Poster design by Sultana Bambino
2022 season opener edition of the forward-thinking, artist-driven quarterly event series Pique, produced by Debaser.
The Pique spring edition, happening March 19th in-person at the Arts Court and online at thisispique.com, will feature music, art, video and performance by ground-breaking Canadian and international artists.
Entry to the building-wide all ages party is pay-what-you-can.
For more info visit thisispique.com
Music/Sound
Art / Installation:
Infinite Program Mental Health Portal & Avatar Performance by Maylee Todd x MALOO
Live visuals by Annie Socoria
many contradictions, many moods by Yomi
A vivid coalition by Mesoma Onyeagba
An installation featuring the vibrant abstract fibre works of local artist Mesoma Onyeagba, inspired by her love of colour, patterns, and Nigerian culture.
Liquid Bytes by Ajeeb Sir
Donna Haraway wrote as the very last line in her groundbreaking essay “A Cyborg Manifesto” that she would rather be a cyborg than a goddess, favoring the postmodern technologized figure of techno-human over the reclamation of a racialized, matriarchal body (Haraway, 1991). Liquid Bytes is a web artwork that explores this theme. The project aims to investigate and the push the boundaries of collaboration between the artist and technology in order to uncover the present and the future dynamics of the body. It is an embodiment of the reciprocity between the computer and the artist and how they each feed each other artistically and evolve. Experimental and deeply personal, the work is reminiscent of a 90’s retro-futurist aesthetic paying homage to a vision of union between technology and spirituality.
Faceless by Z
This project is called ‘Faceless’ and was driven by feelings I’ve always had about anything I do as a Black trans person not being seen or really mattering. It’s very easy to feel invisible in a time where everything is online and seems to depend on the amount of people who choose to see you. That, on top of the isolation that comes with a pandemic, lead to me feeling alone and ‘Faceless’.
Screening: Shortbus (2006, Dir. John Cameron Mitchell) followed by Q&A with Sook-Yin Lee. Co-presented with IFFO
Set in a post-9/11 New York dreamscape, John Cameron Mitchell’s raunchy, sweet, and sexy dramedy about keeping alive in dangerous times has just been re-released for its 25th anniversary, and we are proud to co-present its Ottawa re-premiere with our partners at IFFO.
Thanks to our partners at IFFO, Pique ticket holders get free access to the screening of Shortbus (2006), followed by a Q&A with Sook-Yin Lee, on Saturday March 19 at 3:15 pm, as well as 30% off passes to the entire festival. Check your ticket for info on how to redeem your pass!
Read plain text version on thisispique.com/spring
20% of all ticket sales will be donated to the Canadian Red Cross for Ukrainian humanitarian crisis relief
Pique is produced in partnership with the Arts Court, the Ottawa Art Gallery, SAW, Artengine, DAÏMÔN, Digital Arts Resource Centre, IFFO, Ottawa Fringe, Ottawa Dance Directive, Firegrove Studio, Wall Sound, Le Seltzer, Dominion City Brewing Co, Also Cool, CKCU FM, CHUO FM, and Apt613. Pique is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, FACTOR, the Government of Canada, City of Ottawa, SOCAN Foundation.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge and pay respect to the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people on whose land we operate. If you support our programming, please consider supporting a local Indigenous organization or fundraiser. Learn more about this land acknowledgement and find educational resources and ways to support at www.debaser.ca/land-acknowledgement
COVID-19 POLICY
By purchasing a ticket and attending Pique, attendees agree to follow our current COVID-19 policy.
A valid vaccine certificate with a QR code is required to attend the event.
Before attending the event, complete a COVID-19 self-screening. If you do not pass the self-screening, please STAY AT HOME.
Face masks (KN95 masks recommended) must be worn over the mouth and nose at all times, for example:
when attendees are using the washroom facilities
when attendees are ordering or paying for food and beverages
when attendees are entering and exiting the location
Face masks can ONLY be removed in order to consume beverages, and should be worn in between drinks.
It is recommended that you wear a well fitted medical mask or a respirator (N95, KN95), which may provide better protection for you. We will have a limited number available for audience members.
Wash your hands or use the provided hand sanitizer often.
Event staff and attendees are encouraged to take an at-home antigen test before arriving on site. Antigen tests are currently available for free from many pharmacy and grocery store locations (find out more here).
COVID-19 policy is subject to change based on government and venue regulations and guidelines.
ACCESSIBILITY
In-person programming will be happening in and around the Arts Court and Ottawa Art Gallery buildings. Entrances are accessible by ramp, and indoor spaces are accessible by automated doors and elevator to all floors. Wheelchair accessible, gender neutral washrooms are available throughout the building.
