writes them. As a visual historian, his art brings underrepresented sections of history, like Black Canadian baseball players, to light. The images he captures are a mirror of the past; he tells you stories of people through his lens while immortalizing and celebrating his culture.
Jalani Morgan, Stick Talk, 2019. Doris McCarthy Gallery.
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Jalani Morgan and his mother in the baseball pit during 9 Bats exhibition
Morgan’s latest exhibition, 9 Bats, is composed of a series of photographs, a baseball bat handmade by Morgan, a baseball uniform belonging to the fictional Devin Jones, and a mini baseball pit where the audience is invited to take a swing . The exhibition depicts Jones and his journey from the moment he gets his first bat to becoming a great player. The whole exhibition itself is an homage to the artist's youth; he took the photographs in Scarborough, where he played baseball as a kid.
But the exhibition is more than a love letter to baseball: it’s Morgan’s ficto-history in which he creates a Black Canadian Hall of Fame, with Devin Jones as the protagonist. While it may not exist, Morgan constructs a Hall of Fame for Black people where they can feel proud and also provokes questions as to why it does not exist yet.
In addition to great execution, this exhibition had something very rare to see: the mini baseball pit. While the baseball pit being art or not is another discussion, I think it was the most moving piece of art in the 9 Bats exhibition. It is a form of art that requires you to do more than just take a look—you need to interact with and experience it more personally.
The baseball pit may put you into the shoes of a talented baseballer, Devon himself, or maybe you are still yourself, but regardless of who you are when you hit that ball in the pit, you feel excitement, power, and greatness, even if for a second. And that second is enough to connect you to the art and the spirit of the exhibition. That’s the beauty in Morgan’s art: he is so tapped into the story he wants to tell that he is able to tell it exactly the way he wants to, and in doing so masterfully mixes traditional photography with a more contemporary approach.
Morgan is a tireless documenter of many great individuals who are left behind the scenes or who haven’t had a light shone on them. He creates artwork where people can both remember their past, and get inspired to build their future.
2Fik
Photo courtesy of CultMTL
Going by the name 2Fik—which is derived from his real name, Toufik— this artist was born to a Moroccan and Muslim family, and now lives in Montreal. Like the wordplay in his name suggests, 2Fik doesn’t have one identity. In his art, 2Fik becomes one of ten.
2Fik is like a human puzzle—his identity is composed of many smaller pieces coming together, but he brings interchangeable pieces from other puzzles to create unique and playful identities. With each of his main identities having their own ambitions, educational background, age, and many more details, few artists invest in their identity like 2Fik. His characters are caricatured reflections of society, absurdly and exaggeratedly telling stories that we all live out.
2Fik, Marriage of Abdul and Fatima, 2014. Digital photography. https://2fikornot2fik.com/.
A visual feast of social conflict, Marriage of Abdul and Fatima is a snapshot of society in many ways. In the photograph, contemporary culture is placed next to a more traditional one, people of one faith are next to those of another, and all of it is coupled with seeming absurdity here and there. It is a perfect mosaic and a very witty reflection of our lives. Despite the seeming unified heterogeneity, there is a hierarchical superiority: it is men who ride horses, women who bow, and rappers are placed above the lyre player. Just like 2Fik’s many other works, the piece captures the dynamics of the society in a playful yet deceptively powerful way.
2Fik, Musulwoman, 2015. Digital photography. https://2fikornot2fik.com/.
Musulwoman depicts Fatima, who was raised in Morocco to be a mother, doing daily tasks at her new home in Montreal. Yet between doing her daily tasks, we can see a more sexual Fatima through the reflection. Despite being constrained, Fatima is curious; she’s gradually changing into a woman with North American values that emphasize freedom rather than North African values in which one’s traditions and family are valued.
With a large portfolio that tells the story of Fatima, moving from Morocco to Montreal, 2Fik’s work masterfully calls us to think about our social constructs, values, and identity. 2Fik’s art and approach to his performance tell us that we all have contradictory personalities, secret desires, and weird interests but that’s what makes us who we are, and we should embrace it rather than hide it.
Brian Jungen
Photo courtesy of Tyler Hagan
Born in British Columbia in 1970, Brian Jungen is an artist with Dane-zaa and Swiss ancestry. While his works are infused with Indigenous culture and identity politics, he also has a diverse range of interests in art and a portfolio that addresses the misconception that Indigenous artists can only do Indigenous art.
Jungen’s works are not complicated to look at. Whether it is a giant whale skeleton, a traditional Indigenous mask, or a basketball court, at a first glance his art is quite ordinary. Jungen’s skill exactly lies in that simplicity. His artworks are multi-layered in that you can unpack them and make many connections from a simple composition.
Jungen has an interest in using readymades (everyday objects). Readymades are most commonly used in artwork with themes related to society, the economy, and globalization, as the items we use everyday are a remarkable mirror to our lives. Straying from the path that Warhol and Duchamp blazed, Jungen takes readymades one step further and alters them into a new design. Cetology and Prototype for New Understanding both exemplify how these new forms bring unique narratives to the field.
Brian Jungen, Cetology, 2002. Plastic chairs. National Gallery Canada.
Brian Jungen, Prototype for New Understanding #16, 2004. Nike Shoes. Vancouver Art Gallery.
