"In Spite of, and With Love" by Brit Fox. A collage featuring an assortment of images: distorted 3D scans of the artist’s white body and face morph in and out of each other, cloud scenery props from various theatre productions, and assorted “nostalgic” technology and plants from the artists private collection are layered overtop. In the bottom-middle of the work a border of a reconstructed tarot card reads “The Moons.” An assortment of buttons are collaged on top, reading “My World” “I’m an Angel... Ask me why”, “Are we Kinder & Gentler yet?”, “An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail”

Image is ivan's piece "Won't Let Go". A black and white photo of a white person curled in a ball, with their toes off the ground, balancing on their seat/bum. They have a brown paper bag on their head and are curled over a hand saw, that is positioned parallel to the ground, perpendicular to their thigh in the position they are in.

“Conversations with My Hair,” 2023, photograph. A black and white photograph of a group of poppies with dark human hair tangled around them.

This drawing is a group of panels from Toby’s in-progress debut graphic novel, Adagio. The panels show a character named Lucky, a white transsexual wearing soaking wet long blond curly hair and moustache, wading through the water of an indoor lazy river. He approaches a set of stairs beside a wheelchair exit sign pointing to under the water, and swims to follow the sign to an underwater tunnel. 

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Various

HEAT WAVES 2024

1 – 31 Jul 2024
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Announcing Eyelevel’s 2024 HEAT WAVES Artists!

HEAT WAVES is Eyelevel’s annual low pressure, self directed mini-residency program, where we host a small group of emerging artists for part of the summer. Residents receive 24 hour studio access, a stipend to cover materials, and support from the Eyelevel staff. The soft jury process for HEAT WAVES prioritizes emerging artists who have felt uncomfortable and/or unwelcome in artist residencies and artist run centres in the past— in particular, folks who are BIPOC, disabled, and/or 2SLGBTQIA+.

This year, we are incredibly excited to welcome four wonderful artists for the month of July. Here is some more information on them:

Brit Fox (they/them, @foxtrapped on Instagram)
Brit Fox is a white settler, queer artist and writer located in the Kjipuktuk district of Mi’kma’ki (halifax, nova scotia) on the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq. Their work complicates personal and collective histories by layering expanded media, domestic materials, and contemporary research practices in ways that “infiltrate” and, they hope, expand the archive and the histories within. Borrowing from Queer, fat, and punk aesthetics they prioritize being in community and hope to find like-minded researchers, writers, artists and curators working in disruptive, informative, and car(ing)ful methods of data visualization and relearning.

Claudia Manco Peña (she/her, @clau.manco on Instagram)
Originally from Lima, Peru, I moved to Halifax in 2017 seeking a happier, safer life. In 2023, I completed a BFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at NSCAD University. I've exhibited at Prow Gallery (2022), Anna Leonowens Gallery (2023), and Cuts and Paste Gallery (2024). My work oscillates within alternative photographic processes, collage, and floral design, inspired by my time as a florist in Halifax. I explore themes of trauma, grief, and healing, using organic materials to interpret concepts such as impermanence, discomfort and beauty.

ivan beck (no pronouns, @digdeepivan on Instagram)
I am an emerging artist who works and lives in unceded Mi'kmaw'ki. As a visual artist, my body and everyday objects are the subjects of self-portraits that communicate my visceral, ephemeral experiences that emerge from everyday life. My most recent work is focusing on confronting, making visible, and sitting with, as one way to learn from, shame, silence, and pain brought on my trauma within settler-colonial societies.

Toby Green (he/him, @otobygreen on Instagram)
Toby Green is a drawing artist who works in crip time. He makes sequential art (comics, serial drawings, short 2D animations, maps) about his experiences of time, memory, quotidian histories through illness. He is currently writing his debut graphic novel, Adagio, which is a story about an increasingly sick drummer relearning how to keep time; and in the research process he has been building a community archive of crip experiences of timekeeping called “How We Keep Crip Time”. Toby’s practice has been supported by the generous community teachings of mutual aid, abolition, and Disability Justice, and creating work as a part of these communities is central to his practice. Toby is a white settler, a sick/crip powerchair-toting transsexual, a retired (see sick) sex worker, and calls Menahqesk/Saint John his hometown but is currently living in Kjipuktuk - all of which are important themes in his work. 

We will be holding an artist talk in early August, where our HEAT WAVES residents will fill everyone in on what they’ve been up to during their time with us. Exact date and time TBA, but keep an eye out!