Kristi Ropeleski

Upon entering Kristi Ropeleski’s studio, it was quite apparent that I was not quite yet on friendly turf. The artist’s piercing green eyes stared me down and mentally assessed me and my questions every step of the way. I was pretty sure she could sense my nervousness—I felt as though I had just stepped into the lion’s den. After rejecting the rest of the regular (and, admittedly somewhat boring) studio visit questions, I seemed to be able to get her to open up…or was it the other way around?

Currently in her second year of her MFA at York University, Ropeleski actually conceived of her thesis concept a few years ago, but abandoned the idea after coming to the conclusion that she lacked the language to be able to articulate the project at the time. The project consists of around 17 large-scale paintings that depict the artist herself—not self-portraits, but rather studies—in a kind of limbo, the bodies are neither floating nor falling yet neither do they seem fixed to the canvas. By repeating the same forms over and over again, Ropeleski creates a visual progression without a clear beginning or ending. She explains that the actions taking place in the paintings are not in an undefined sequence, but rather they are all happening at the same time.

She justifies using herself as a model in that it makes her feel more sincere about the project; more “Implicated in the dialogue.” Although she does admit to getting sick of painting herself sometimes, she feels that this enables her to free herself of any predispositions she might have towards another sitter. This way, she says, she can be a bit more gratuitous in choosing a title without worrying about offending anyone. Actually, the example she gave was using me as a model and entitling it “Shit for Brains.” Point taken…although I believe I would quickly get over this shock after a closer inspection of my fictitious portrait. It would, no doubt, be given the same care and consideration as any of her other paintings, despite the title it was given.

It is quite obvious that Ropeleski knows what she is doing with a paint brush. In details such as hands and feet, I could see a mastery of technical and proportional ability. She has a knack for obtaining a certain quality of light in her paintings that draws the viewer in and her use of oil paints and choice of colours is visually stunning. Her thesis show, White Noise, will be on display at Lennox Contemporary at 12 Ossington Avenue from April 3rd to the 20th with the opening reception to be held on April 4th, and is definitely not one to be missed.

Jeanette Janzen

Niknaz Tavakolian

Niknaz Tavakolian is an Iranian born United States x-pat currently at home in Toronto, Ontario. She works in interactive media with a background in photography, video and film. Her work deals with the tensions that arise between socially enforced dichotomies within the politics of gender and nationality. In her current projects she seeks correlate the grey areas between female/male and Canadian/American. Niknaz believes that identities are on a continuum; national and sexual borders are rarely clearly defined in messy, everyday living. Niknaz is comfortable negotiating spaces of mixed and intermediary identity as a catalyst for creativity and critique. Her work reflects a keen awareness of the “gaze”(both in terms of the spectator/audience and Foucaultian and Feminist analysis of social power dynamics) having experience both observing and being “other”. Her interactive works provide spaces for the viewer to discover these same tensions within their own identities and to challenge underlying assumptions about gender and nationality.

When I first entered Niknaz’s studio I was confronted by a slightly forlorn looking plywood box about half my height and width with a small hole and a switch on top. (right) Niknaz explained that the box was in fact her interactive work, How we were impressed when we were impressionable and 18 (2006) (video documentation). When the piece is on display, the viewer approaches the box, looks into the hole in the top and flicks on the switch, which reveals grainy footage of a Drag King show on a small screen inside. Niknaz affectionately refers to the piece as her “peep show”. What is interesting about the peep show is that it gives the illusion of a private, personal, encounter as opposed to the strip show or exotic dance bar, which is more open, often with a large audience. By allowing the viewer to interact with the images on a one-to-one basis, Niknaz creates, within the larger context of the public art gallery, the illusion of privacy; a place where the viewer can take stock of their own personal reactions to the hazy, androgynous images in front of them and any impressions left in their mind. The title of the piece points to the important, identity-forming moment of arrival at adulthood. The “we” balances the experience of personal encounter by reassuring the viewer that such identity forming impressions can be a communal experience.

In 2005 Niknaz returned to Iran to visit for the first time. Her visit coincided with the famous 2005 Iranian presidential election leading to the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad is said to have won because of populist views; he promised a government of tolerance and friendship despite his hard-line religious conservative standpoint. Niknaz is used to crossing borders and lives fully in whatever place, space and time she may currently find herself. She felt deeply the tensions created by the new assertion of conservative views in Iran. She created the video My Lichen (my stone flower) in response to her experiences in Iran, which screened at the 2006 Flaming Film Festival, and the 2007 Swansea Film Festival. (video) My Lichen (my stone flower ) is the title of an Iranian love song performed by a women that was banned in Iran at the time of Niknaz’s visit. Love songs are considered to be in opposition to conservative religious views in Iran. The video features Niknaz alternatively covering and uncovering her head with a hejab and then an American baseball cap. The audio is the original song, 'Goleh Sangam,' which translates to 'my lichen' and literally translates to 'my stone flower'. In protest and contestation she displays her multiple identities, staring out at the viewer in a reversal of the gaze, then closing her eyes as if to welcome it.



Niknaz explores the gaze of the viewer more explicitly in Don’t mind me (2007) (left). Don’t mind me is an interactive video installation displayed at Showcase 07, Cambridge Galleries, Ontario. (video documentation) A video projection of a transgendered/gender-anonymous person stands and follows the viewer’s motions with movements of the head, “gazing back” in sense, defying the scrutiny of the viewer. In this and most of Niknaz’s work, there is a concern about the way that current discourse on art is often gendered, that is, the reading is based in an understanding of the work as inherently “male” or “female” depending on the artist that created it. This tendency can be traced to feminist efforts in the twentieth century (and up to the present) to bring female artists into the canon of art history. Niknaz is hoping to move beyond such dichotomies to a deeper understanding of the complexities and ambiguities of gender and national identity politics.

Tabitha Minns