The Gay Agenda is a pejorative phrase and idealogy coined by conservative religious groups targetting the advocacy of the 2SLGBTQ+ community. The idea being that queer people have created an elaborate scheme to recruit people to the queer lifestyle, encourage deviant behaviour, and dismantle institutions such as “traditional family and marriage”. While the queer community definitely has an agenda, this is not it. The reality is that queer people just want to live in a just and equitable society.
Over time, we have seen folks in the queer community combat this harmful rhetoric the best we know how; to advocate for our rights to exist, often using art, humour and joy as our best defence. The term “the gay agenda” has been adopted, reappropriated, and memeified by many queer groups, artists, activists, and the like to turn the phrase on its head. The Gay Agenda, an exhibition featuring 4 local Okanagan-based queer artists, aims to continue this tradition. The Gay Agenda brings together artists Jacen Dennis, Samantha Wigglesworth, Sarah Jones, and Fred Thacker in a group exhibition highlighting queer joy. Using queer joy as a form of resistance, we assert that we have always been here and will continue to always be here. As we continue to fight for our space in the world, which can oftentimes be challenging, traumatic, and exhausting, the moments of joy, love, laughter, and peace in between are reminders of the true "agenda"—the right to exist and thrive.
On Friday, December 6th, from 6-8pm the Alternator will host a reception for The Gay Agenda, as well as salmon arm, bc. december 25, 2021 and Three Way Mirror by Daniel Barrow, Glenn Gear, and Paige Gratland. Please join us to celebrate these fantastic artists, and catch a sneak peak at some of the work that Barrow, Gear, and Gratland will be creating during their residency in our Main Gallery. This event is free to attend and light snacks will be provided. RSVP on Eventbrite.
Jacen Dennis is a transgender (transmasculine) new media artist based in Kelowna, BC. Jacen’s current artistic practice explores intersections between gender transition and familial relationships, as well as transgender bodies in the natural world. He primarily combines filmed and photographic media with ambient looping digital animation presented in immersive multi-projector installations.
Jacen completed his Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan with his body of work: Seen|Unseen (2021). He was the project coordinator and lead animator for both the live performance projectMusic of the Heavens (2017) and the forthcoming animated short films and exhibition Celestial Bodies.
Fredrik Thacker is an artist based on the unceded and ancestral territory of the Syilx people. A queer and transgender man, Thacker’s work delves into themes of masculinity, gender-bending identities, pornography, and societal taboos. Known for drinking too much coffee and frequently using the cowboy emoji, Thacker is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus.
Thacker’s current body of work centers on a process of rapid regurgitation, exploring the complexities of queer sex, intimacy, and the consumption of pornographic imagery. By employing iconography and narratives familiar to the queer and transgender community, Thacker aims to create a dual response: offering comfort to those within these communities while generating discomfort in those unfamiliar with queer coding. This duality establishes a space that is simultaneously safe and unsafe, intimate yet estranged. Focusing on the materiality of paint application and the use of mixed media, Thacker recreates the visceral nature of sexual experiences through textured and abstracted figures, as well as depictions of sex objects or practices. With an intuitive, fast-paced approach, Thacker’s process becomes akin to brief flings with each figure, engaging with them just long enough to achieve artistic satisfaction.
Sarah Jones is a 2 Spirit Anishinaabe (bear clan) Interdisciplinary artist. Born and raised in Syilx Territory, away from her Nation of Iskatewi-zaaga'iganiing 40, Sarah created her art business honeycub to soothe her soul. In her work she is striving to reconnect with her lost culture and hopes to use her art as a tool to further explore Indigenous cultural practices and methodologies.
To understand the true meaning of the Anishinaabe language, we must first understand that the Anishinaabe describe their way of living using mainly verbs.
Aanik = to be interconnected
Aanikoobijigan is a concept word that translates to: an ancestor, a great-grandparent, or a great grandchild. These words all have the same meaning in Anishinaabemowin. This is a sacred teaching provided through the Seven Grandfather Teachings.
The concept of Aanikoobijigan is as follows:
“One to whom I am connected; I am inextricably linked to you; I am all of my relatives and they are all me.”
To consider how we live our life for the next seven generations to come, and for the seven generations that came before us. This concept brings us closer to our family before us and our family after us. This is an example of ancestral and familial resiliency.
It is especially important to note that the damage done by Residential Schools and Colonization has completely ripped the fabric from the life of Indigenous people. Notions such as Aanikoobijigan have been almost lost to our people. With this piece the Artist Sarah Jones hopes to pay homage to her family who has suffered these great losses.
Artwork: Aanikoobijigan 2024. Mixed Media & Acrylic.
Samantha Wigglesworth is a queer femme artist who works primarily in queer, transgender and gender non-confirming representations through portraiture. Growing up in conservative Northern BC then moving to Abbotsford for their BFA at UFV was a truly eye opening time for her artistic journey. After Graduation Samantha decided to continue her studies with a Master of Fine Arts at UBCO in Kelowna in September of 2024. Here Samantha plans to use their research thesis to further explore contemporary issues around gender expression, around the increasingly violent and hostile tide of conservative rhetoric we are experiencing in North America. Through these works they will advocate for gender expression as a positive and liberatory act. Asking audiences to reexamine their preconceptions of gender and their judgments, challenging them to see how they might contribute to change.
Artworks from left to right:
I Wanna Be That Fucked Up Girl, acrylic on cavnas, gold foil.
If This Continues…, acrylic on canvas with beading.
please stop perceiving me, acrylic on wood panel with aluminum moving mosaic.