Mysterious Objects I (Print), Asami Watanabe

 

ARTIST BIO

Asami Watanabe is a Japanese illustrator based in Vancouver, where she creates whimsical digital illustrations. She gets inspiration from nostalgic items such as vintage glassware, old book covers, and film photography. Her work is colourful, vibrant, and has a dream-like quality. For more follow at @artsami.w

2023 Artists Calendar (sold out)

 
ARTIST BIOS:

Han is an illustrator and ceramicist from Qingdao, China. Merging these two practices through personal drawings and an appreciation for handbuilt ceramics, her works are both functional and playful. Her choice to handbuild each work ensures that no two objects are the same, leaving open the space for difference. She currently lives on the unceded territories of Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, and Musqueam First Nations.

Zion Greene-Bull (they/them) is a mixed Guyanese, non-binary tattooist and graphic artist living on unceded Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh land. Their art practice focuses on (but isn’t limited to) mental health, joy and silliness, gender euphoria, Black history and Black Joy. 

Robin N. is a Vancouver-based graphic artist and designer, he graduated from Emily Carr in 2020 with a Bachelor in Visual Art and a Minor in Art + Text. In addition to his visual art practice, Robin is the founder of the publishing imprint Crisis Editions. Crisis Editions regularly appears in artist book fairs and titles are carried at select specialty bookstores. 

Sarah Leavitt is the author of the graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me (2010) and the horror/historical fiction comic Agnes, Murderess (2019). Her current project is a collection of short comics about grief and loss following the medically-assisted death of her partner in 2020. Sarah is an assistant professor in the School of Creative Writing at UBC, where she has developed and taught undergraduate and graduate comics classes since 2012. More of her work can be found at sarahleavitt.com and on Instagram at @sarah_leav.

Alia Hijaab is an artist, animator, and storyteller based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh first nations. In her practice Alia muses on the construction of memory and belonging, and draws from her experience as a Syrian, an immigrant, and mixed-race person. Combining food symbology, nostalgic colour scapes, and poetry, her animations and illustrations welcome the viewer in and ask them to stay a while.

Rawan Hassan is an artist based on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh. Her main focus is on making work that reflects the world around, along with displaying alternatives of what could be. She does so by creating work that plays with patterning, linework and pencil drawings. She is interested in working between realism and the abstract. By bridging the two together her goal is to create imagery that explores culture, current issues, and identity.

karen shangguan is an illustrator and author, who creates poetic narratives of quiet things such as thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Her work features a warm and earthy undertone, reminiscent of the human touch and the natural world.

Nandita Ratan is a Hyderabad-Vancouver based Illustrator who works with story telling, creating visual narratives and representing South Asian culture. Her works explores the everyday and seeing beauty and magic in the mundane. 

Paige Jung 健菁 is an illustrator, muralist and small-business owner based in “Vancouver”, Canada. Her work uses bold colours to craft stories and bring concepts to life, centred on themes of community and experiences of the Asian diaspora. Throughout the years as a self-taught illustrator, she has honed her creativity, style and craft. Paige’s uplifting and colourful work is her vehicle to tell important stories and connect with others. Paige has worked with clients and stockists such as Anthropologie, BC Housing, English Cosmos Co., Fairtrade Canada, Grosvenor – Property Americas, Hua Foundation, Hudson Pacific Properties, Larry’s Market, Rennie & Associates Realty Ltd., and Vancity Credit Union. She currently works in Chinatown, Vancouver surrounded by her favourite books and her abnormally large printer named Norm.

My name is Dana Kearley. I am a chronically ill and disabled artist and illustrator on unceded territory belonging to the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver, BC). I like to explore the complexities and nuances of living in a sick and disabled body while playfully exploring colour, texture, shape, light and shadow. I like to take inspiration from vintage animation and illustration, The Memphis Group, Film, vintage fashion, pop culture and general nostalgia.

