Art Metropole

17 May 2019

Launch - Syphon 5.1

Time

7-9pm

Contributors: Hiba Ali, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Anique Jordan, Robin Alex McDonald, Harrison Saulnier, Taklif: تکلیف, Devin West, Amy Wong, Kimberly Wong, Florence Yee

Edited by Henry Heng Lu and Anne-Sophie Grenier

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May 17 2019, 7-9 PM
Remarks by the editors at 7:30 PM, followed by a screening of Karin Lee’s 2018 film My Sweet Peony Remix, co-presented with Call Again.

My Sweet Peony Remix is a short fantastical drama that spins a tale of sexuality, gender and desire, featuring Sook-Yin Lee and Tommy Wong.

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Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre (Kingston, Ontario, Canada) is pleased to launch the latest issue of Syphon in Toronto in partnership with Art Metropole.

Syphon is an arts and culture publication produced by Modern Fuel that is meant to act as a conduit between the arts community in Kingston and communities elsewhere. It was created in response to the lack of critical arts commentary and coverage in local publications, and seen as a way to increase exposure to experimental and non-commercial art practices. Syphon has a mandate to feature local arts coverage in conjunction with national and international projects, and an emphasis on arts scenes and activities that are seen as peripheral. It acts, in essence, as a record and communiqué for small regional arts communities throughout the country.

Within the framework of the 10th anniversary of Syphon, Modern Fuel looks to the past, the present and the future in relation to their programming and to the world that we all live in. For this issue, 5.1: My Life is Not Your _______., Modern Fuel invited local and national femme-identifying and non-binary artists, community organizers, and other cultural practitioners to reflect on the urgencies of making collective and individual subjectivities, and to propose multiple approaches to taking up spaces, both in the physical sense and on an ideological level, through conversations, writings and visual art projects. Syphon 5.1 is a platform for these important and distinctive voices that are situated at the intersection of contemporary art and social practices, and further, asks the readers to consider how activism informs artistic discourse and its many possible manifestations in the present day.

Modern Fuel would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council for this issue of Syphon through its Publishing Organizations Projects program.

Syphon 5.1 will be available at the event and in-store and online after the launch.

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Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre is a non-profit organization facilitating the presentation, interpretation, and production of contemporary visual, time-based and interdisciplinary arts. Modern Fuel aims to meet the professional development needs of emerging and mid-career local, national and international artists, from diverse cultural communities, through exhibition, discussion, and mentorship opportunities. Modern Fuel supports innovation and experimentation, and is committed to the education of interested publics and the diversification of its audiences.

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