Manden Murphy

I’m very excited to announce a project that members of the Toronto Association for Peace and Solidarity have been working very hard to put together. Military spending in Canada is poised to skyrocket thanks to NATO’s arbitrary new target that member states commit a staggering 5 percent of GDP on military spending. That represents $150b/annually in Canada. Canada’s projected increase will come at the expense of spending that working people urgently need: healthcare, education, childcare, environmental protection, housing, employment insurance and public pensions, social assistance, public transit and more. If you think this will not affect the arts and culture in this country, please let me know where you get the 🚬 from… To amplify the voices of communities affected by this spending @peaceto is organizing a one-day, in-person “People’s Hearing” on military spending. We are inviting labour, peace, social justice, and community organizations to share their perspectives through brief deputation style presentations. What could we do with a bigger “peace” of the budget pie, if government spending was prioritized differently? Participating organizations include: * Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario * Ontario Health Coalition * ODSP Action Coalition * Toronto & York Region Labour Council * TTC Riders * York South-Weston Tenant Union  * Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Canada Event Details: 📍 United Steelworkers 25 Cecil St. 🕓 1-5pm (~4 hours) 📅 September 21st (International Peace Day) Registration link in my bio! I hope to see you there.

Exiles from the Future fundraiser panel discussion @pumice_raft about working and organizing in cultural institutions in the city. Grounded in an intertwined history between labour movements and the arts, panelists will share their experiences unionizing, how notions of volunteerism are often conflated with artistic production, and how we might develop strategies for a more equitable future. Furthermore, this panel asks: how do past and present labour inequities highlight a disconnect between the progressive image of our public institutions and the reality of their often exploitative working relationships. Panelists include: Meagan Christou @exposureholes (AGO technician and strike captain); Vanessa Rieger @vanessa.b.rieger (Power Plant @thepowerplantunion shop steward and senior technician); and Luis Jacob @towardsatheory (artist and assistant professor at University of Toronto). The panel will be moderated by Jack Copple @eldeckardo (Toronto & York Region Labour Council employee and former shop steward at the Gladstone Hotel).

Exiles from the Future Vol. 2 featured artwork! Luis Jacob @towardsatheory b/w photograph, 2023 8" x 12" edition of 25 “Wanda Nanibush’s departure from her position as first-ever curator for Indigenous Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) shook me not simply for the lack we will feel without her in such a visible curatorial position but also for how it rendered the political economy of our institutions utterly transparent. In other words, the public witnessed the institutional threshold where no amount of professional, artistic, or cultural value will save a worker from termination if the expression of their politics threaten the economics of the institution. What does this say about how we value workers and their labour in the process of cultural production? Within this paradigm, it is not surprising that Nanibush’s departure occurred only months before over 400 AGO workers went on strike demanding fair compensation and better working hours. “On view as part of ‘Exiles From the Future Vol. 2’, Luis Jacob’s photograph titled “Moving the Museum (What Then Remainz)” shows the traces of the nation-to-nation agreement that was displayed in vinyl lettering on the entrance wall to the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous + Canadian Art. Removed in the days following Nanibush’s departure, this deletion indexes how the social, political, and economic realities within the institution are intertwined with the institution’s ability (or inability) to satisfactorily embody its own curatorial mandates. Jacob refers to the agreement as “now-vacant,” referring to its removal as well as its now hollow meaning in absence of recognizing the aforementioned intersectionality. Of course, more than institutional critique, Jacob’s photograph gestures towards a view of artistic practice that recognizes the above dissonances and proceeds with the understanding that the artist’s labour and behaviour is a valid and meaningful site of political engagement.” (Parker Kay)

