Performance Art & Labour

As part of the Prairie Webinar Series, CARFAC Alberta, CARFAC Saskatchewan and CARFAC Manitoba are pleased to present:

PERFORMANCE ART & LABOUR with Gary Varro & Cindy Baker

The Prairie Webinar Series is proud to prioritize the expertise of artists working in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, promoting discussion with our provincial neighbours on various topics while sharing investment in prairie perspectives. The formula is simple: look forward to two 25-minute presentations from two artists speaking to their practice and their experience with a given discussion topic, followed by a 30-minute Q&A period.

GARY VARRO Born and based in Treaty 4 (Regina, Saskatchewan) Gary Varro (he/him) is a an artist whose practice encompasses visual art, performance art and curation. In 1996, Gary established Queer City Cinema (QCC), a Regina-based festival that programs film and performance art in a combined festivals annually - Performatorium: Festival of Queer Performance and Queer City Cinema: Film Festival. Other endeavours with QCC have included national and international tours of film programs and performance art, and special projects such as Camp, Trash, Filth: John Waters Visits Regina in 2017. Gary has exhibited his installation and performance artwork locally, nationally, and internationally within the last twenty years. Areas of interest include: queer identities; public/private domains; self humiliation and vulnerability; spectacle and transgression; humour and pathos, endurance and the creative process itself.

CINDY BAKER Committed to ethical community engagement and critical social enquiry, Cindy Baker's interdisciplinary research-based practice draws upon 25 years working, volunteering, and organizing in the communities of which she is part, engaging with queer, gender, race, disability, fat, and art discourses. Baker holds a BFA from the University of Alberta and an MFA from the University of Lethbridge where she held a SSHRC grant for her research in performance, and has exhibited and performed across Canada and internationally. Helping found important community and advocacy organizations over the course of her career, including the Saskatoon Diversity Network and the Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Coalition of Canada, notable awards include Toronto International Body Image Film & Arts Festival's Body Confidence Canada Award, and Toronto's South Asian Visual Arts Collective (SAVAC)'s Collaborator of the Year Award.