“Fruit Salad” features queer and gender-nonconforming art online

Note: A previous version of this article referred to this project by its previous name, which contained a transphobic term. The Owens and CHMA were alerted by the public that the term was transphobic, and the project has changed names. The article has been updated to reflect that change, and to prevent further harm.

Fruit Salad: A Series of Queer and Gender-Nonconforming Videos & Performances is available for viewing online. 

The project is a collaboration between Owens Art Gallery and Struts Gallery & Faucet Media Centre, otherwise known as Umbrella Projects. 

In an essay written by the co-curators Hannah Bridger, Emily Falvey, and Lucas Morneau, the project is described as “a mélange of videos and filmed performances that explore gender performativity and celebrate masquerade, personas, and other fluid forms of identity.”

Co-curator and director of the Owens Art Gallery Emily Falvey says Fruit Salad is a passion project. 

Emily Falvey: I was part of a curatorial team made up of myself, Lucas Morneau, and Hannah Bridger. I would say that the project originated with me, in the sense that I knew that I wanted to do some programming in the fall around the idea of drag, costume, and persona, because it’s an interest of mine. I also felt like that would be something that would appeal to students. That was political without being really heavy, that it could be fun and joyful. I was kind of looking for somebody to do that with because I’m a straight person, I didn’t feel like it was correct for me to curate a program looking at gender-[nonconforming] and queer performance. I was looking around for someone to work on this with me. At that time, Struts Gallery hired Lucas to work at Faucet, and he was moving to Sackville. I said, “Oh, there’s the perfect person.” So I reached out to him, and he was really excited about this idea, obviously. He has a really fantastic knowledge base. So we just basically sat down for a minute and were like, “This is an artist I like” and “This is what I like…” and we just bounced those names back and forth and started a conversation. Then when Hannah started working here in September, we brought her in. It was a really great working dynamic between the three of us. Sometimes curating in a group can be difficult, but I personally felt we all synced up really well and brought different things to the program. 

Meg Cunningham: Okay, what excites you about this project?

EF: Everything. I’ve had this long standing interest in alter egos, drag, and performance and the intersection between these things and visual art. I wanted to do an exhibition about this for a really long time. So in some ways, this project is kind of like an amuse-bouche or something before for a larger project that I’d like to do someday. I learned about some really interesting [things] like Tom Rubnitz I didn’t know anything about, Lucas brought that to the project. I’m really excited about his work. I like how inclusive it is, how it’s critical without being dour and depressing. I find it uplifting, I find it creative and enjoyable. Everything that I wanted it to be, it turned out to be that thing.

All images from Umbrella Projects.

Co-curator Lucas Morneau was approached to feature their work in Fruit Salad while they were still living in Newfoundland.

Since then, Morneau moved to Sackville and became the Struts & Faucet Media Centre production manager.

Their work, “Meet Ze Mummer,” features their drag alter-ego the Queer Mummer. 

Lucas Morneau: It’s actually a newer video I created this year called “Meet Ze Mummer.” It’s actually based off a performance I did in 2019 in the town of Port Union in Newfoundland and Labrador. It’s a part of a performance I do as my alter ego, the Queer Mummer. For those who don’t know, mummering is a practice that happens in Newfoundland, as well as England and other colonies of Great Britain. It’s this practice that happens around Christmas time, where people dress up in disguises with whatever they can find around the house. So it could be tablecloths and curtains and doilies, and grandmother’s bra. You’ll often see people cross-dressing, and they’ll go door-to-door to their neighbors’, and neighbors will let them in and try to guess who these people who are in disguises are from the community. So “Meet Ze Mummer,” this video kind of plays off of that reveal of “Oh, who is under the mummer mask? Who is in the guise?” For me, I thought it would be hilarious to take that simple process of unmasking and make it into a burlesque routine or a strip routine. So the video itself uses a remixed version of PJ Harvey’s “Meet Ze Monsta,” and in it the Queer Mummer, originally dressed as a normal Mummer, strips down layers of heavy crocheted clothing to reveal more layers of heavy crocheted clothing. But the mummer transforms into the Queer Mummer. 

MC: There’s a lot of drag being featured. Drag’s becoming increasingly mainstream with the popularity of shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, but it’s possible that this will be somebody’s first time hearing about the art of drag in Sackville. And what would you as a participant… Do you call yourself a drag artist?

