Short Format Podcast Series

Adrian Blackwell (born and lives in Toronto, Canada) is a settler artist, urban designer, theorist and educator. Adrian’s practice focuses on the relation between physical spaces and political, economic forces. His work has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2019); the Chengdu Biennale (2011); and the Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (2005). Adrian is associate professor of architecture at the University of Waterloo and co-editor of the 2021 issue of Scapegoat: Architecture / Landscape / Political Economy titled “c\a\n\a\d\a: delineating nation state capitalism.”

Learn more about Adrian Blackwell’s practice by listening to the Toronto Biennial of Art Podcast “Short Format” – season 1, episode 5 – available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Aliya Pabani (lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) is an artist and audio producer. She was host/producer of Canadaland’s critically acclaimed arts and culture podcast, The Imposter, and her audio work has appeared on In the Dark Radio, NTS Radio, and BBC’s Short Cuts. She co-created POC in Audio, an online directory of 700+ people of colour in audio from around the world. Her predominantly installation- and performance-based art has been shown at Toronto venues including Images Festival, SummerWorks Performance Festival, Art Metropole, and The Theatre Centre.

Short Format: Series Created & Produced by Aliya Pabani and Angela Shackel

In expanding dialogues around the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art, selected artists discuss their practice and processes in a series of interviews with journalist Aliya Pabani. Interviewed artists and collectives include Adrian Blackwell, Ayumi Goto, Caroline Monnet, Diane Borsato, Isuma, Jeneen Frei Njootli, Life of a Craphead, Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak, Maria Thereza Alves, Syrus Marcus Ware, and Tsēmā Igharas.

Angela Shackel (born and lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) is an artist and audio producer who creates audio plays, audio walks, sound installations, and podcasts. She has produced audio works for arts organizations, museums, private galleries, government divisions, colleges, and not-for-profits. Her podcast and radio productions have aired on Canadaland’s The Imposter, NTS Radio, and KCRW’s The Organist. Shackel also has a visual arts practice as part of the collective CCC. Their installation-based works have been shown across Canada and in the United Kingdom.

Ayumi Goto (born in Surrey, BC, Canada; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) is a performance apprentice, based in Toronto, traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Huron-Wendat, Anishinaabe, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations. As diasporic-Japanese, she at times draws upon her cultural heritage and language to creatively reconsider sentiments surrounding national culturalism, migrations, activist strategies, and land-human relations. Ayumi has made performative interventions in London, Berlin, Kyoto, and across this land presently called Canada. Her practice is deeply influenced by Shirley Bear, Roy Miki, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Adrian Stimson, and Peter Morin.

Learn more about Ayumi Goto’s practice by listening to episode 4 of the Toronto Biennial of Art Podcast “Short Format”, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe-French, born in 1985, Ottawa, Canada) is a multidisciplinary artist from Outaouais, Canada. She studied sociology and communication at the University of Ottawa and the University of Granada before working in visual arts and film. Caroline’s work has been viewed at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; the Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto; Cannes Film Festival, Cannes; the Whitney Biennial, New York; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. She is a recipient of the 2021 Hopper Prize; the 2020 Pierre-Ayot Award; the 2020 Sobey Art Award; and the 2017 Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards.

Hear Caroline Monnet on episode 1 of the Toronto Biennial of Art Podcast “Short Format”, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Diane Borsato was born in Toronto, where she is an artist, naturalist, and Associate Professor of Experimental Studio at the University of Guelph. She has exhibited and performed her work in major galleries and museums across Canada and internationally. For over ten years she has been collaborating with writer and curator Amish Morrell on Outdoor School, an ongoing series of contemporary environmental artworks. Their new book Outdoor School: Contemporary Environmental Art is available at booksellers now.

Learn more about Diane Borsato’s practice by listening to episode 8 of the Toronto Biennial of Art Podcast “Short Format”, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

ᐃᓱᒪ / Isuma (founded in 1990 and based in Igloolik, Canada) is Canada’s first majority Inuit-owned media production company. Known internationally for films written, directed and performed in Inuktitut, including the Caméra d’Or award-winning Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001) and One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk (2019), ᐃᓱᒪ represented Canada at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019). In 2021, ᐃᓱᒪ started the world’s first Indigenous language television station, Uvagut TV, currently broadcasting 24/7 to over 600,000 homes across Canada.

