Of Personal Interest_ 1-10 Of Personal Relevance_y/n

Maude Johnson & Kitty Anderson_ In conversation at Cooper Gallery_ Ambiguous Becoming_ MJ (Executive and Curatorial Assistant of MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image) and KA (Director of LUX Scotland) on the context of artists’ moving image practices in Canada and Scotland. Very dry discussion on Momenta’s programming, not worth missing the free wine for. 1_n

CAConrad_ DCA; as part of Seized by the Left Hand_ Breath of fresh air performance/talk by artist and poet CAConrad. Discussing themes around being trans, queer and living in your car outside Walmart. Words straight from the backseat covered in soda, dirty knickers and pain, spoken with humour and an unashamed vulnerability. Strength and two fingers up; very inspirational. 8_y

Nat Raha & Mijke van der Drift, hosted by Harry Josephine Giles_ DCA; as part of Seized by the Left_ Hand More of a workshop to discuss ideas around radical transfeminism regarding how trans people struggle for radical social transformation. Very relatable as a trans person and good reminder to consider things from an intersectional approach. 8_y

Erica Eyres_ CAP Speakers_ Dead pan in a can performance fetishist, possibly a Gemini. From performance videos to sketches of characters in a fet mag, awkwardness prevails. Filming all performances alone at home; the artist’s kink offered up to us like a prosthetic nose on an embroidered pillow off your Nan- domesticity and otherness clash. Cringe levels are high but I can’t stop looking. 8_y

Richard Layzell_CAP Speakers_ An alien nymph from the future, sent back in time to offer us lessons in understanding our world. A skittish and other worldly character straight out of the mind of Roald Dahl, dancing to the beat of his own drum in a square in Shanghai. He traverses boundaries between media, materials and contexts with equal measure of serious and silliness- open and inclusive and hard to define where the art stops and he begins. 8.5_y

Scott Myles_CAP Speakers_ Myles recalls a memory of being struck by a piece of advice from his art school mentor; learn to understand the art world and how you fit into it. He has certainly succeeded in cracking that particular algorithm which seems to have culminated in art about the inside, from the inside- for the inside; art that looks like art- in all it’s commodifying glory. Myle’s has discovered the formula for White Man’s gallery content and built a solid career on it, credit to him but it’s no art I want to see. 1_n

Prof. Dany Nobus_Arresting Masculinity:Anger, Hybridity and the Persistence of the Patriarchy in the 21st Century_ Pompous cis-man talks about trans lives like he owns the rights. Lots of talk about Seneca’s On Anger and the mimetic scapegoat theory. If Toast of London were to do a Ted talk on toxic masculinity; made me want to put my foot right up his ‘radically incongruous third space’. 5_y

Mel Woods_ CAP Speakers_Very design led, eco projects. Couldn’t quite understand where ‘the art’ was. 1_n

Siôn Parkinson_CAP Spakers _ With a cross modal yodel the artist is suddenly dwarfed by a billowing entity emerging from his glottis. Released from its avatar like some stink spirit from a Miyazaki film it circles and swirls looking for a way out, bouncing off every wall in the process. It’s presence is taking up space now, becoming perceptible through sight and smell. I hear the distant knell of the olfactory bell as I stalk it round the room. It turns to me. I look that voice dead in the eye and it stares straight back. 9_y