You Cannot Kill WHAT IS ALREADY DEAD Curated by SUZANNE CARTE PARTICIPATING ARTISTS Atom Cianfarani Emily Gove Patrick Lundeen Nadia MosS Alex McLeoD Mario Schambon Maya Suess Lena Suksi Howie Tsui Juan ZamorA October 31, 2013 – January 25, 2014 Doris McCarthy Gallery University of Toronto Scarborough Mario Schambon, Cara Falsa, 2012/2013 BE ZOMBIE SUZANNE CARTE 5 WHAT DOES A ZOMBIE WANT? SARA MATTHEWS 11 THE ROAD TRIP Farrukh Rafiq 15 THE NORMAL ZOMBIE CHRISTIAN MARTIUS 16 QUEER APOCALYPSE NATALIE KOURI-TOWE 17 TALK THE ZOMBIE WALK INTERVIEW WITH THEA MUNSTER 21 LIST OF WORKS 41 BIOGRAPHIES 43 BE ZOMBIE BY SUZANNE CARTE Honestly, I can’t look at images of zombies. The tattered clothing, and letting out gurgled moans with glamour of gore has an uneasy power over me. outstretched arms and heavy feet. Zombie walks are Horror films make me retch and haunted houses get mobilized to gain attention. The masses march (or me running for the door. I am the perfect audience shuffle rather) to express their dissatisfaction with for all zombiephiles to scare. In the presence of the political ennui in times of economic upheaval, war ghastly, undead wanderers, I am terrified, sickened and environmental collapse. The undead are the and revolted. perfect empty vehicles to mirror numerous involve- ments, interests, and issues; therefore the collective Poring over artists’ gruesome zombiefied sketches zombie gathering has no defined agenda. Devoid of during studio visits would make me nauseated. Brook- any individualization, a walk can represent a number lyn-based artist Mario Schambon proclaimed that he of concerns and fears within one action. Participants likes to create work that makes him uncomfortable. walk to protest neo-liberalist economics, comment So taking Schambon’s lead I organized an exhibition on anti-social social media, uncover power dynamics, that made me uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. and express anti-consumerism sentiments by expos- ing the mass consumption of zombie capitalism. How can one make efforts to overcome fear? There has to be a certain amount of pleasure in that pain. Zombies are imaginary creatures used to illustrate There has to be a particular amount of reassurance problems about consciousness and its relation to the in fear, ease in anxiety, or solace in distress. Does one physical world.[1] They are never just one thing but a then find comfort in discomfort or is that impossible stand-in for an assumed lack of agency. They rally by its very definition? against compliancy by illustrating the abjectness of conformity. As Simon Orphana reminds us, “Romero’s I never feel desensitized. More images of carnage first three zombie films suggest specific anxiety over just made me feel more vulnerable, more horrified, technology, consumerism and the military, and a and uneasy. So one could wonder: how can someone general sense that an undead collectivity threatens who does not participate in zombie culture comment human society and individuality. The calamitous upon it? I am not approaching the exhibition as an breakdowns of social order depicted in zombie apoca- authority; I am working through the fear to investigate lypse narratives offer a critical perspective on the parallels between the seemingly apolitical action of various horrors implicit in everyday social life.” [2] the walking dead phenomenon and recent radical civic gatherings and ideologies in North America, The upsurge in interest in the undead phenomenon through consideration of artists’ visions, fascination has elicited numerous critical analyses on topics and representation of the monstrous creatures in a including anthropological studies; essays by post-apocalyptic landscape. geographical area; zombies in the media (Internet, television, etc.); zombie walks, performances, and BE ZOMBIE: RELATING TO THE UNDEAD other cultural expressions; new technologies and audiovisual media; reappropriations from Hollywood The zombification of all things pop culture has zombie movies; zombie cinema in the United States; exploded. Mobs are taking to the streets covered and literary adaptations to cinema. The undead – that in fake blood and ghostly makeup, garbed in which is alive and dead at the same time – are great 6 metaphoric framing devices to critique everything or completely nude to titillate for all eternity. Iconic from capitalist structures to racism to gender-based scream queen Linnea Quigley participated in the politics. 