NOTE: This is a project done through Mount Allison University Art Department
CV of artist here: cv — Sheilah [Wilson] ReStack — Sheilah Restack — Sheilah Wilson Restack
1) Funded Artwork Approved and Boosted by Local Art Community;
2) Approved for installation by the Town Hall's long time staffer Matt Pryde [its worth noting that during the "Pride" 2015 in town and on campus Matt refused to be photographed by THE Indie Media Eastcoast in his capacity as Town's Parks & Rec at the campus event]
At this link: Archive of Queer Embrace — Sheilah [Wilson] ReStack — Sheilah Restack — Sheilah Wilson Restack
"Archive of Queer Embrace
The Archive of Queer Embrace (AQE) uses the documentary truth of photography and the performative potential of queer intimacy to create photographic portraits that are installed in various parks and trails of Tantramar, New Brunswick. The project is realized by artist Sheilah ReStack, who was the Pierre Lassonde Visiting Artist in residence at Mt. Allison for the winter semester 2026. ReStack worked with Mt. Allison Studio Art interns to solicit regional participants for the project, as well as local art organizations and community groups. The call that was put out was a request for, queer identified to come to the darkroom, and have their image taken with the people(s) or object(s) they loved. The idea of touch, embrace, and the possibility of queer images becoming part of a public space and conversation was the initial impulse behind the work.
ReStack grew up in Pictou County, Nova Scotia — and at that time there was very little, if any, positive representation of queer life or love in public space, or discourse. In many ways, ReStack sees the work, “As a way to offer one possibility for an archive of queer feeling. Sometimes I think these ghostly images (AQE) give connection to our ancestors, and provide a way to imagine ourselves into the past and future.” Images were created by participants lying on the enlarger bed in the darkroom and, through exposure to light, producing a photogram. A photogram is a direct printing technique onto photo sensitive material. The resulting documents hold the mark of the body, the medium specific chemical truth of photographic processes, and the non-indexical abstraction of the created image. These movements between recognition and abstraction, truth and gesture, document and shadow, are all important ways to consider the queer archive as a place of opacity and visibility.
(Text from Tantramar Active Living and Culture publicity)
The interpretive signage in each of the five locations states;
The Archive of Queer Embrace is a method for gestures of queer intimacy and touch to become legitimate historical documents.
The Archive of Queer Embrace believes that archives (as they currently exist and have historically existed) need more heterogeneity, more intervention, more ephemera, more imagination, more mess.
The Archive of Queer Embrace strives to move the documents of an archive into the space of lived experience— a shared environment where bodies work, play, eat, walk, and understand themselves, in relation.
The Archive of Queer Embrace celebrates both visibility and opacity as necessary strategies in the shifting creation of identity and existence.
The interviews recorded while doing photogram portraits will be later aired on Sackville radio station CHMA, and a free publication will be launched in 2026/7, as part of the project. ReStack would like to acknowledge the support of Mt. Allison Pierre Lassonde Visiting Artist Residency, the Studio Art faculty of Mt. Allison, RC Good fellowship from Denison University, Mt. Allison student interns, the over fifty local people who participated in the project, and the traditional and unceded indigenous land of the Mi'kmaq Nation, which holds the images. "
"Permanent display installation Tantramar Parks" claims Ms. Wilson.
More here: upcoming — Sheilah [Wilson] ReStack — Sheilah Restack — Sheilah Wilson Restack
Looking for participants in Archive of Queer Embrace
Call for Sackville and Surrounding Area:
My name is Sheilah ReStack — I am a queer artist raised in Nova Scotia (alumni of Mt. Allison :) and currently living in Columbus, Ohio. I teach at Denison University and am on leave for the semester to be artist in residence at Mt. Allison Purdy Crawford Center for the Arts.
I am working on the Archive of Queer Embrace, a long-term project gathering portraits of queer touch, and placing them into public space. It is important to me that the community itself from here be the ones who are infiltrating this space.
To this end, I am looking for queer/gay / lesbian/ nonbinary folks in the area (and anyone who can get to Sackville) who would be willing to have their photogram* portrait taken in the darkroom at Mt. Allison over the next month, with someone/something they love.
I grew up in rural Nova Scotia, and I have long been interested in how to articulate and make visible rural, queer experience and existence. I would (ultimately) like to have these images infiltrate public space in some way, and there is support from the town of Sackville for that to occur. You can always choose to participate in the photogram and then decide not to present the image in public.
I would like to invite to join me in the darkroom at Mount Allison to make a photogram. The time commitment is about ½ hour with your partner(s), people and/or objects you love. Please reach out with any questions.
*(A photogram is a camera-less photographic technique that creates a direct print by shining enlarger light onto objects (or people, in this case). Participants will be provided with 8.5 x 11 prints of the images.
Please contact me to book at slot: sheilahrestack@gmail.com or T. 614 531 7553
More here on "pride" and "queer" celebrations in Canada with an Emo Ontario story:
Emo mayor Harold McQuaker files for re-election - NWONewsWatch.com
Have we reached Peak Clown World Yet? No.
More here:
more here:
McQuaker returns funds to municipality after reprimand and pay suspension by Emo council
First "Pride" celebrations and parade locally on campus and at the Town Hall were held in October 2015 - Mount Allison University MASU leading the way... photography below by THE Indie Media Eastcoast.. we've come a long way baby.. what a "pride" filled country we are!
More here: Ontario Town Fined $15K for Not Celebrating Pride Month | TikTok
"This episode of Runnymede Radio is the first half of a two-part series on the Borderland Pride v. Township of Emo case before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.
Part I features an original interview with Doug Judson, lawyer and applicant in the proceedings against Emo Township and Mayor Harold McQuaker, following the Tribunal’s 2024 decision ordering damages after the Township refused requests to proclaim Pride Month and display a Pride flag.
Judson discusses the background to the dispute, the Tribunal’s finding that Emo Township and its mayor discriminated against Borderland Pride, and the broader legal issues raised by the case.
The conversation explores the legal test for discrimination under Ontario’s Human Rights Code, the Tribunal’s finding of bad faith against Mayor McQuaker, and broader constitutional and democratic questions concerning municipal governance, freedom of expression, and symbolic political decision-making."
May 27, 2026 Josh Dehaas with CCF - Part 2 here: Emo Township, Part II: Rethinking the Tribunal Decision – Runnymede Society
"This episode of Runnymede Radio is the second half of a two-part series on the Borderland Pride v. Township of Emo case before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.
In 2024, the Tribunal ordered Emo Township and Mayor Harold McQuaker to pay damages after the Township refused requests to proclaim Pride Month and display a Pride flag.
Part II features an original interview with Josh Dehaas, Interim Litigation Director at the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) and counsel for the CCF in its intervention in the Emo Township case.
Dehaas critically examines the Tribunal’s reasoning and discusses the freedom of expression, compelled speech, and democratic decision-making concerns raised by the case.
The conversation explores the relationship between freedom of expression and anti-discrimination law, including the role of “Charter values” in administrative decision-making, the implications of the Ward and Whatcott decisions, and broader constitutional questions surrounding compelled expression, human dignity, and municipal democracy.
The discussion also examines the judicial review proceedings now underway, and the legal framework courts may apply in evaluating the Tribunal’s reasoning."
More here on Bill Whatcott: Canadian LGBT 'lawfare' against Bill Whatcott continues
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