We're delighted and honoured to welcome Shaunga Tagore, Alvis Choi (aka Alvis Parsley), Kike Olajumoke/Kiki Mako-Joules, and Raz Rotem.
Kike, Alvis, Raz, and Shaunga are joining Red Dress Productions' artistic team as interning emerging community artists working on Promise in the Park: The Winchester Park Public Art Project.
Raz Rotem is
an interdisciplinary artist and educator living in Toronto. Raz is a
graduate of OCADU Sculpture and Installation department, a member of the
Toronto Guild of Spinners and Weavers, and a recent graduate of Humber College
Child and Youth Care program. As an artist Raz is interested in
storytelling, myth, and legends as expressions of human longing for meaning,
belonging and transcendence. Raz's involvement in community arts initiatives stems
from a belief in the power of the arts to foster personal and social wellness.
He is a Lead Artist for Weave (We Are a Part of the Fabric), a fibre based
community-art project, which is a collaboration between the FibreWebs
Collective, Supporting Our Youth (SOY, housed at the Sherbourne Health Centre)
and SKETCH working arts.
Kike Olajumoke/Kiki Mako-Joules
is an artist-in-‘self’ training, currently attending at the Ontario
College of Art & Design. Kike’s work consists mainly of self-portraits and
more recently, artivist portraits of the world she see around her. She has
often found a paintbrush to be dissociative from her desire to be as physically
connected to the work she make as possible, and so her primary medium of
expression has been through charcoals, pastels and oil sticks, replacing the
paintbrush with her fingers whenever possible. Her pieces are infused with
sculpture, photography, wood, textiles, found objects, and whatever it takes to
come together in a symphony of creation and telling. Kike calls herself an
artist-in-‘self’ training because: “ I am still trying everyday to find
myself and my story through the magic of art and it is through this journey
that I continue to find ways to connect this self to all the stories and issues
that are inextricably linked to me in this world.”
Alvis
Choi (aka Alvis Parsley) is an artist, performer, writer, and
researcher based in Toronto. Alvis’ work was presented at the SummerWorks
Festival, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Rhubarb Festival, Jane’s Walk, Radical
Queer Semaine (Montreal), Meow Mix (Montreal), Pervers/Cité (Montreal), and
Qouleur (Montreal) among others. Alvis serves on the Programming Committee of
Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival and the Working Collective of
Whippersnapper Gallery. They were selected as a finalist of Toronto Arts
Foundation's Newcomer Artist Award and have received grants and mentorship from
Diaspora Dialogues, Neighbourhood Arts Network, Vtape, Jumblies Theatre, Haus
der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin) and the British Council. Alvis' curatorial work
was presented at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, Chapter Arts Centre (Cardiff), Seoul
International New Media Festival, Estonian Academy of Arts, Arad Art Museum,
National Centre for Contemporary Arts (Saint Petersburg), the Australasian
Cooperative Research Centre for Interaction Design (Brisbane), Osage Gallery
(Hong Kong), and Videotage (Hong Kong) where they served as Assistant Manager
from 2009 to 2011.In 2014, Alvis is doing a residency at lemonTree Creations.
They also have projects and performances at the Art of the Danforth, Mayworks
Festival, the Heels on Wheels Roadshow, and Encuentro 2014. www.alvischoi.wordpress.com
Shaunga
Tagore / Scorpio Rising: performance artist, community
organizer, and intuitive counsellor through astrology and tarot. superqueero
cis-femme of colour storyteller and healer. currently working on a collection
of poetry and interlinked solo show: The Erasable Woman: A One Woman
(Burlesque) Show. as an interdisciplinary artist she uses dance, theatre,
burlesque, poetry/spoken word, music, and film to craft and share her stories.
she trains and collaborates with ILL NANA/DiverseCity Dance Company and
co-organizes the community driven workshop and showcase series Unapologetic
Burlesque: Queer. Anti-Racist. Consensual. Not Your Average Burlesque. www.shaungatagore.com
Thanks to the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Council for funding support, and to our many community partners for Promise in the Park: The Winchester Park Public Art Project.
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