hot dreams at Ed Video
Two Person Exhibition
by Ardyn Gibbs and Eli Nolet
Curated by Adrien Crossman
Ed Video, Guelph, ON
July 5 – August 2, 2024
hot dreams brings together the work of Ardyn Gibbs and Eli Nolet, two emerging trans and non binary artists exploring queer affect through new media and materiality. Queer desire, safety, memory, joy, and visibility exist as throughlines in these works that reach for physical spaces of queer belonging/gathering that have for some only existed as a fantasy or imagining. Employing both physical and digital material references to objects such as chains, metal piercings, and the reflective sheen reminiscent of that cast by leather or latex, the works in hot dreams refer to the queer body – or rather the absence of queer bodies.
Documentation by Maddie Lycheck
Eli Nolet (they/them) is a queer trans settler-Indigenous artist and arts worker from the occupied territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Mississaugas (otherwise known as hamilton, ontario). Eli’s practice explores identity and selfhood through new media activations of static image and text work. Across their practice, Eli is interested in investigating the many layered histories of queer culture and desire, and questioning the binaries of visible/invisible, normative/transgressive.
Ardyn Gibbs (they/them) is a queer and trans, settler-Indigenous (Mohawk) artist and arts worker located on the territories of the Haudenosaunee, Anishnaabe, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation otherwise known as Hamilton, ON. Using digital new media technologies Ardyn’s work explores themes of queer futurism, digital dreaming, and visibility/legibility of queer bodies in public spaces. Ardyn is passionate about collective dreaming, placekeeping, and fostering meaningful connections.