Learn more about Isuma’s practice by listening to Zacharias Kunuk on episode 6 of the Toronto Biennial of Art Podcast “Short Format”, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Jeneen Frei Njootli (Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, born in Whitehorse, YK, Canada; lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada) is a Vuntut Gwitchinartist working with mixed media, sound-based performances, textiles, and installation to explore Indigeneity in politics, community engagement, and history embedded in cultural materials. They were the 2017 recipient of the Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver’s Artist Prize. In 2018 alone they had solo exhibitions in venues such as: Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; FIERMAN, New York City; and Artspace, Peterborough. Their work has appeared in numerous international exhibitions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Canada and Nottingham Contemporary, among others.

Learn more about Jeneen Frei Njootli’s practice and collaboration with Tsēmā Igharas by listening to episode 10 of the Toronto Biennial of Art Podcast “Short Format”, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Life of a Craphead is the collaboration of Amy Lam (born in Hong Kong, China; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) and Jon McCurley (born and lives in Toronto, ON, Canada). Their work spans performance art, film, and curation, full of humour as a form of empathy towards often troubling histories and present circumstances. Their most recent exhibition, Entertaining Every Second (2019), is centred on a research project about the American war in Vietnam. Other projects include King Edward VII Statue Floating Down the Don River (2017), where they dumped a life-size replica of a colonial statue into a Toronto river on a weekly basis for a month.

Learn more about Life of a Craphead’s practice by listening to episode 9 of the Toronto Biennial of Art Podcast “Short Format”, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Lisa Steele (born in 1947, Kansas City, USA; lives in Toronto, Canada) and Kim Tomczak (born in 1952, Victoria, Canada; lives in Toronto, Canada) have worked collaboratively exclusively since 1983, producing videotapes, performances and photo/text works. They have received numerous grants and awards both individually and collaboratively, the latter case including the Bell Canada Award for excellence in video art, a Toronto Arts Award, and in 2005, a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. They were awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, in 2009.

Learn more about Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak’s practice by listening to episode 7 of the Toronto Biennial of Art Podcast “Short Format”, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Maria Thereza Alves (born in 1960, São Paulo, Brazil; lives in Naples, Italy, and Berlin, Germany) has participated in exhibitions including the XV Bienal de Cuenca (2021); the Sydney Biennale (2020); Manifesta 12 (2018); the Sharjah Biennial 13 (2016–2018); the 29th and 32nd Bienal de São Paulo (2010 and 2016); and dOCUMENTA (13) (2012). She is the recipient of The New School’s 2016–2018 Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics. Alves co-founded the Partido Verde of São Paulo in Brazil. As a member of the International Indian Treaty Council, Alves made an official presentation of human rights abuses of the Indigenous population of Brazil at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Learn more about Maria Thereza Alves’ practice by listening to episode 2 of the Toronto Biennial of Art Podcast “Short Format”, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Syrus Marcus Ware (born in Montreal, QC, Canada; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) is a Vanier scholar, visual artist, activist, curator, and educator. He uses painting, installation, and performance to explore social justice frameworks and black activist culture, and has shown widely in galleries and festivals across Canada. He is part of the Performance Disability Art Collective and a core team member of Black Lives Matter – Toronto. He has won several recognitions including the TD Arts Diversity Award (2017), Steinert & Ferreiro Award (2012), and “Best Queer Activist” from NOW Magazine (2005).

Learn more about Syrus Marcus Ware’s practice by listening to episode 3 of the Toronto Biennial of Art Podcast “Short Format”, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Ts̱ēmā Igharas (Tahltan First Nation, born in Smithers, BC, Canada; lives in San Francisco, USA) is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist and a member of the Tahltan First Nation. Igharas is influenced by Potlatch methodology, teachings from her mentorship in Northwest Coast Formline Design at K’saan, her studies in visual culture, and time in the mountains. Igharas has shown and performed in various places in Canada and internationally, presenting her work that connects materials to mine sites and bodies to the land.

Learn more about Tsēmā Igharas’ practice and collaboration with Jeneen Frei Njootli by listening to episode 10 of the Toronto Biennial of Art Podcast “Short Format”, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.