CHAINS & CROWNS
Stéphane Alexis

Chains & Crowns, is a photo-based series of artworks inspired and dedicated to the artist’s mother. This large-scale print depicts the history, politics, science and psychology of Black Hairstyles. The typological series displayed in a grid format encourages the viewer to cross-reference hairstyles and allows the Black and broader communities the opportunity to draw from their personal experiences, whether that be through their own stories or through their community members. The work also comes with information on styles that derive from an array of time periods, cultures and movements ranging from Ancient Egypt (2700 BC – 343 BC) to The Natural Hair Movement (1960 – present). This gives way for the audience to further solidify their understanding through historical text and to question the multi-faceted ways these styles have been utilized and evolved in impact over time.

Stéphane Alexis is an artist based in Ottawa, Canada. His work stems from personal experiences, research, community collaborations and visual expression, all fostering a strong desire to bring a level of understanding to the often overlooked communities. Stéphane’s work seeks to give insight into these communities in which he belongs to.

Artist website:  stephanealexis.com

Keywords: Activism | Community | Depression | Resilience | Trauma

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

THE THINGS WE CARRY WITH US
Twinkle Banerjee

The things we carry with us is a mixed media installation that explores the life of the artist’s grandmother, who experienced displacement as a child when India was partitioned as the British exited India. What the artist’s grandmother saw or experienced was never discussed but the signs of her trauma remained. The family went through much emotional upheaval as a result and shaped the artist’s anxieties as her grandmother remained the artist’s caregiver for most of her childhood.

The things we carry with us explores coping mechanisms we pick up as children to survive. And, in practice, it can take a very long time to come to terms with our realities and sometimes we never do; we live behind a net seeing and experiencing the world differently, and that becomes the only world we know.

Twinkle Banerjee (she/her) is an Indian-Canadian visual artist, who explores work that deals with social issues such as generational trauma, globalization and human rights. Understanding the pressure put on BIPOC artists for creating trauma-related work, she also tries balancing her work with introspective experiments with a focus on poetic imagery.

Twinkle has exhibited in the USA, Canada, the UK and Armenia, been published in Berlin and featured on CBC. In 2021 her artwork “Characters of Memorial Park” was part of an exhibition and publication at the ICP-New York.

Artist website:  twinklebanerjee.com

Keywords: Activism | BIPOC Experience | Bipolar Disorder(s) | Trauma | CPTSD Generational Trauma

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

LOSING IT
Boozie

Inspired by the helplessness of being stuck on a hamster wheel, this series chronicles one’s inner dialogue. Losing It explores the journey of trying to confront your demons after listening to them tell you lies all day long. For the artist, this includes trying out all the self-help tricks in the book with the hope that a light can someday be found at the end of the tunnel. This series was created to find an outlet and a means of articulating the artist’s mental health struggles with room for some humor in the despair.

Boozie is an independent, self-taught artist based in Toronto. She finds inspiration in everyday moments. Her artwork primarily focuses on her experiences as a woman. Being drawn to portraits, many of her works reflect everyday women in different personas. 

Artist website:  instagram.com/artbyboozie

Keywords: Anxiety | BIPOC Experience | Family | OCD

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

CINNAMON
Wen Tong

Cinnamon is a series of paintings which, like the spice, is mundane yet leaves an experience that invigorates the senses and has a magical quality. Ideas for the paintings came from everyday experiences in a suburban setting yet, a fantastical theme is constructed throughout the series.

This reflects the artist’s own sensitivity and yearning for what is beyond daily life, where she experiences flashes of inspiration through living her life. These may be the unexpected consequences of meditative practices of a state of mind that carries over to everyday experiences. Regardless of origin, these visions are triggered by the world around her and they reshape moments into a fresh perspective. The artist’s work aims to share the knowledge gained from these experiences.

Wen Tong was born in Jinan, China, before immigrating to Canada at the age of 2. She received her HBsc from the University of Toronto in 2021, studying Biotechnology and Computer Science, but also took studio art classes at Sheridan College in both painting and printmaking. Wen is an award-winning contemporary artist that creates cinematic oil paintings in the style of magical realism. She has shown in a number of exhibitions across Ontario and has artwork in multiple private and public collections. Wen works from her studio in Oakville, Ontario.

