It’s a real quilt of experiences that takes shape before our eyes as we read the collection. Troubles, our shadows, led by Jennifer Belanger. With texts by 11 artists, the poignant book aims to be “a safe space where LGBTQ2IA+ people can express themselves freely, outside of injunctions to happiness and celebration”.
The strength of this collection lies in the collective exercise of which it is the result. The combination of such varied voices allows us to leave our reading nourished by a rich and plural reflection. From the vibrant testimony of Martine Delvaux to the very berlinesque story of Nicholas Dawson passing by the exploded calligram of Marilou Craft, it tells the shadows of queer existence, far from clichés and stigmatization.
“To be gay is to grow up acutely aware of the social masquerade that everyone is playing. This punchy phrase taken from one of the first texts in the collection, which we owe to Étienne Bergeron, sets the tone well. In each of the texts that shape this work, a presumption takes over. Rather than recounting an imagined common reality of queer people, it instead weaves a map of possibilities, as a tool to free oneself from expectations and dictates.
Navigating from crazy to overwhelming without ever being out of place, Troubles, our shadows brings together texts with both complementary and contradictory characteristics, and this is what makes the beauty of this composite body.
Troubles, our shadows
Under the direction of Jennifer Belanger
Triptych Editions
184 pages