Leanne Inuarak-Dall is an emerging Inuk and settler multidisciplinary artist, writer and curator based on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Through collage, textiles, beadwork and sculpture, her work seeks to articulate the stories embedded in materials. She co-curated TETHER, a featured exhibition for the 2022 Arctic Arts Summit at the Yukon Arts Centre. Her work has been featured in Nagvaaqtavut | What We Found for WAG-Qaumajuq and UofTMed Magazine. She works as a contributing editor for the Inuit Art Quarterly.

Britney Yan is a designer & illustrator based in Vancouver, Canada, on the unceded territory of the Squamish Nations. She enjoys working out of her sketchbook, translating observations of the people and places around her into illustrations, and capturing the simple yet special moments of daily life.

a/denegado: pensamientos en la frontera (special addition)

 

Since beginning to work on this update on June 23rd 2022, thirty seven migrants were murdered by the Morocco-Spanish border regime and institutional racism on June 24th, and fifty three migrants were found dead in Texas in an overheated lorry after crossing the US-Mexico border on June 27th, a month after Title 42 was extended. The Spanish government describes the deaths as a threat to their territory’s integrity, while the US, Mexico, Guatemala… blame smuggling. This work is in honour of those lives lost and lives left with the trauma.

The border is the crisis

Desde iniciar esta actualización el 23 de Junio 2022, treinta y siete migrantes fueron asesinados por el sistema fronterizo y racismo institucional de Marruecos-España el 24 de Junio, y cincuenta y tres migrantes fueron encontrados muertos dentro de un camión sobrecalentado en Texas después de cruzar la frontera de EEUU-México el 27 de Junio, un mes después de que Título 42 fué extendido. El gobierno español describió el incidente como un ataque a la integridad del territorio, mientras que EEUU, México, Guatemala etc. echan la culpa al contrabando. Este trabajo es en honor a esas vidas perdidas y las vidas de quienes sobreviven con el trauma.

La frontera es la crisis

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La Prensa, Viernes 18 de Enero, 2019,
¿Se ha imaginado vivir sin información?
Have you imagined living with no information?

A country without printed press

As of June 2022, Nicaragua’s most circulated newspaper has had supplies retained at customs twice, their director accused of money laundering and imprisoned*, their offices raided by police and confiscated by the regime** and are no longer able to print information since August 2021. Nicaragua’s second most circulated newspaper stopped operations altogether in September 2019 due to gubernamental harassment. Both printed and once televised news outlets have had to move abroad and online, with only government run or sanctioned media on air.

*along with 49 other political prisoners captured in 2021 amongst them presidential candidates, opposition leaders, human rights defenders, journalists, business leaders, students
**along with 858 civil society non-for-profit organizations since 2018

Un país sin prensa impresa

A Junio de 2022, el periodico más circulado de Nicaragua ha tenido sus insumos retenidos en aduana dos veces, su director general acusado y arrestado por cargos de lavado de dinero*, su sede invadida y confiscada por el régimen** y han dejado de imprimir sus ediciones desde agosto del 2021. El siguiente periodico de mayor circulación detuvo operaciones completamente en Septiembre 2019 por hostigamiento gubernamental. Tanto medios impresos como televisivos han tenido que irse afuera y en línea, dejando solamente medios controlados o aprobados al aire.

*junto con otres 49 presxs políticos capturados en 2021, incluyendo candidates presidenciales, líderes de oposición, defensores de derechos humanos, periodistas, empresaries, estudiantes, campesinos **junto con otras 858 organizaciones civiles sin fines de lucros clausuradas y confiscadas desde 2018 hasta la fecha

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NEWS

July 20-Aug 31, 2022: Out of Bounds at Libby Leshgold Gallery (12-5pm daily)

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DIRECT ACTION

Local / Vancouver, BC, Canada:

Rainbow Refugee promotes safe, equitable migration and communities of belonging for people fleeing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or HIV status.

Migrant Workers Centre (MWC)  is dedicated to legal advocacy for migrant workers in BC through the provision of legal education, advice and full representation.

MOSAIC is a settlement organization which serves immigrant, refugee, migrant and mainstream communities in Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley as well as throughout the province of BC and overseas via online programs.

