Artist, Designer & Arts Worker
ardyn.gibbs[@]gmail.com
Ardyn Gibbs is a Queer and Trans, Settler-Indigenous (Mohawk) Artist, Designer and Arts Worker located on the territories of the Haudenosaunee, Anishnaabe, and the Missisaugas of the Credit First Nation otherwise known as Hamilton, Ontario. Using digital new media technologies Ardyn’s work explores the themes of Queer Futurity, Digital Dreaming and Visibility/Legibility of Queer bodies in public spaces. They are a recent graduate of McMaster University’s Studio Arts Program (B.F.A.) with a Minor in Community Engagement. Ardyn is passionate about collective dreaming, placekeeping and fostering meaningful connections. Their work is constantly shifting, adapting and growing with the world around them.
hot dreams, 2024.
ED Video. Guelph, ON.
Curated by Adrien Crossman, 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.
It Shapes Bodies, 2023
Factory Media Centre. Hamilton, ON
it shapes bodies is a group exhibition curated by Eli Nolet featuring the work of emerging artists Hannah Essex, Ardyn Gibbs, and Pippa MacDonald. Each artist’s practice pulls from personal narrative, and explores the embodied experiences of queer vulnerabilities and realizations of desire.
Documentation by Eli Nolet
Passing, 2024.
Factory Media Centre. Hamilton, ON.
During their residency at Factory Media Centre Ardyn explored what it means to exist as a visibly queer person in spaces through the use of various digital new media technologies including Projection Mapping, 3D rendered animations and AR (Augmented Reality) activations. Ardyn reimagined space through a queer futurist lens while exploring the concept of passing as a double meaning. What does it mean to pass through space; thus, passing through states of being, occupying space where the disruption of the work becomes inevitatble. The audience is welcomed to take up space and interact with queer objects, longings and desires.
Factory Media Centre. Hamilton, ON.
BACKROOMS. SUMMA: yearbook, 2024.
McMaster Museum of Art. Hamilton, ON.
Featured in McMaster’s graduating exhibition, BACKROOMS is a collaborative installation between collaborators and friends Eli Nolet and Ardyn Gibbs. This work is dedicated to queer and trans pasts, presents and futures.
Summa 2024: Yearbook" serves as a comprehensive representation of the profound artistic odyssey undertaken by fourth-year visual arts graduates. Demonstrating a diversity of approaches, ranging from avant-garde technological experimentation to time-honoured traditional techniques, their collective works transcend conventional confines, fostering a sense of inclusivity within the artistic milieu. Each composition delves into pressing contemporary themes, including social awareness, cultural identity, memory, introspection, and the exploration of sexuality and sustainability, beckoning spectators into profound dialogues on thematic exploration.
Foremost among the exhibition's highlights are the immersive installations, which transport viewers into evocative realms centred on the intersections of space and identity while others offer poignant meditations on the queer experience. Complementary works, predominantly in the realm of sculpture, engage with themes of societal consciousness, critiquing the perils of capitalism and reflecting on the intricate contours of topographical landscapes. Certain pieces undertake the crucial task of dismantling colonial narratives of 'otherness' and cultural stereotyping, employing potent visual imagery to disrupt established societal norms.
Personal narratives, intertwined with familial histories and memories, alongside reflections on selfhood, are recurrent motifs explored through a myriad of multimedia approaches. Moreover, the exhibition catalyzes discourse on sustainability, utilizing art as a vehicle to confront environmental degradation and issues surrounding food consumption.
Central to the graduating class's creative ethos is a commitment to abstraction and experimentation, with many artworks embodying an earnest quest for spirituality, moments of solitude, and an enduring sense of yearning.
In summation, "Summa 2024: Yearbook" stands as a testament to the remarkable talents and insights of its participants, leaving an indelible mark on the cultural landscape. Through their works, viewers are challenged to confront the intricacies of contemporary existence, embracing diversity, empathy, and dialogue—a legacy promising enduring resonance and impact.
Between Here and There, 2024.
Farside B-Side. Hamilton, ON.
Between Here and There is a solo show by Hamilton-based, emerging artist Ardyn Gibbs (they/them). Between Here and There explores the spaces that queer bodies occupy. With ‘here' referring to the physical, present space and ‘there’ being a place of potentiality, dreaming, and futures.
As access to queer spaces becomes increasingly difficult; like most things, queerness must also adapt to the future. The only way to move forward is to collectively soften the world around us. With that, we must be open to embracing alternative methods of connection, including those in the digital realm. Between Here and There poses the question of how we could reimagine the future through a queer lens and how could we make these imagined spaces a reality?
Acknowledgements:
Installation assistance by Eli Nolet and Gwyneth Dalzell
Excerpts from Coexistence by Billy Ray Belcourt
With generous in kind contributions from Factory Media Centre
To be soft is to be resilient, 2024.
Hamilton Artists Inc. Cannon Project Wall.
Hyper-visibility can mean so many things for trans folks and oftentimes the threat of harm lingers. We understand the implications of our existence and of being seen. For many of us the truth remains: be vigilant of the world around you.
I long to explore ways that we can collectively soften the world around us. Considering how we can move forward from hurt with joy and softness, how we can shift our understanding of visibility through ambiguity. With not a question, but the fact of our existence. I remain firm; trans existence is not up for debate.
Created in conversation with Ris Wong’s piece titled “Trans Lives Are Sacred” this work is a testament to softness as resilience and coexistence as a practice. For my Queer and Trans community, friends, family and passerbyers, I hope that this work holds you, even if just for a brief moment.