Queer Frontiers: "Rex vs Singh" Discussion between Curator and Artists

Curated by Aaditya Aggarwal

In discussion with Ali Kazimi, John Greyson & Richard Fung

Sunday November 28, 2021 at 1:00pm EST

Pre-registration through Eventbrite required

Presented on Zoom

Zoom link can be found in Eventbrite registration confirmation emails under "Additional Information"

Accessibility Note: ASL Interpretation and Zoom Captions available

LOMAA is excited to welcome Aaditya Aggarwal for the seventh event in our Queer Frontiers series! Aggarwal has curated an online screening of Rex vs Singh by Ali Kazimi, John Greyson & Richard Fung, which will be available for viewing from November 21 - 28 at https://vimeo.com/lomaa. Aggarwal will also host a virtual discussion on the work with all three artists!

Rex vs Singh, Ali Kazimi, John Greyson & Richard Fung

Experimental/Documentary, 2009, 29:38

In 1915, two Sikh mill-workers, Dalip Singh and Naina Singh, were entrapped by undercover police in Vancouver and accused of sodomy. This experimental video stages scenes from their trial, told four times: first as a period drama, second as a documentary investigation of the case, third as a musical agit-prop, and fourth, as a deconstruction of the actual court transcript.

Dalip and Naina were arrested one year after the infamous Komogata Maru incident, in which the Japanese owned ship and its 376 would-be immigrant passengers from British India, mostly Sikhs, were turned back after sitting in Vancouver harbour for two months without being allowed to land. The South Asians, all British subjects, had hoped to challenge a systemically racist regulation that required potential immigrants to undergo a “continuous journey” from their country of origin, an impossibility deliberately created for people from the sub-continent.

Between 1909 and 1929, an inordinate number of men tried for sodomy in Vancouver were Sikhs. Based on the 1915 case, Rex vs. Singh is a speculative exploration of the interplay between homophobia and racism in this little known chapter of Canadian history.

Aaditya Aggarwal is a writer, editor and film curator based in Toronto and New Delhi. He has formerly worked in administrative, marketing and curatorial roles at Mercer Union, Images Festival, Regent Park Film Festival, Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival and TIFF. Aaditya has contributed writing to Canadian Art, The New Inquiry, Rungh Magazine, Ethnic Aisle, Trinity Square Video, South Asian Visual Arts Centre, Koffler Digital and FADO Performance Art Centre, among other outlets. His work seeks to blur the lines between creative nonfiction and narrative forms.

Ali Kazimi's films have received over thirty national and international awards including a Gemini and two Genie nominations. His work has been screened in dozens of festivals and broadcast on many networks. His films include Runaway Grooms (2005), Continuous Journey (2004), Shooting Indians (1998) and Narmada: A Valley Rises (1994). He teaches at York University.

John Greyson is a Toronto video/film artist. Since 1984, his many features, shorts and transmedia works have explored such queer activist issues as police violence, prison, AIDS activism, solidarity, homo-nationalism and apartheid (both South African and Israeli). These include International Dawn Chorus Day (2021), Mercurial (2018),  Gazonto (2016), Murder in Passing (2013), Fig Trees (2009), Lilies (1996), Zero Patience (1993), The Making of Monsters (1991) and Urinal (1989).

Richard Fung a Trinidad-born, Toronto-based video artist and writer. His most recent works are Dal Puri Diaspora (2012), Re:Orientations (2016) and Nang by Nang (2018). He is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Art at OCAD University.

LOMAA’s Queer Frontiers critically reflects on Canada’s 50th anniversary celebration of the purported “decriminalization” of homosexuality in the country. Serving as a counter to the state revelries, LOMAA will host 8 artists, artist duos, or curators who have established practices post-legislation and remain on the frontiers of Canadian queer media. This project centres queer narratives and praxis as a means to interrogate historical representation and continue fortifying queer futures within this country.

For more background information please visit: https://anti-69.ca/

London Ontario Media Arts Association (LOMAA) is a regional, emerging non-profit, artist-run organization focused on the exhibition of alternative and experimental time-based and media art. With an emphasis on progressive contemporary Canadian practices, LOMAA supports the presentation of local, national, and international artists in the areas of moving images, performance, new media, and sound art.

www.lomaa.ca

LOMAA would like to thank Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and London Arts Council for their support of this program and their continued backing.