Exiles from the Future Vol. 2 featured artwork! Sona Safaei @sonasafaei Majlis Approved Nationalization (2021) Lightbox 14.4” x 19.8” x 6” From the exhibition “Revolving: a family tale”: “Revolving: a family tale” is a multimedia exhibition that revisits the semi-colonial history of the Iranian Oil Industry. In part, it takes the form of a comic script, printed in traditional tabloid-size newspapers, attempting to compare the story of the nationalization of the Iranian Oil Industry with present-day political affairs. The comic characters are inspired by cartoon drawing advertisements made by Ronald Searle for the British Petroleum company back in the 1950s. I imagined a fictional life for Searle’s characters and illustrated the life of their grandchildren who live in our current era. The new propaganda messages were born from the initial British petroleum ads with a middle-eastern twist. Further, I put together video footage from an interview with BP staff when they were expelled from Iran in the 1950s and a scene from the Walt Disney movie “Cinderella” to portray the imperial attitudes of the British subjects towards Iran. Sona Safaei-Sooreh is an Iranian–born artist based in Toronto. She did her undergraduate degree at OCAD University and her master’s degree at the University of Toronto. Her practice is concept-driven and in many instances, it positions itself in discourses around literary theory, institutional critique, and political economy. During her master’s education, she received the prestigious SSHRC Graduate award for her research. In 2015 she was short-listed for the MOP CAP award. Safaei-Sooreh has shown her work nationally and internationally in Centre A (Vancouver), hinterland galerie (Vienna), Art Museum at the UofT, Art Athina Platform Projects, Zalucky Contemporary, and KunstraumKreuzberg/Bethanien (Berlin) The funds raised will be split between participating artists and @peoplesvoice.newspaper , the Canadian newspaper, published twice monthly, that has covered progressive, socialist, labour, and trade union issues from a working class perspective for over 100 years.

Exiles from the Future Vol. 2 featured artwork! Grayson Richards @grayson.richards Remainder, 1976 Framed inkjet print, 2018 12x16” & 4x6” These images celebrate infrastructure, acquisition, and efficiency; they represent an ideal, an equation without a remainder – labour without it’s messy body. The lens, complicit in this negation, is in this case an instrument for the translation of labour into the abstract language of capital. With There is a balance problem, I look to rework these images in such a way as to resist this underlying logic. Using a magnifying glass, I search the photographs for traces of the worker amidst the machine. At the limits of their resolution, the images begin to offer up halftone portraits of the labourers and potential labourers they were designed to omit. At scale, my intervention attempts a coup of sorts; fore-fronting a veiled humanity, all the while rebuking its omission Grayson Richards has worked as a preparator and A/V technician for galleries and museums around the GTHA since 2016. He is also an interdisciplinary artist and PhD Candidate at York University, writing on the operationalization of generative AI as a political technology. Exiles from the Future Vol. 2: an exhibition fundraiser, held quasi-annually at @pumice_raft gallery, which brings together creatives from three separate communities — artists, arts workers, and labour advocates — for a common cause: raising awareness about labour issues in the arts. The funds raised will be split between participating artists and @peoplesvoice.newspaper , the Canadian newspaper, published twice monthly, that has covered progressive, socialist, labour, and trade union issues from a working class perspective for over 100 years.

Exiles from the Future Vol. 2 featured artwork! Warren Steven Scott @warrenstevenscott Set of three pairs of Warren Steven Scott earrings. Acrylic and sterling silver. Warren Steven Scott is a contemporary accessory designer, fashion designer, and craftsperson. His label was formed in 2018. Born in 1988 in White Rock, B.C., Scott is a member of the Nlaka’pamux Nation, whose territory is located in the interior of present-day British Columbia, with Sts’ailes and British ancestry. His work bridges the Western concept of luxury fashion with his ancestral worldview on ethics, craft, and aesthetic sensibility, representing a distinct contribution to a genuine Canadian fashion. Scott’s approach to design pictures a modern image of fashion through an Indigenous lens. Exiles from the Future Vol. 2: an exhibition fundraiser, held quasi-annually at @pumice_raft gallery, which brings together creatives from three separate communities — artists, arts workers, and labour advocates — for a common cause: raising awareness about labour issues in the arts. The funds raised will be split between participating artists and @peoplesvoice.newspaper , the Canadian newspaper, published twice monthly, that has covered progressive, socialist, labour, and trade union issues from a working class perspective for over 100 years.