Click the following links for accessibility and visitor information for:
https://artscourt.ca/visitor-info-en
https://oaggao.ca/visit/plan-your-visit/
All Pique virtual content will be accessible online at thisispique.com.
SAFETY
Attendees are expected to respect one another. Violence, aggression, oppressive behaviour or language, or bullying will not be tolerated. If you are currently implicated in an accountability process, please ensure you are respecting the space and well-being of those your actions have affected before joining this space virtually or in-person. If Debaser's staff and/or Board are made aware of any behaviour that violates our safety policy, the person(s) perpetuating this behaviour will be asked to leave immediately. We reserve the right to intervene and/or remove ANY person(s) in the space who are creating or contributing to an unsafe environment.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ah-Mer-Ah-Su
Star Amerasu is a multi disciplinary artist. Her music and video work have been featured in many publications including The Fader, Out Magazine, Paper Magazine, Them, I-D, Billboard Magazine and KQED Arts to name a few. She creates alternative pop music under the moniker Ah-Mer-Ah-Su she released her debut full length album "Star" in 2018 to critical acclaim.
Sook-Yin Lee
Sook- Yin Lee, Canadian filmmaker, musician, actor, and multimedia artist, is an award-winning radio and TV broadcaster (CBC, BBC, MuchMusic) She starred in the groundbreaking LGBTQ movie Shortbus which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Year of the Carnivore, her feature directorial and writing debut, premiered at TIFF. Unsafe, an experimental theatre work (Canadian Stage), explored questions of censorship and artistic freedom. Lee won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance by a Lead Dramatic Actress for her role as “Olivia Chow” in Jack. She is a film composer and plays in bands JOOJ co-led with Adam Litovitz and Lee & Gamble Unlimited. Octavio is Dead! her ghost story starring Sarah Gadon and Rosanna Arquette won Best Director and Best Picture awards at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival. Death and Sickness, her lockdown feature movie made with Dylan Gamble streams on CBC Gem.ca.
Sook-Yin performs songs from the album "jooj two" made with her late partner Adam Litovitz:
"jooj two spawned from Lee and Litovitz's desire to pay homage to their mutual love of pop music. But time and circumstance have exalted the album with a greater purpose: to celebrate Litovitz's life and all the affection he and Lee shared together — as friends, creative collaborators and lovers. jooj two encapsulates life in all its dizzying joy, comfort, confusion, doubt and despair. The album is a much-needed companion as the world grieves during the pandemic life. It is a source of empathy and hope for those feeling uncertain and alone." - Leslie Ken Chu, Exclaim!
Photo Credit: Ariana Molly
Ouri
Montreal’s rave scene is where her artistry began to take shape - establishing herself in the community as a producer, DJ, and composer. Lending her skills to various collaborations, she strengthened her sense of self, but also her affinity for transforming sonically into any genre, playing any role. In 2018 she was invited to MISM x Boiler Room’s Montreal show, signed to Ghostly (international) & Make it Rain Records (Canada) for the release of her EP ‘We Share Our Blood’ and was asked to make official remixes for the likes of Tokimonsta. Her growing notoriety let her support Jacques Greene, Yves Tumour & Kllo live in concert. Now in her debut album, she shatters the oftentimes submissive and distant approach to ambient sound to finally take up space and connect to her own experience. Ouri explores the intricate formation of shape in Frame of a Fauna. The intangible is held and the unseen is sung as it inspects the framework of the body- how emotional hardship can imprint, and in turn deform the skeleton. If the bones are the container that stands the test of what is being contained- What is the residue of happening? And where does it go? She notices the way time can rupture a rib cage, pull out the collar bones, or make a fist out of fingers.
Casey MQ
Casey MQ is a treasured gem in the electronic music scene. He is a producers’ producer and for many people he represents the very best of alternative electronic music. He is well known for impactful collaborations with oklou, Christine and The Queens, Suicideyear, Dorian Electra and more. At the start of the pandemic, Casey co-founded Club Quarantine, a queer online dance party that has hosted the likes of Charli XCX, Lady Gaga, YAEJI, and many more. As resident DJ for Club Quarantine, Casey MQ played more than 20 shows and performed alongside Charli XCX, Hannah Diamond, Caroline Polachek and many other artists. Since then, Casey has regularly played at some of the most exciting underground parties in the world including Boiler Room, Los Angeles’ HEAV3N, Subculture, Berghain, and La Machine Du Moulin Rouge while also playing more mainstream events with Grindr and PAPER Magazine as well as Lady Gaga’s official 10 Year Born This Way Anniversary.