2013 Toronto Zombie Walk festivities by throwing the severed head to kick off the parade. Best known for End-of-the-world fears are mounting. Threats of her role as the sexy, dancing punk zombie girl “Trash” nuclear war, bio-terrorist attacks and disease in Return of the Living Dead, Quigley’s face is embla- outbreaks have spawned real concerns about the zoned on Gove’s fabric swatches. As homage to the unpredictable ways in which our genetic makeup characters, the feminine touch of stitchery removes could be altered and distorted. The artists in You the layer of pornographic residue imbued within the Cannot Kill What Is Already Dead have works in their poor-resolution, digital stills online. The women are practices that are based on the notion of the para- lovingly transformed into haunted feminist souls normal apocalypse in a way that can at times come rather than vapid, sexualized creatures. across as comical, but is based in this panic and dread.[3] The works do not rely on existing sci-fi stories Teenage angst is not relegated to the drama of or popular narratives (as it is not fandom) but inhabit unfulfilled sexual desires alone but can also be found their own accounts of a frightful future or present in the anxiety of newly adopted social and political reality. affiliations. Patrick Lundeen conveys that anguish through the horrific masks he creates from vintage Setting the stage, Mario Schambon brings the viewer Mad Magazine Fold-Ins. Part of America’s teen culture into an apocalyptic wasteland. Black Body, a large since its inception in 1952, Mad focused on propagat- snaking construction, emphasizes the precarious- ing non-conformist thinking on current politics and ness of the space and warns of the impending zombie was best known for the old school interactivity of barrage. Schambon’s eschatological environment is the back page spread. With a quick bend of the page, equipped with low base frequencies and flickering the seemingly innocuous image becomes a secret black light to emphasize the catastrophic destruction. satirical message philosophizing on beliefs, debates Being faced with annihilation, we can piece together and popular culture. In manipulating the pages of the what a future might look like and the haunted house- publication, one is drawn into the hidden idea and like exhibition leads us on that trail of darkness and implicated in its lesson. It is often the first exposure in despair. adolescence to being able to decrypt a message that is designated for them alone, away from the prying In the darkness of goth teen death culture, Emily eyes of parents or adults. The comics allow young Gove’s practice is born. Examining the drives and (predominantly male) audiences to formulate opinions desires of the subculture, Gove’s research led her and bias by decoding the image for themselves and to discover online fan groups dedicated to idolizing deciphering the real message concealed behind the the sexy zombies of popular cinema. Fetishizing the veil of comic relief of the initial image. incidental female characters, these groupies drool in the blogosphere. The female “sexy zombie” character Lundeen asks the viewer to fold into his work and is a staple in horror films. Relegated to the role of consider donning the mask of the vacant minion. He stripper or wild punk-rock groupie turned undead, the invites the audience to become one of the faceless sexy zombie is designated to walk the earth partially zombies staggering forward with arms outstretched, 7 consuming all that is in its path, joining the angry The bodily dread of Moss’s work can also be seen mob with a hidden agenda. Many wear the mask of in the horror and anxiety in Howie Tsui’s The the zombie to conform, to blur into the masses and Unfortunates of D’Arcy Island. Yet these are creatures no longer feel ostracized, but under Lundeen’s candy- not of the imagination but of truly distressing and coloured masks lies a darker secret of disillusionment real human conditions. Feared to be highly infec- and anguish. tious, between 1894 and 1924 immigrant Chinese leprosy sufferers were ostracized by their communi- What would you do in a zombie apocalypse? Would ties and sent to live in a colony far from society in you be the first to die, would you fight, or would you Greater Victoria, British Columbia. Family members take your own life? Maya Suess and Atom Cianfarani were abandoned to fight the disfiguring disease alone have asked themselves that very question. As sur- and lived in isolation on the island in the Haro Strait vivalists, the two artists have joined forces to build just north of Victoria. The islands’ inhabitants were new strategies and emergency gear to battle the mythologized to a folkloric extent. Seen as an ancient impending zombie army. Or at least so it appears on curse, the residents of the lazaretto, or leper colony, first inspection – yet perhaps it is not the undead that were exiled with no possibility of reprieve. The lepers they fear. They turn a (suspicious) interrogative eye became un-human and therefore were treated as not to the monsters, but to their fellow human sur- such. The strong anti-Chinese sentiment in British vivors. Fight the Dead. Fear the Living.[4] Armed with Colombia made it easy to encapsulate the disease as duct tape, straws and hankies the artist-survivalists a plague restricted to Chinatown.