MINGJIA

beijing-birthed, toronto/LA-dwelling vocalist, composer, songwriter, improviser, & multi-instrumentalist mingjia chen writes music that’s equal parts fantastical & relatable, & performs it with courage & honesty. she makes music across a wide range of genres as a solo artist & as the vocalist and bandleader of the tortoise orchestra. an avid collaborator, she is a member of synth pop duo uoou, GRAMMY award-winning vocal ensemble roomful of teeth, post-punk band pleasure craft, & more. described as “one to watch” by i care if you listen, & “beautiful, mature and exceptionally coherent” by the whole note, mingjia has performed at national sawdust, td toronto jazz fest, jazz fm 99.1, improvisation fest (hosted by the international institute for critical studies in improvisation), pop montreal, women from space festival, burdock piano fest, sou sou music series, tranzac piano fest, & other venues & festivals across canada, china & the united states. she has premiered works by juliet palmer, david occhipinti, & michael davidson, & has shared the stage with the regina symphony orchestra as a soloist. her compositions have been premiered at the massachusetts museum of contemporary art, the art gallery of ontario, & brooklyn botanical gardens. mingjia has produced four releases as a band leader, and her debut solo full-length record will be out in 2023. find her at @mingjiamusic <3

MARCELLA MOLINER

Marcella Moliner is a Toronto-Based bilingual new media artist from the Eastern Townships of Quebec. They thrive on creating experimental animations surrounding narratives deciphering convoluted emotions. Following foundational training in Graphic Design at Dawson College, her undergraduate degree in Integrated Media: Expanded Animation at OCAD University fostered an interest in interdisciplinary research-creation methodologies, including traditional studio art practice, 3D animation and emerging digital techniques like rapid-prototyping, motion capture and photogrammetry.

c_RL

c_RL pronounced curl; we spelt it in this way because others have used the name ‘curl’ and curl is ‘to curl’ after all so we could be curling, if we learnt to curl; while other things, objects, attachments, ideas, concepts, people, music, animals can also curl, c_RL is the trio of:  Germaine Liu (drums & percussion), Nicole Rampersaud (trumpets) and Allison Cameron (curios & les objets sonores). We played our first show together in 2008 for the free improvisation series Wombat Wednesdays held at the Tranzac (Toronto, Australia, & New Zealand) Club in Toronto/Tkaronto. Nicole is the intrepid listener with boundless curiosity who deconstructs the trumpet’s sonic possibilities. Germaine is the scenario-maker and percussionist who loves tactile movement, sonic and physical explorations of found objects and percussion. Allison is the experiential experimenter who massages/plays with selected keyboards, stringed instruments and sound objects. c_RL is an unstoppable force of intrepid improvisers who make experimentation and playfulness a joint musical adventure. “…the three performers craft a music that is free from form, yet far from formless; it’s a writhing ball of synergy resulting from a trio of individuals deeply attuned with one another and with themselves.” - Bryon Hayes, Decoder Magazine.

SHIRIN FAHIMI

Shirin Fahimi is a digital media artist based in Ontario, born in Iran. She investigates the colonial dichotomies of rationalism and superstition, as well as the ways in which women negotiate visibility in the political arena in Islamic societies through digital world-making. Her research is influenced by Islamic mysticism literature and magic in Iranian society and diasporic communities.

Since 2016, she has developed her practice into a body of works, multi-media installations, performances, and extended reality series based on the Islamic binary code, a method of divination called Ilm-al-Raml, known as geomancy. In her ongoing project, “Umm al Raml’s Sand Narratives,” she juxtaposes the spiritual journey of Iranian women practicing mysticism in Toronto with a digital landscape generated through divination that imagines the future of female prophecy. She has also presented her work at critically recognized art venues such as Savvy Contemporary, Counter Pulse, and The Rubin Museum of Art.

JUST MY REFLECTION

March 1st @ 8PM EST

Music by Bile Sister
Visuals by Santiago Tamayo Soler

BILE SISTER

Julie Reich (Toronto, ON) is a multifaceted Musician, Composer, Sound Designer and Audio Engineer. As a musician, Reich’s alias is Bile Sister, and performs this avant pop music project with large acts such as King Cobb Steelie and Lust for Youth. Festivals include NXNE, POP Montreal Festival, and Big on Bloor Fest with DJ performances such as at AGO First Thursdays (DJ Garbage Body). Reich tours internationally as a backup singer in New York’s ‘Chandra’ performing at Primavera Sound (Barcelona, Spain) and Rough Trade Records (NYC). Official Bile Sister releases include Faucet (Healing Power Records), a 7” (Personal Records), a strew of singles and collaborations and an upcoming full length record on We Are Time Records in 2023.

SANTIAGO TAMAYO SOLER

Santiago Tamayo Soler he/him (Bogotá, Colombia 1990) is a Montréal based interdisciplinary artist working mainly in video, with a background in performance art and film. He holds a BFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University (Montréal, QC).

