Club Gemini (2019-2022)
Drawing from archival press clippings, letters, and spirit contact with the dead, Club Gemini grants a furtive glimpse into the opening of the eponymous social club one Saturday night in April 1969, before it was shut down a month later by the police. The club opened months before the Canadian parliament would decriminalize consensual anal sex between two adults.
Club Gemini comprises a series of photographs and a speculative history audio collage featuring possibly the only recording of the voice of one of the club’s founding members, Paul Bédard, founder of Québec’s socialist homophile organization International Sex Equality Anonymous.
Simultaneously, a small wolf pack crossed the frozen St. Lawrence River, establishing itself in the city’s central forested park for the first time in written history. On the same night that Club Gemini opened at the base of the mountain, shots rang out. Montreal police officers had begun to cull the wolves and removed their bodies from the downtown forest, a popular clandestine gathering place for men.
After the club was shut down, the activist organization disbanded, Paul Bédard was last heard from in remote Northern Quebec, leaving only a letter to his two lovers. Today, a luxury pen boutique occupies the club’s former location. Its alleyway entrance is sealed in brick.
Stereo audio track (00:29:00∞ loop), red light gel, black velvet cushions, black velvet mask, archival photograph, paper, resin
‡ Club Gemini, Centre Clark (Montreal, Canada) 2019
‡ Art Pop, Pop Montreal, Rialto Theatre (Montreal, Canada) 2019
‡ Indexing Resistance, The Plumb (Toronto, Canada) 2022