Olivia Shortt, 2024. Image courtesy of the artist.

The Book of [un]Happiness
Olivia Shortt

September 13 – November 2, 2024
Opening Reception: September 13, 7 – 9pm during Hamilton SuperCrawl
Cannon Gallery

It’s 2021. A new email shows up, and the subject line is about your father. You’ve dreaded receiving it. It reads, “Hi there, I’m writing concerning your father. Could you call me back as soon as possible? Thanks.”

Bird funerals are common among members of the corvid or crow family, which includes birds such as crows, ravens, rooks, magpies, and jays. Crows mourn their dead and find ways to process the life that has passed on. A group of ravens is called an unhappiness.

Featuring fragmented surrealist video artworks involving trickster characters and crows, several small trees adorned in gold crow offerings, and a renovated dollhouse representing a Millennial’s perspective on the spirit world, The book of [un]Happiness wants to invite audiences to ask themselves how we find space to discuss death, post-life administration and protocols for those who mourn us.

The book of [un]Happiness marks the culmination of Olivia Shortt’s 16 month tenure as our Indigenous Artist in Residence.

Olivia Shortt (They/them // Anishinaabe, Nipissing First Nation // ireland) is a weirdo, noisemaker, video artist, wannabe fashion icon, curator, and composer. Shortt has been described as a “glittering, rising star in the exploratory music firmament” by Musicworks Magazine and named by the CBC as one of “6 Indigenous composers you need to know in 2024”. Their video artwork has been presented by organizations such as Din of Shadows (Toronto), the University of Toronto, Probably Theatre (Halifax/Toronto), and the Matriarchs Uprising Festival (Vancouver). Shortt has performed at The Whitney Biennial (NYC), The Holland Festival (Amsterdam) and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC). Iconic moments include appearing and playing saxophone on CBC Kids’ Gary the Unicorn and lending their voice off-screen for Stephen King’s In the Tall Grass and Season 3 of Chucky.

Ravinder Ruprai, My Mother’s Heart Beats Inside of Me, 2024. Mixed Media. Photograph courtesy of Jose Crespo.

The Gold Boxes
Ravinder Ruprai

September 13 – November 2, 2024
Opening Reception: September 13, 7 – 9pm during Hamilton SuperCrawl
James Gallery

The Gold Boxes, an ongoing series since 2021, invites the viewer into the artist’s stories as a survivor of trauma. The gold borders of each shadow box isolate fragments of a personal reflection of intersectional experience. Ravinder’s use of an intimate voice and scale captures invisible systems—racial, patriarchal, systemic. She isolates and integrates—using painting, braiding, writing, gilding and framing in the representation of those systems as they are prescribed both upon the body and in the body.

Ravinder Ruprai is a unique voice as one of few South Asian artists in Hamilton. Both an abstract painter and fibre artist, Ravinder’s work addresses dysfunctional family systems, misogyny, racism, displacement and being a woman of colour. She explores aspects of the mind/body connection, focusing on grief and trauma.

Sal Shivji, Repose, 2023. Acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist.

Sent from A Distant Party
Sal Shivji

September 13- November 2, 2024
Opening Reception: September 13, 7 – 9pm during Hamilton SuperCrawl
James Gallery

Sal Shivji’s colourful acrylic paintings evoke the bright sunshine of Tanzania where he grew up. He applies vibrant colour to define form and create contrast, similar to the contrasting shadows produced by the sun in the tropics. Movement and interlaced curves inspired by song and dance conjure abstract forms from his mind’s eye. Simultaneously organic yet structured, Sal’s luminous paintings offer viewers insight into the party of his imagination.

Sal Shivji is an LGBTQ artist and a polio survivor. Born in Tanzania with Indian ancestry, he has resided in Ontario for over 45 years. Sal has had a career in Toronto as a graphic designer, interior designer and as an antiques dealer. He works out of his studio in a converted 19th century church in Waterford, Ontario after moving there with his husband in 2019. He has a vivid imagination and his nonrepresentational abstract in acrylic on canvas are colourful, intriguing and sometimes have a powerful message.

Program #1:
Hamilton Artists Inc.’s ArcelorMittal Dofasco Courtyard
155 James Street North
Friday, September 20, 2024
8:00 – 9:30pm

Program #2:
Factory Media Centre
366 Victoria Avenue North
Saturday, September 21, 2024
8:00 – 9:30pm

Program #3:
McMaster University
Black Box Theatre, First Floor of L.R Wilson Hall
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Time TBD

Fluxus is a new contemporary short film and media arts festival hosted in partnership between Factory Media Centre, Hamilton Artists Inc, and McMaster University School of the Arts. Our mission is to provide an accessible forum for the exhibition of creative, experimental, moving-image art forms, and to develop connections between Canadian media artists, arts institutions, and the public.

Fluxus is dedicated to showcasing experimental and boundary-pushing media works from artists of all levels working in Canada. Join us for one or all three free screenings.

As an artist-run centre, Hamilton Artists Inc. (the Inc.) empowers artists of all career levels to take risks with their contemporary visual arts practices and present their work in a critical context.

We are open to the public on Wednesday and Thursday 12 – 5pm, Friday 12 – 6pm and Saturday 12 – 5pm.

Accessibility: The Inc. is an accessible venue. Click here for detailed information.

Hamilton Artists Inc.
155 James Street North
Hamilton, ON L8R 2K9
www.theinc.ca | 905.529.3355

Facebook: @HamiltonArtistsInc
Twitter: @HamArtInc
Instagram: @HamiltonArtistsInc

Contact:
Sanaa Humayun, Programming Director
programming@theinc.ca

The Inc. gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council, City of Hamilton, Canada Council for the Arts, Hamilton Community Foundation, Incite Foundation for the Arts, and all of our members, donors, sponsors, and programming partners.