Exiles from the Future Vol. 2 featured artwork! Liam Crockard @liamcrockard Grand National Holiday, 2015-2024 printed multiple on coffee mugs, dimensions variable. Edition of 3 Liam Crockard (b. 1986) lives and works in Toronto. Building a multifaceted career of sculpture, collage, and photography works examining the nature of work itself, Crockard emphasizes improvisation and making-do as both a symptom and a strategy for art-making and survival alike. Crockard has exhibited internationally and locally to the acclaim of Artforum, Border Crossings and Canadian Art Magazine. Exiles from the Future Vol. 2: an exhibition fundraiser, held quasi-annually at @pumice_raft gallery, which brings together creatives from three separate communities — artists, arts workers, and labour advocates — for a common cause: raising awareness about labour issues in the arts. The funds raised will be split between participating artists and @peoplesvoice.newspaper , the Canadian newspaper, published twice monthly, that has covered progressive, socialist, labour, and trade union issues from a working class perspective for over 100 years.

Exiles from the Future Vol. 2 featured artwork! Cadence Planthara @cplanth Small oval cups/ Stoneware, glaze / 2024 / approx 10.5 x 7 x 6.5 cm, each cup holds up to 6oz of liquid. These cups were hand-built from a semi-vitreous stoneware clay mined in Western Saskatchewan and manufactured at Plainsman Clays in Medicine Hat, Alberta. They were glazed with a high feldspar Shino glaze and fired to ~1300°C in a gas kiln in a reduction environment. (** sold separately: $105 each) Cadence Planthara is a visual artist, craftsperson and educator of mixed South Asian and European descent born on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabeg territory and currently based in the city of Toronto/Treaty 13 territory. They studied Ceramics and Intermedia at NSCAD University (BFA 2012) in Halifax/Kjipuktuk and Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (2010) in Amsterdam, NL. Their installations and objects have been exhibited across Canada, most recently at the School of Art Gallery - University of Manitoba (Winnipeg/Treaty 1) and Susan Hobbs Gallery (Toronto/Treaty 13). Their pottery is held in private collections across Canada, the United States, and Europe. Exiles from the Future Vol. 2: an exhibition fundraiser, held quasi-annually at @pumice_raft gallery, which brings together creatives from three separate communities — artists, arts workers, and labour advocates — for a common cause: raising awareness about labour issues in the arts. The funds raised will be split between participating artists and @peoplesvoice.newspaper , the Canadian newspaper, published twice monthly, that has covered progressive, socialist, labour, and trade union issues from a working class perspective for over 100 years.

Exiles from the Future Vol. 2 featured artwork! Georgia Dickie #georgiadickie Face (Modern Laundry), year unknown Mixed media collage on found paper laundry tags 3 x 6.5 in (7.6 x 16.5 cm) Unique edition of 40 Georgia Dickie (b.1989) earned her BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design University in 2011. She was one of the recipients of the 2020 Sobey Art Award, and the 2014 winner of the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Artist Prize. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions internationally including Office Baroque, Antwerp; Soft Opening, London; Fragment Gallery, Moscow; Oakville Galleries, Oakville; Rolando Anselmi, Berlin; Jeffrey Stark, New York; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Springsteen Gallery, Baltimore; and Art Museum of University of Toronto, The Power Plant, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Cooper Cole, Toronto. She has been awarded Visual Arts Fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center, VT (2024) and the Fine Arts Work Center, MA (2022-2023). She has previously served as artist-in-residence at Est Nord Est, résidence d’artistes, Québec and the Canada Council Residency at Acme Studios, London, UK. Dickie currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Exiles from the Future Vol. 2: an exhibition fundraiser, held quasi-annually at @pumice_raft gallery, which brings together creatives from three separate communities — artists, arts workers, and labour advocates — for a common cause: raising awareness about labour issues in the arts. The funds raised will be split between participating artists and @peoplesvoice.newspaper , the Canadian newspaper, published twice monthly, that has covered progressive, socialist, labour, and trade union issues from a working class perspective for over 100 years.

