We do not know when we started, we will not know when we will end

Christopher Lacroix’s work investigates the ways in which queer existence simultaneously aspires to and rejects dominant social norms and structures. This tension is played out in a multidisciplinary practice that includes photography, video, and performance that, as the artist states, employs “abject self-deprecation as a means of self-preservation and resistance.” His work, at once tragic and campy, acknowledges and explores this space of being that is often inherently conflicted and requires constant effort to negotiate.

 We do not know when we started, we will not know when we will end is a series of photographs of the artist holding crumpled foil letter balloons. The foil balloons are the remnants of a video work in which the artist used these party decorations to spell out the statements “I AM SORRY,” “YOU’RE WELCOME,” “YOU’RE SORRY,” and “I AM WELCOME,” eventually squeezing each balloon letter until it popped. These statements, both submissive and defiant, through this humorous act of destruction, become as impotent as their deflated vessels. Rather than discarding these objects that have served their purpose, the artist holds them up triumphantly, monumentalizing them perhaps in the hopes that they will once again become legible.

Presented in partnership with Canada Line Public Art Program–InTransit BC