Art Metropole

#15411

Blend Zine

Artist

Julianna Stein

Date

2023

Publisher

Julianna Stein

Format

Zines

Genre

Zines, Culture, LGBTQ2S+, Canadian

Blend interrogates methods of space-making within non-traditional skateboarding communities within Tkaranto (Toronto) and Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). As a settler skateboarding on stolen ancestral land, I am creating a work in the hopes of fostering a safe space for non-traditional skateboarders. Challenging ideas of space, I am using common forms of skateboarding documentation and production to investigate space-making methodologies. Whether through a physical space such as a room, a publication piece like a zine, or video works, queer spaces and community can be found beyond the physical notions of space. Blend explores and documents the work of non-traditional skateboarders, deconstructing the constraints of age, gender, sexuality, and race present throughout the commercial skateboarding world, demonstrating that anyone can engage and be creative within the sport, regardless of their background.
Julianna (Ju) Stein is a queer interdisciplinary artist practicing on the stolen ancestral territories of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit River, known as “Toronto.” Her practice highlights the experiences of non-traditional skateboarders in the male-dominated sport of skateboarding. She articulates the kinship cultivated by queer skateboarders within spaces through print, video, and installation.