Meet the DJs of our 37th Annual Juried Exhibition, ‘Chrysalis’
Scarborough Arts is back with our 37th Annual Juried Exhibition: Chrysalis. Scarborough artists showed up with a beautiful array of artworks spanning visual arts, photography, and writing! We are also pleased to introduce our DJs who will be curating an 80s Disco-themed selection of funky music stylings.
Gnanushan Krishnapillai
Gnanu is a community worker, researcher and beatmaker, looping and mashing his way through the archives. He rewinds and fast forwards, sampling and layering ghosts (stories) and prophecies (theories), hoping to connect and center marginalized histories. He is inspired by his hometown of Scarborough, where he grew up watching community members engage in development, activism, and mutual aid without institutional support.
Born in Black and gay dance floors in the United States, disco music transformed fashion, dancing, and pop music around the world. This futuristic and ecstatic art form blew through speakers from Manila to Mogadishu before succumbing to 80's commercialism and conservatism. But, in Scarborough's diasporic enclaves, hidden in plain sight is a whole living history of disco ravers and bell-bottom wearers. Ask your parents and grandparents, what does disco mean to them? What would an alternate reality of a 1970's Scarborough with a diaspora disco scene feel like?
Thevya Balendran
Thevya Balendran (she/her) is an Eelam Tamil community worker and aspiring local DJ, which cultivated from a love for curating playlists as a form of storytelling. She was gifted a mixer from her friends as encouragement to explore her creativity and hopes to tap into her experiences growing up in Scarborough to craft mixes that sound and feel like home. Apart from music, Thevya passionately combines her education with her commitment to decolonization and community care. Her work is rooted in exploring themes of displacement, identity, and survival in diasporic and racialized communities. She plans to continue curating vibes for all welcoming ears to enjoy.
This project is in partnership with The City of Toronto, Ontario Arts Council, and Delta Downsview.