Quentin VerCetty

Quentin VerCetty is a graduate of OCAD University (formally known as Ontario College of Art and Design University). His work speaks to the current state of Blackness and imagines ways to advance towards an anti-oppressive, anti-racist future. Working within the realms of Afrofuturism motif, he has co-organized and co-curated the programming for Black Future Month events and art exhibits in the Greater Toronto Area from 2015-2017, expanding to reach an international audience and roster of presenters as founder of the Canadian chapter for the Black Speculative Arts Movement. As an educator VerCetty works closely with youth promoting the use of art as technologies to create social change. He uses cutting-edge media such as holographic projection and digital printed sculpture to create works that challenge ideas of who is made visible or invisible while addressing issues of representation, youth inclusion, (im)migration, mobility, and alienation. [vercetty.com]

Site credits: Quentin Vercetty created the AAPR homepage image and the AAPR stencil images. Homepage image: Water No Get Enemy 3017,  June 2017, Digital Print or CGI (computer-generated image).


Think Tomorrow Installation Display

Artist: Quentin VerCetty

This piece, created by Quentin VerCetty, will engage with Afrofuturism to think about a world in which it is understood that racial appropriation is unacceptable and disapproved of by the society. This piece consists of two interactive digital lenticular print product advertisements from an imaginary government organization called F.A.A.D.E.T.I.N.G.G. (Federal Agency Against Discrimination Everywhere Task-force; Innovating Novelty Gadgets Globally) tasked with educating about, and preventing, blackface, anti-blackness, and racial discrimination. Its slogan would be “Think Tomorrow Today - We Are Just One Swipe Away - From An Anti-Oppressive Sector/ Making Change One Swipe At Time”.

The two products being promoted are imaginary devices for the detection of racial appropriation and anti-blackness which can also be used as a digital encyclopedia to teach and understand the dangers and effects of anti-blackness and racial appropriation and how insensitive acts can cause harm to others and adversely affect future generations. 3D print models of the devices will be on display on plinths along with propaganda poster ads scattered around it.  

October 23, all day, McGill University | October 25, all day, Queen's University | October 27, all day, Wilfrid Laurier University | October 30, all day, Ontario College of Arts and Design University


Future Memories Workshop:

Artist: Quentin VerCetty

This discussion-based session will encourage participants to use the Afrofuturist imagination inspired by VerCetty's Think Tomorrow installation to envision blackface as an obsolete manifestation of anti-black racism of a bygone era. Participants will dialogue around blackface and its eradication: should it be remembered and taught in schools or eradicated from history? Should it be harshly criminalized post-eradication? What possible impacts could this have on different populations and what would this mean for universal social justice? Partakers will be encouraged to document their thoughts and feelings and in turn, incorporate them into potential propaganda ads or testimonies for the imaginary future government organization called F.A.A.D.E.T.I.N.G.G. (Federal Agency Against Discrimination Everywhere Task-force; Innovating Novelty Gadgets Globally). The pieces will then be placed into a time-capsule to be buried on campus grounds.

October 23, 12:30-2pm, McGill University | October 25, 2-3:30pm, Queen's University | October 27, 12-1:30pm, Wilfrid Laurier University | October 30, 2-4 pm, Ontario College of Arts and Design University

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