On June 7, Queer Collage Collective (QCC) hosted their annual Queering Collage event with a special focus on Pride Month. Throughout the afternoon, shared tables became covered in artwork, as participants exchanged ideas and affirmations over tea and snacks.
These events run monthly between September and April and are led by artists Alyssa Vernon, ConEd ’22, and Alyssa Lynn , ConEd ’24, in collaboration with the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. The queer-centred collective emphasizes all forms of anti-oppression, with Lynn and Vernon using collage as an educational tool to stimulate discussion.
Since its establishment as a Queen’s club in 2018, QCC has aimed to combine arts-oriented programming with social education. After noticing a significant lack of artistic spaces dedicated to queer and racialized people, the club’s founders prioritized intersectionality and intentionality.
“Education is a tool to free us from oppression,” Lynn said in an interview with The Journal. “Not only to free ourselves but each other.”
The event, located in their temporary space in the Rideau Building, drew in a crowd of around 40 people. Whether people attended with friends or alone, everyone was quick to intermingle over snacks and warm beverages.
As people trickled in, they were invited to begin gathering materials from the ample supply around the room. Vernon created collage kits which consisted of a variety of images that could be used in the final project. The images were collected from social media and magazines like The New Yorker and Architectural Digest, and centred on queer identity and pride, but participants were welcome to express themselves however they saw fit.
Along with the kits, Lynn provided templates of their original design, Flutter Grrrls. Inspired by Riot grrrl movement, and the people from their real life, Flutter Grrrls are like fairies in plain clothes, fit with wings, horns, and a tail. They’re for everyone, regardless of gender. The Flutter Grrrls were the perfect addition to the event as they reflect QCC’s main goal: combining art, education, and activism.
“There’s more of a focus on feeling and affect once we start using our hands to create and pull meaning from different images and symbols and textures,” Vernon said in an interview with The Journal. Lynn and Vernon allowed each budding collage artist to focus on their work with some quiet music in the background but would interject to lead discussions.
Participation wasn’t mandatory, and yet, attendees were willing to answer the displayed discussion questions and share their experiences to the group and those around them.
Collaging and similar art forms have often been considered “craft” rather than art. Vernon argued that these beliefs stem from sexism and misogyny, invalidating work typically done by women by dismissing them as nothing more than hobbies.
Queering Collage ensures that each participant knows they are an artist, even if they have no experience creating things.
“Anything that is a creative practice means that it is intentional, a lifelong pursuit, and this thing that connects to who you are,” Lynn explained. “It’s not a hobby; it’s a creative practice.”
When the afternoon ended, all the experienced and emerging artists in the room had created something worthy of their pride.
The completed collages created for this Queering Collage event emphasised that art belongs to everyone, regardless of their backgrounds.
Tags
Alyssa Lynn, Alyssa Vernon, QCC, Queer Collage Collective
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