Artist Website:  wentongart.com

Keywords: BIPOC Experience | Youth, Teens and/or Children

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

MY LEFT-HAND IS TALKING AND MY RIGHT-HAND IS NURTURING
Jessica Field

The collection of poetry and drawings in My left-hand is talking and my right-hand is nurturing, explores the experience of moving past survival mode to let go of false perceptions of self, building the capacity to reclaim a truer sense of identity. It is about the experience of living with inexplicable illness and pain, loss of memory, abuse, love, and loss. It celebrates the beauty of imagination’s power to heal the body, rejuvenate our sense of self, and teach better ways of living.

Everything Jessica Field makes is biased to her lived experience. She creates AI drawings to explore new configurations on what drawing about pure emotion can be about in relation to the greater concept of the human condition. The artist’s drawings act as material that is reinterpreted by an “other”, to compose hundreds of variations as a way of seeing greater possibilities outside the limits of her lived experience. This “other” remains anchored by the artist’s genuine inner emotional life exploring how feelings, unconscious memory and experience is embodied in the gesture of line, in how the exploration into the self can lead to visual expressions that are universally relatable and authentic to lived experience.

The objective of these drawings is to illustrate the complicated space in dealing with the human bias, ignorance, and still manage to connect and understand a divergent perspective. This project shows how empathy and perspective taking bridges these gaps by putting the discussion into the space of universal human experience where we all can relate to each other.

Jessica Field works with installation, video and performance to create AI systems to show the impact of our environment on mental health and how individual histories and temperaments influence the ways that we live our lives. Jessica has exhibited in Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and Canada. She has shown in Electrohype 2008, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Oboro, Optica, the Museum Tingely and at Kunsthaus Graz. 

Jessica teaches as a full-time sessional at Toronto Metropolitan University; she received her AOCAD at the Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, Ontario and her MFA at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.

Artist website:  jessicafield.ca

Credits

Coding Visual Layout Algorithm: Meera Balendran
Book Designer: Lisa Kiss Design
Video and Editing: Empty Cup Media
Images, Poetry, and Artificial Life Algorithms: Jessica Field

Content Warnings

This artwork contains content that may be triggering to some individuals.

Keywords: Anxiety | Grief | Psychiatry | Trauma

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

MULTITUDE OF FISH – ASCENSION TALES
Jenny Chen

Multitude of Fish – Ascension Tales is an animation that tells the story of fish ascending into the heavens, symbolizing spirits being uplifted. This animation was created by hand drawing each frame. The images were derived from the artist’s mental wellness journey, specifically the healing of past trauma and depression.

For the past few years, Jenny Chen has worked with the recurring image of water and fish to symbolize the flow of energy. This larger body of work titled, Multitude of Fish, exists in mediums such as drawing, painting, clay sculptures, installation and animation. The fish moves organically through its surrounding space, leading the viewer on different journeys. These spaces are reminiscent of the inner realm while taking inspiration from outer landscapes.

Jenny Chen is a visual artist living in Toronto. She makes art to process the world around her while raising questions about existentialism and spirituality. Her work uses symbols to create mystical environments inspiring viewers to wonder about life beyond the material world. She graduated from OCAD University with a major in Drawing and Painting and a minor in Illustration. Since then, Jenny has worked mainly in watercolour, pen and clay. Her exhibition history includes the Small Arms Inspections Building, Toronto Media Arts Centre and Living Arts Centre. She has received grants for her work from the Ontario Arts Council.

Artist website:  jennychen.me

Keywords: Anxiety | BIPOC Experience | Community| Trauma

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

AN IN-PERSON EXHIBITION

Kindness is not an act of weakness. It is an act that resists societal expectations of doing and saying nothing. This form of rebellion is evident in this year’s Rendezvous With Madness visual art exhibition whereby the six exhibiting artists address within their work personal experiences that challenge what mental health and wellness looks like. Action is apparent through frameworks of compassion, thought-provoking imagery and considerate storytelling.