The Immigrant Council for Arts Innovation (ICAI) based in Calgary connects newcomer and immigrant artists, arts administrators and culture workers to the existing arts community in Calgary.

The Migrant Rights Network is a cross-Canada alliance to combat racism and fight for migrant justice made up of self-organized migrants including farmworkers, careworkers, international students, undocumented people and allies.

Solidarity Across Borders is a migrant justice network based in Montreal, comprised of migrants and allies, who organize together to support individuals and families who are confronting an unjust immigration and refugee system. 

US, US-Mexico Border:

In Plain Sight is a coalition of 80 artists united to create an artwork dedicated to the abolition of immigrant detention and the United States culture of incarceration. A highly orchestrated mediagenic spectacle and poetic act, this project is conceived in five parts — a precisely orchestrated, moving and poetic elegy on a national scale, an interactive website, an anthology docuseries, accessible actions for the public to take to join the movement against immigrant detention and cultural partnerships producing arts-related education and engagement.

La Resistencia is a grassroots organization based in Washington State working to end the detention of immigrants and stop deportations.

Texas Nicaraguan Community is a grassroots group providing non-legal aid and other support to nicaraguans in and outside Nicaragua. 

Giving Compass: Black-led organizations supporting Black migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers who bear the brunt of historical exclusion from political power and funding and are not always reflected in the needs of the broader immigrant justice space.

Migrant route:

List of some migrant houses in México to support

The Jesuit Network with Migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean (RJM-LAC) accompanies migrant, displaced and refugee persons in very diverse fields: pastoral, educational, social, investigative, etc.

Cultural Survival advocates for Indigenous Peoples’ rights and supports Indigenous communities’ self-determination, cultures and political resilience.

Climate Refugees brings attention and action to support people displaced across borders as a result of climate change. 

Migrant Root Media a digital platform that amplifies the voices of migrants, children of migrants, and those struggling to stay and thrive in their homelands to unearth the root causes of global migration. 

#chingalamigra #abolishice #nadieesilegal #nooneisillegal #freethemall #regularizaciónya #statusforall

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To fragment, to uproot lives, to cross livelihoods, to respond to everything else before responding to the responsibility towards a people’s sovereignty, and to interrupt the ancestral movement of life across land—this is the legacy of border regimes.

pensamientos en la frontera is a project that comes as a new generation of Nicaraguan youth are forced into immigration. As they begin to explore and respond to their forced uprooting they look back to the experiences of past generations. The project follows histories of displacement—creating a bridge to connect culture-specific ways forced movement is carried in language, image, and sense of home across cultures. The hope is to foster kinship and inclusive celebration of differences amongst each other, beyond la frontera.

pensamientos en la frontera is an ongoing project compiled by andi and collaboratively riso printed and published with the support of Moniker Press. It consists of a continuously growing folder of publications and prints that feature many perspectives on displacement and borders.

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El fragmentar, el desarraigar vidas, el atravesar formas de subsistencia, el responder a un millar de cosas antes que a la responsabilidad para con la soberanía de un pueblo, y el poner en peligro el movimiento ancestral de la vida a través de la tierra —ese es el legado de los regímenes fronterizos.

Este proyecto surge de una generacion de jovenes Nicaraguenses forzados a emigrar, girando la mirada hacia el desplazamiento generacional por décadas antes que la nuestra. A través de él, esperamos proveer un espacio para historias diferentes a las nuestras. Queremos crear puentes con las maneras específicas en que cada pueblo carga el desplazamiento dentro de sus propios lenguajes, y cultivar una afinidad inclusiva y jubilosa de las diferencias entre nosotrxs, más allá de la frontera.

pensamientos en la frontera es un proyecto en expansión, recopilado por andi e impreso en risografía y publicado en colaboración con Moniker Press. La compilación busca crecer adjuntando diversas perspectivas sobre desplazamiento y fronteras.

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ARTIST BIOS

andi collaborates transnationally, continues turning towards the poetics and community interdependence of practice, and misses their dogs on a daily basis.

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