Exiles from the Future Vol. 2 featured artwork! Jenine Marsh @jeninemarsh Wish Fulfilment (Wellspring 003), 2023. Epoxy clay, coins, wire, powdered pigment, acrylic varnish. 9” x 4” x 2” Jenine Marsh (b. 1984, Calgary AB Canada) is an artist who uses sculpture and installation to explore themes of agency, mortality and value. Coins as well as other paraphernalia of exchange and contact, such as casts of hands, purses and flowers, are manipulated through serialized processes of destruction and transformation to cultivate illicit and intimate responses to the shared conditions of end-stage capitalism. Marsh received her BFA from the Alberta University of the Arts (2007) and her MFA from the University of Guelph (2013). Marsh’s work has been exhibited in Canadian galleries such as Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (2024); Prairie, Chicago (2024); Cooper Cole, Toronto (2023); Franz Kaka, Toronto (2019); Joe Project, Montreal (2023), and Centre Clark, Montreal (2019). She has also exhibited in international museums and galleries including Gianni Manhattan, Vienna (2023); Union Pacific, London (2023); Night Gallery, Los Angeles (2022); Essex Flowers, New York (2020); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2019), OSL Contemporary, Oslo (2019); Entrée Gallery (2018), and Lulu, Mexico City (2015). She has served as artist in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts (2009, 2010 and 2022), at AiR Bergen at USF Verftet, Bergen (2018); La Datcha, Berlin (2018); SOMA, Mexico City (2018); Rupert, Vilnius (2017); and Vermont Studio Center, Johnson (2011). Marsh lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Exiles from the Future Vol. 2: an exhibition fundraiser, held quasi-annually at @pumice_raft gallery, which brings together creatives from three separate communities — artists, arts workers, and labour advocates — for a common cause: raising awareness about labour issues in the arts. The funds raised will be split between participating artists and @peoplesvoice.newspaper , the Canadian newspaper, published twice monthly, that has covered progressive, socialist, labour, and trade union issues from a working class perspective for over 100 years.

Exiles from the Future Vol. 2 featured artwork! Irene Bindi @bindizavoli New York Stendalì (2023) collage on board 12” x 24” Stendalì is a reconstructed collage based on stills from the 1960 short documentary film Stendalì: Suonano ancora, by socialist filmmaker Cecilia Mangini, in which keening rituals were renacted by habitants of the same Salento village in which they had been practiced for hundreds of years. The feet, hems, and kerchiefs of grieving women surrounding a dead young man to enact the repetitive rites are abstracted. Irene Bindi is a Winnipeg-based artist and editor. Exiles from the Future Vol. 2: an exhibition fundraiser, held quasi-annually at @pumice_raft gallery, which brings together creatives from three separate communities — artists, arts workers, and labour advocates — for a common cause: raising awareness about labour issues in the arts. The funds raised will be split between participating artists and @peoplesvoice.newspaper , the Canadian newspaper, published twice monthly, that has covered progressive, socialist, labour, and trade union issues from a working class perspective for over 100 years.

Exiles from the Future Vol. 2 featured artwork! Van Maltese @vanmaltese Drawing with my non-dominant hand (February 1, 2023 - Alfred, NY) pencil on paper, 2023 12” x 9” Van Maltese (b. 1988, Toronto, Canada) deploys various forms of trickery and illusion to pose questions about perception. Maltese is interested in the plasticity of the brain, and how conflicts of perception have the power to change our methods of thinking, especially in common everyday experiences. Their work engages with numerous mediums but operates, on a foundational level, through a language of painting. Maltese earned a BFA from OCAD University in 2010. Maltese received the 2012 RBC Canadian Painting Competition national prize, and the 2018 Glenfiddich AiR Program. Recently, they were the 2023 International Randall Chair in Painting at Alfred University. Her work is featured in Artforum, Frieze and Art in America and their painting ‘Duped by the grapes’ (2018) was published in Suzanne Hudson’s ‘Contemporary Painting - World of Art Series’ (2021). Recent exhibitions include, MICKEY Gallery, Chicago; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; The Power Plant, COOPER COLE, The Art Museum, Toronto; Kate Werble, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York. Exiles from the Future Vol. 2: an exhibition fundraiser, held quasi-annually at @pumice_raft gallery, which brings together creatives from three separate communities — artists, arts workers, and labour advocates — for a common cause: raising awareness about labour issues in the arts. The funds raised will be split between participating artists and @peoplesvoice.newspaper , the Canadian newspaper, published twice monthly, that has covered progressive, socialist, labour, and trade union issues from a working class perspective for over 100 years.