G101.ca/exhibits/do-weeds-still-grow-heaven

Join us for our final exhibition of the year!
In-person vernissage and poetry readings:
Saturday November 9
2:00 – 5:00 PM
Poetry begins at 3 PM
Gallery 101 (280 Catherine St, Ottawa)

Exhibition runs November 9 – December 14, 2024
Mask Days on Saturdays November 16 and 30

Do Weeds Still Grown in Heaven? by Lan "Florence" Yee
As a taxonomic category, weeds are not an actual species of plant, but a behaviour of appearing and thriving in a place where they are unwanted. Do Weeds Still Grow in Heaven? features the kinship of weeds with racialized queerness/transness, viewed with hostility as undesirable or unorganizable excess. The allusion to ‘heaven’ emerges from this common tactic of hinging hope on a queer utopia, in conjunction with the popular use of Belinda Carlisle’s 1987 song Heaven is a Place on Earth as a sapphic anthem. The exhibition then looks inwards: seeing weeds as the experience of abuse in queer relationships, a subject often cast aside in the narrow celebratory refrain of queer love–a flawed but strategic way of advocating for belonging. Through embroidered text on fabric prints and installation structures reminiscent of undomesticated interiors, the space becomes a tentatively hospitable container for disparate kinds of weeds to crop up.

Lan acknowledges the support of Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council – an agency of the Government of Ontario, and Toronto Arts Council.