While it would be wrong to say Casey MQ’s music fits neatly within any single genre, there are artistic parallels to some of the world’s leading art-school-electronic acts such as Arca, Oneohtrix Point Never and James Blake. Casey’s debut album ‘babycasey’ is a childhood boyband fantasy come to life. Growing up, Casey’s adoration for pop music intersected with his training as a classical pianist. This mix of passions is clearly evident in his debut work, where he showcases a deep love for pop music in all of its eccentricities.
At the end of 2021, Casey released a remix album entitled babycasey: ultra featuring Hannah Diamond, Avalon Emerson, oklou and others. This remix album has the feeling of what a Casey MQ DJ set can be like: an experience that brings tears, laughter and dancing in abundance. Pitchforks says “‘What About Us’ is a bop so enchanted it reaches a dream-like state, harps and all, and yet the song never strays too far from Casey’s vulnerable vocals—his yearning to run away with the one he loves.”
KAR33M
KAR33M is an Afro-Soul artist that creates narrative-style music using 3 different voices, providing a unique perspective with each voice. He recalls his first contact with music in his younger days growing up in Nigeria with his family. Developing his skills and talent in the arts and honing in on the lyricism he admired from genres of music like Afrobeat, Rap, Pop, R&B and Soul, KAR33M would go on to write his debut Neo-soul EP titled WHOAMI? An EP about Black Identity, love, and existentialism. KAR33M is set to release his second cumulative project titled, Ala - an Afro-soul LP of about 11 songs, that range between 3-5 minutes each, accompanied by a short film and some music videos. The LP is a fictional perspective of an African in the diaspora as they awake into a constructed reality filled with social injustices and absurdities.
NOVEMBER
NOVEMBER is the solo pop project of Grégory-Yves Fénélon. The Ottawa born, Montreal based indie crooner uses his deep and commanding voice to bring you into his world of lush productions, emotional melodies and moody synths. Through themes of self-searching and a love of the sounds of the 80s he creates fiercely passionate work that draws you in from the first note.
Kelly Ruth
Kelly Ruth is a Textile/New Media artist from Treaty 1, Winnipeg, currently living in Treaty 6, Edmonton. She has been activating her textiles and tools through using electronics, sound, and integrating microcontrollers into the foundations of her woven cloth. She has created several bodies of work using fibre, dyeing with plants, and weaving, recognizing these as early technologies, and a relationship that humans have had with the land. Most recently she has been researching and creating in the virtual world. In performance she uses contact microphones and effects pedals on her weaving loom and other fibre related tools. She has performed solo and with an improvisational trio named Civvie. She has performed solo at the Vancouver New Music Festival, NUMUS, Handmade Assembly, Forthwith Festival and has exhibited a textile/sound installation as part of Send + Receive Festival, as well as participated in a residency at the Textile Arts Centre in Iceland and performed at KM28 in Berlin. Working with Civvie she has performed at Sounds Like Festival, Now Hear This Festival in a collaboration with Ethan Bokma and respectfulchild, Jazz Winnipeg Festival, and has opened for an improvisational collaboration between Venetian Snares and Daniel Lanois.
Ajeeb Sir
Ajeebsir is a human-machine duo primarily based on the web. They work in collaboration with new media technologies to explore more-than-human techno-social imaginaries. Deeply experimental and generative in their process, they try to uncover new possibilities and dynamics of ‘being’ in the present as well as in future. - 010101101010110101010010101
Z
I am a multidisciplinary artist, and my work is dependent on what medium feels right at the time. As a young, Black, trans person there are so many complicated and intricate thoughts and feelings around who I am, and who we are, that I realized early on cannot be captured in one way. Everything I make is a part of me, and I put myself out there hoping people like me can identify with it. My goal, ultimately, is to take up space, to be seen and heard, and to bring people like me into these spaces as well.
Mesoma Onyeagba
My name is Mesoma Onyeagba, born and raised in Nigeria and am currently living in Ottawa, Ontario. The mediums I work with are oil , acrylic, and fibre. My work explores the use of colours to create beauty in abstraction alongside incorporating my African background with the popularity of patterns. Colours have always been important in my life and I make good use of it in a visually pleasing way hoping to somehow spread positivity to the viewer of my paintings, fibre art or any creative medium I choose to explore. I am mostly inspired by my Nigerian culture, fashion, photography and anything that encourages my imagination.