Landscape is My Sir
MFA Thesis Solo Exhibit
Dr. James Penny Foster Building, Lethbridge, AB, May 25 – June 8 2019
This body of work aims to construct a cosmology of desire and perversity, which functions to unsettle existing narratives of power and landscape. A composite immersive experience built of performances, installations, videos and weavings, this body of work performs a collision of rural, colonial and queer imaginaries. Through this coupling of imaginaries, these works consider relationships between land and gender, western expansion and the imaging of colonially occupied territory. The work creates new visual languages with which to better comprehend cultural hybridity and the queering and unsettling of rural cultural paradigms. Using built and found sites, the work introduces a performance persona, Chico California, a (probably trans) homosexual leatherman seeking to engage in erotic relationships with space, site and inanimate objects. Chico California, a mysterious semi-feral misanthrope, makes his provocative, problematic and un-procreative advances on Nature and Landscape discoverable, presenting the onlooker with opportunities to encounter him in his habits of desire.
View thesis support paper here.
Other Exhibited Works
Wastemakers on Cornucopia Street
group exhibit curated by Ian Dawson
New Haven Art Space
New Haven, East Sussex, England
Nov 3rd – Nov 19th 202
“Souvenir/Recuerdo”
A souvenir Mexican charro hat compressed into a block and bound in twine for transport from Turtle Island to the UK as a brick of “cultural waste.”
Mini Galerías
group exhibit curated by SpanicArts
Rotary Park Mini Galleries
Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Treaty 7 territory
May 1st – May 31st 2022
“Western Crush”
A ready-made cowboy hat which had been found run over by a car along Scenic Drive in Lethbridge, Blackfoot territory, a road that provides views of iconic “western” landscape and divides town from river valley.
In Noticing
group exhibit curated by Tara Lynn MacDougall
Inverness County Center for The Arts
Inverness, Nova Scotia, Canada, Mi’kmaq territory
March 13th – April 25th 2021
“Western Crush”
A ready-made cowboy hat which had been found run over by a car along Scenic Drive in Lethbridge, Blackfoot territory, a road that provides views of iconic “western” landscape and divides town from river valley.
“Unbelongings: Boots”
Video showing images of land encountered throughout artist’s life digitally “wrapped” around a 3D rendering of a pair of the artist’s cowboy boots through photogrammetry process.
There Must be Some Way Out of Here
University of Lethbridge Staff and Faculty Exhibit
Dr. James Penny Foster Building
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, Treaty 7 territory
January 31st – February 7th 202
“32 Hours”
Objects and single channel video shown of performance piece and video where a pearl was swallowed and recovered.
Unruly Bodies II
group exhibit curated by Kristin Krein
Le Petit Trianon
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, Treaty 7 territory
March 2nd – March 17th 2019
“SOIL”
Projected video from Chico California performance showing him interacting erotically with land
From Where I Stand
curated student group exhibit
Dr. James Penny Foster Building
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, Treaty 7 territory
March 8th – March 18th 2019
“I Am a Valley (You Are Shouting Into So You Can Hear Your Name Shouted Back)”
Mixed media sculpture with video showing digitally altered footage of movement performance of two trans men fighting against a desert landscape.
Dispersions
group exhibit curated by Andrew Rabyniuk
Trap/door Artist Run Center
University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, Treaty 7 territory
September 22nd – October 11th 2018
“Lapdances for Landscapes”
Live performance of persona Chico California where he gogo dances and stripteases for the Old Man River Valley.
MUMA SOMA
graduate student group exhibit
Dr. James Penny Foster Building
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, Treaty 7 territory
August 10th – 18th 2018
“Un-Archive”
Found cassette tapes, small weavings and images are organized and displayed for gallery-goers to pursue and listen to.
Body Collective
student group exhibit curated by Courtney Faulkner
Southern Alberta Art Gallery
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, Treaty 7 territory
May 6th 2018 – June 9th 20
“Last February I Learned How to Weave”
Interactive piece where gallery-goers were encouraged to touch original weavings and reassemble them with found objects on display.
Dia de Los Muertos
curated community group exhibit
MOCO Art Gallery
Oakland, California, U.S.A., Ohlone territory
November 1st – November 30th 2012
“Altares Para Géneros Muertos y Perdidos”
Day of the Dead altar created for dead and lost or forgotten genders.
Migueltzinta C. Solís 
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