LM: Yeah, that’s actually a good question to ask. A lot of people do like to ask me in the beginning if I consider myself a drag queen, a drag king, a drag performer, and those are some  terms I can get into in a bit. Definitely a drag performer or drag artist, or I just call myself a jester at times.

MC: So what would you as a jester like to share with somebody who may be viewing this project as an introduction to the world of drag?

LM: Drag is very much, within our society, influenced by stereotype and mainstream media. It’s representations of drag. So sadly because of that, our understanding within the culture is very surface level. A lot of times what you see is not always what is actually the case. Drag is this amazing art form, where one can really play with another identity. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the “opposite” gender. I think this comes into the idea of viewing gender as a spectrum, where you can play with the masculinities and femininities. Or have neither of those within your personas and explore not only playing with your identity, but trying to figure out how to be comfortable with your own identity. Personally, I’ve always struggled with body image. I found that through drag, I was able to learn to love myself more and love my body. I was able to take the reins and take control of my body again over the thoughts and the internalized hate that had brewed due to our media’s obsession with thin bodies. I guess I would just say that before you knock it, at least go see a drag show. Right now obviously, in a pandemic, it’s hard. But Fruit Salad offers a great view into different sorts of drag. You can see drag performers like Victoria Sin, who’s based in London, England, make a sandwich on stage. It sounds strange, but it’s quite a hilarious performance… Don’t knock it until you try it.

MC: This is personal experience showing, but I understand drag originating from Black trans women or Black drag artists, especially if you watch films such as “The Queen” or “Paris is Burning,” or other performers of color. Did you as a co-curator take any consideration towards prioritizing or featuring BIPOC voices in this project?

LM: Yeah, that was definitely something that we want to focus on. I guess one of the issues too, is trying to also make sure that we’re reaching out to the Indigenous community as well. That was definitely one of the priorities we have with the project. This is a project that we want to continue with, and it’s something that we want to build on as well. One thing we noticed, and this is something I brought up was that especially now in a pandemic, with artists switching gears with how they’re working, a lot of people don’t have video prepared yet for showing. My video was only just made not too long ago. So we definitely want to recreate or continue this project, and to encourage people to create video, that’s one of the areas that we’re looking at as well. To add on to that too, I think it’s important to say that’s like contemporary notions of drag, and a lot of how our culture has absorbed the information around drag. Its contemporary viewpoint is definitely influenced by Black trans women of colour. However, its history does stretch all the way back into ancient Greece. So drag itself is this art form that is continuing to evolve and have different viewpoints brought into it. I think it’s extremely important that in this day and age, especially when it comes to things like RuPaul Drag Race, that those voices of who have changed drag to be to what it’s been today are also represented.

Falvey says the pandemic is impacting accessibility to queer venues and spaces, some of which are closing due to loss of business. 

MC: Sackville recently saw the closure of T&L, or Thunder and Lightning pub, which was a queer friendly venue for things like drag shows. Do you, as a Sackvillian and also as the Owens director, have any thoughts about queer spaces and Sackville where drag and queer events can happen?

EF: Well, I do actually. If you read the little essay that we included with the program, I mean that’s one of the reasons we wanted to organize it. It really upsets me that these spaces are being eroded. And I also think in the university this is a really important point, because I mean, I’ve read a couple of articles written by students who are commenting on how difficult it is, under the pandemic… the loss of queer space. Coming away to university is sometimes the first experience that people have being able to be openly queer, out and with their peers. And that has been eroded in these circumstances. That was also why I wanted the projection in the window. Even though I don’t think that many people are seeing it, because nobody’s going out anymore. It’s still a physical manifestation of queer culture on campus. I think that’s really important right now, because it’s just because of everything. The loss of T&L is so awful. We’ve been kind of grieving it, you know, like we did this part of the project with Sappyfest. We had that projection on the cube and that was dedicated to T&L, and this is kind of also, in a way, acknowledging that loss. 

Artists featured in Fruit Salad include blackpowerbarbie, The Clichettes, Marissa Sean Cruz, Maya Ben David, Séamus Gallagher, Jillian Mayer, Lucas Morneau, Tom Rubnitz, Victoria Sin, Ariel Smith, and Feather Talia. 

All artists were paid for their work. 

The work is available online and in the window of Owens Art Gallery until Monday, November 9th. 

An interview with the third co-curator of Fruit Salad, Hannah Bridger, will be coming soon.