Call the Names draws on folktales about unstable landscapes—highlands, tundras, and bogs—where shifting snow and falling darkness could bewilder travellers into losing their way on the road. In stories from 18th century England and Sweden, the disorientation a wanderer felt in these places would be attributed to a monstrous or supernatural presence on the land. From undead revenants to trickster spirits, these monsters expressed cultural anxieties of the time, and reinforced the danger of straying too far from the embrace of home.
Call the Names revisits these stories in an atmosphere of rising social and political violence against trans people. In the news, we are both threat and threatened—the monsters lying in wait in the bathrooms, and the victims of disproportionate rates of violence. By seeking alliances with monsters and the unstable landscapes that shelter them, we uncover strategies of refuge for trans life.
In each work from the Call the Names series, image and text draw us toward these landscapes. In Call the Names I, we watch from the sea ice on the outskirts of a remote Antarctic research station (a photo taken by the artist’s father Simon in 1989). The text fragments in each work ask us to align ourselves with the more-than-human forces on the land: the shifting rocks, the falling darkness, and the spirits that call us off the beaten path.
In each work from the Call the Names series, image and text draw us toward these landscapes. In Call the Names I, we watch from the sea ice on the outskirts of a remote Antarctic research station (a photo taken by the artist’s father Simon in 1989). The text fragments in each work ask us to align ourselves with the more-than-human forces on the land: the shifting rocks, the falling darkness, and the spirits that call us off the beaten path.
Call the Names I
City of Vancouver
Launchpad 2026 Public Art Series
with Simon Peacock
City of Vancouver
Launchpad 2026 Public Art Series
with Simon Peacock
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