Closing Reception: The book of [un]Happiness

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE BY OLIVIA SHORTT AND JUSTIN MASSEY  AND A CONVERSATION WITH CARMEN GALVAN 

PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH STRANGEWAVES 

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Join us on Friday, November 1st from 5:30-7:30pm for the closing reception of Olivia Shortt’s solo exhibition 'the book of [un]Happiness'. The exhibition explores the death of Olivia’s father, drawing inspiration from corvid birds who are known to mourn their dead. Through their video and sculpture work, Shortt invites audiences to reflect on death, mourning and grief. The closing reception features a musical performance by Olivia Shortt and Justin Massey, as well as conversation with grief therapist and death doula, Carmen Galvan. Carmen will be sharing her knowledge around post-life administration and protocols, as well as processing our grief as we move through the complex world we live in.

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Olivia Shortt (they/them // Anishinaabe, Nipissing First Nation // ireland) is a weirdo, noisemaker, video artist, wannabe fashion icon, curator, and composer. Shortt has been described as a “glittering, rising star in the exploratory music firmament” by Musicworks Magazine and named by the CBC as one of “6 Indigenous composers you need to know in 2024”. Their video artwork has been presented by organizations such as Din of Shadows (Toronto), the University of Toronto, Probably Theatre (Halifax/Toronto), and the Matriarchs Uprising Festival (Vancouver). Shortt has performed at The Whitney Biennial (NYC), The Holland Festival (Amsterdam) and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC). 

Canadian saxophonist Justin Massey is an interpreter of contemporary music based in Toronto, Canada. With an obsession of creating new sonorities and textures through the saxophone, Justin searches for obscure and unexplored sounds offered by the instrument and its unparalleled potential to create visceral and emotional music. Justin presents music of his generation in all of his performances by commissioning new repertoire and collaborating closely with composers in search of these new sounds, often through electronic manipulation of the saxophone. 

Carmen Galvan has been a grief therapist and death doula, working with global majority/BIPOC and Queer communities for over 4 years, and has been a social worker for 11 years. Carmen is a Mexican immigrant, having arrived in Canada in the 90s and treats deathwork as a calling, as well as a form of collective care. 

Strangewaves began in 2015 as a modest music collective created by a group of friends from Hamilton, Ontario. While events like Festival of Friends and Supercrawl were established in Hamilton, our community lacked an avenue for eclectic, offbeat artists to exhibit their work without the constraints of profit and marketability. As such, our collective is devoted to organizing events that exhibit new, bold and diverse works of art, affordably and accessibly. Electronic, hip-hop, [free] jazz, folk, rock, punk,  avant-garde, classical music are examples of the kinds of acts we book. We believe that artistic diversity generates greater audience inclusivity which, in turn, fosters enriching and safer spaces. Since 2015, we’ve thrown approximately 135 events in Hamilton, many of which were free to attend.