Santiago is interested in world building and uses the diverse narrative devices available to him through an adherence to a digital approach to production and creation. Specifically, he develops narrative through the juxtaposition of digitally built locations with real footage, and the overlay of fictionally ambiguous accounts with eco-political examination. Tamayo Soler’s scenes give home to Latin American, immigrant, and queer stories of a radical futuristic fantasy.

March 2nd @ 8PM EST

Music by Pursuit Grooves
Visuals by Ayam Yaldo

PURSUIT GROOVES

Pursuit Grooves (Vanese Smith) has been performing and producing experimental electronic music for more than two decades. Her albums have received critical acclaim from publications such as NOW, Musicworks, Exclaim, Afropunk, SPiN and more. She is an instructor, having hosted workshops on creative sound sources and unique music production techniques as well as being a consultant on the Disney DJ film Spin. She co-founded and co-runs the music organization Loop Sessions Toronto supported by the Toronto Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts. She creates vivid visual and video design as Mo:delic Arts.

AYAM YALDO

Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Ayam is a Montreal-based artist who holds an MFA in Studio Arts in Intermedia from Concordia University. Working in a range of media including video, performance, ceramics and installation, her works explore narratives that shift between the personal and the political, the past and present, reality and myth. Ayam’s current research is concerned with the formation of the self and subjectivity, and how these take shape in relation to grand historical narratives, the European tradition of archaeology, artifacts, and her personal experience of war and displacement from the Middle East as a child. Focusing on the body, self, and image, Ayam explores concepts of world building through reconstruction, transformation, and the ephemeral, in relation to forms of displacement.

Ayam has been artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Alberta, Ray Ferris Creative Tech Springboard, Ontario; and Champ d’Action.LabO, Belgium. Her recent exhibitions include The Deeply Rooted at Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Cowlick in a Devil's Peak at CCA, Glasgow, Cover Story at Art-POP, Montreal; and Festival International de Musique Nouvelle en Franche Comté, France. Ayam received an Honorable Mention for the Emerging Digital Artist Award in Toronto, 2021.

March 3rd @ 8PM EST

Music by Deidre
Visuals by Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes (Shonee)

DEIDRE

Montreal based artist, Deidre channels her work through the lens of performance, songwriting, electronic soundscapes, and avant-pop music production.

Her practice reveals thoughts on her relationship to her inner self, mental health, physical identity and her transfeminine experience.

Through sound work, her frequencies tether spectators to feel and travel via these opened portals.

BIANCA SHONEE ARROYO-KREIMES (SHONEE)

Shonee (born Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes) is a Montreal-based Costa Rican-Canadian digital media artist. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Film Animation from Concordia University, where she is currently an MFA candidate in Intermedia. She is the 2021 recipient of the Emerging Digital Artists Award and has presented work at MUTEK, National Film Board of Canada, Société des arts technologiques and Filmgate Miami. Growing up on the edge of a rainforest in Costa Rica nourishes her creative practice as her work strives to resurrect the meaning of nature’s place in her own life now as both an urbanite and multidisciplinary artist. Within the virtual worlds she creates, 3D embodiments of organisms borrow shapes, colours, and stories from plants and animals within our own world, while remaining singular. This conscious decision is intended to inspire a newly discovered appreciation of the endangered, non-human world that humanity often takes for granted as her portrayals seek to embody humankind’s seemingly objective and narrow misunderstanding of nature in this time of ecological crisis.

VICTORIA CHEONG

Victoria Cheong is a Toronto-based artist working in music, video and performance. She produces and performs electronic music as New Chance. Her work in music also includes DJing, remixing, and a long time collaborative practice in contemporary dance. She has exhibited video and sound artwork in Canada and internationally and has created musical offerings for filmmakers and video artists. Other projects include a collaboration with reggae legend Willi Williams, and the musical duo Nice Hands with dancer-poet Aisha Sasha John. New Chance released her full-length LP,  Real Time, and accompanying remix album Real Time Remixed in 2021.

BIANCA SHONEE ARROYO-KREIMES (SHONEE)

Shonee (born Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes) is a Montreal-based Costa Rican-Canadian digital media artist. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Film Animation from Concordia University, where she is currently an MFA candidate in Intermedia. She is the 2021 recipient of the Emerging Digital Artists Award and has presented work at MUTEK, National Film Board of Canada, Société des arts technologiques and Filmgate Miami. Growing up on the edge of a rainforest in Costa Rica nourishes her creative practice as her work strives to resurrect the meaning of nature’s place in her own life now as both an urbanite and multidisciplinary artist. Within the virtual worlds she creates, 3D embodiments of organisms borrow shapes, colours, and stories from plants and animals within our own world, while remaining singular. This conscious decision is intended to inspire a newly discovered appreciation of the endangered, non-human world that humanity often takes for granted as her portrayals seek to embody humankind’s seemingly objective and narrow misunderstanding of nature in this time of ecological crisis.

The Venus Fest Video Project is generously supported by