Cetology is an art piece formed by arranging plastic chairs, made from petroleum, which can be derived from whale fossils, to replicate a whale skeleton. The piece offers many dynamic relations between all of its components. We can see a full circle where the dead whale is reconstructed with its original material, but in a synthetic way. The petrol has been moved from the grave of the whale to be processed somewhere else and sent back to the artist to make it whole again. The piece manages to capture the global economy and the exploitation of natural goods in a bizarrely aesthetic way, while also inserting an Indigenous narrative due to the heritage of the artist, the importance of whales in Indigenous culture, and the location the art is presented at.
Prototype for New Understanding is not much different in spirit to Ceteology. The artwork is composed of a series of traditional Indigenous masks that are made from Nike shoes. Nike shoes are heavily commodified, mass-produced objects that are products of a big name brand. Numerous questions emerge from this piece. Are we slowly commodifying our culture? Is our culture subject to imperialism and appropriation? Is it time that we adapt our traditional culture to a new age? Each of these questions are valid, and bonus points if you have questions of your own! While everyone’s answer will vary, the piece speaks to our universal reckoning with consequences of our rapid change.
In his works, Jungen is able to retell concerns and traditions of Indigenous culture in a universal way. While his work questions Indigenous traditions becoming more commodified or appropriated, many cultures can relate to feeling external pressure in various degrees. His works are a warning and documentation of the transformation of culture in a globalized world.
Joy Richu
Photo courtesy of Joy Richu
Raised in Kenya, Joy Richu is an experienced storyteller in the mediums of print, radio, and theatre. Richu’s visual art portfolio is composed of illustrations and animations that employ vivid and colourful patterns
Equipped with knowledge from various backgrounds, she creates art that beautifully brings stories to life. Her artwork is so colourful and compact, yet it also has a soft and calming effect. Each piece conveys a different story of faraway lands that are retold by communities here.
Above Ground portrays a sweet love story that evolves far beyond its short runtime. Accompanied by a beautiful African drum soundtrack, fauna, and flora, two individuals fall in love despite the space between them. Although they endure hardships, their connection comes out stronger and the two are brought together. It’s a universal story that we all know, but Richu’s take shows us an unfamiliar yet enchanting perspective that is infused with African aesthetics.
Joy Richu, Safe, 2019. Illustration. https://joyrichu.com.
The illustration Safe depicts a hug filled with the warmth of home. A being embraces what seems to be a colourful patterned artifact. The being in the image is decorated with African patterns and colours, and accompanied by a four legged animal that seems to run in a savannah.The illustration is completed with a beverage from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The piece almost reaches out to give a hug that provides the warmth and safety of home.
Growing up in one culture and then living in another is no easy feat. But Richu manages to not only do that but also push herself to tell stories that are both new and old in her unique way. Joy’s artwork is a love letter to and celebration of her home away from home. With her art she creates her “home” here, and invites us all into it.
Dayna Danger
Photo courtesy of Dayna Danger
Last but not least, Dayna Danger is a 2Spirit/Queer, Metis/Saulteaux/Polis artist who specializes in photography, sculpture, performance, and video. She is also a board member for the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective. Her work explores the space between empowerment and objectification. Her works are occasionally inspired from popular culture, whether it’s Pandora from Greek mythology or Marilyn Monroe from popular culture.
Dayna’s work often creates lifelike extravagant and theatrical scenes where women gain agency changing their narrative from a traditional behind-the-scenes position to a more dominant stance. Yet despite the women’s empowered status, Dayna is able to create an underlying tension. Dayna’s ability to combine strong narratives with vivid settings creates a bizarre beauty in her photographs.
Dayna Danger, Marilyn Monroe, 2011. Digital Photography. https://www.daynadanger.com/.
Dayna Danger, Red Riding Hood, 2011. Digital photography. https://www.daynadanger.com/.
Both Red Riding Hood and Marilyn Monroe are part of the “Bad Girl” collection, where girls that are deemed “bad” throughout history and stories are presented in a more sexually liberated and unrestrained light. In Marilyn Monroe, we see a fictional, tattooed version of Marilyn Monroe in a suburban, domestic setting spilling a glass of milk, the flag bearing symbol of purity and innocence. Monroe appears quite happy with letting go of purity, all while the men gaze at her through a window. With her act, the fictional Monroe suggests the ordinary housewife can also embrace/live out their sexuality without being a sex icon or fearing men.
In Red Riding Hood, we see our heroine covered in blood and holding the axe, implying she fought back against her predator, the Big Bad Wolf, and emerged victorious by killing it herself without the help of a male saviour in contrast to the traditional story. The topic of sexual assault and the indifference of the male woodcutter are also valid and strong points that the piece brings up.
Both of the pieces explore why the women are deemed “bad” in their story, and ultimately the artist's interpretation breaks the male-dominated narrative to free the women from repressed sexuality and dependence on men.
Dayna's work often gives a voice and attention to those whose voices are muffled by the patriarchy and social norms . She contributes to the ongoing effort to empower women and femme-identifying folks to be free with their sexuality and decisions while being self-reliant.
La Cueva de las Manos (Cave of Hands), Argentina // Photo courtesy of Mariano Cecowski
In the end, art is what makes us alive, allows us to find beauty, and challenges what we want to change. Art gives us the power to be who we want, be heard, and change the world we live in. There is no better reason to create art other than to say “I lived,” and no better time to start than now.