Treva Michelle Legassie
PhD Candidate, Communication Studies, Concordia University
2016 – MA, Contemporary Art, Design and New Media Art Histories, OCAD University
2014 – BFA, Art Criticism and Curatorial Practice, OCAD University
Treva Michelle Legassie is an interdisciplinary researcher, curator, artist and a PhD Candidate in Communication Studies at Concordia University. Engaging in curatorial practice as research-creation, her dissertation tends to the many histories and interlocutors of the River Street Bridge in the Lower Don Valley, Tkaronto/Toronto. With attention to feminist, queer and intersectional theory her practice explores curatorial methods for public art located on dynamic and complicated sites. With the increasing sense of urgency in the face of climactic devastation, Legassie’s work asks, how can artists and curators create artworks, exhibitions, and events that engage dynamically with notions of place to propose more just and livable post-Anthropo-/Capitalo-cenic futures.
Legassie is one of the co-founders of the Curatorial Research-Creation Collective at Milieux and Assistant Director of the Speculative Life Cluster. Her writing has been published in Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research, PUBLIC Journal, The Senses & Society, InterARTive, JAWS and AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples. She has also curated new media based exhibitions such as Femynynytees (2018), #NATURE (2016) and Influenc(Ed.) Machines and co-ordinated Cheryl Sim’s YMX: Land and Loss after Mirabel.
Refereed Chapters/Articles:
Legassie, Treva Michelle. “Playing, Performing, Policing: Navigating Avatar Expression in Second Life,” Video Game Art Reader 2.1, 2018. 86-96.
Legassie, Treva Michelle. “Keepers of the Bio Art Laboratory: Mangling Methods and Curating Critically,” RACAR: Special Issue What is Critical Curating? 43.2, 2018. 73-88. Edited by Marie Fraser and Alice Jim.
Pullen, Treva Michelle. “Whimsical Bodies, Performative Machines and Networked Nonhumans: Aesthetics and Affects of Robotic Art,” De Gruyter Open Cultural Studies 1.1, 2017. 514-521.
Pullen, Treva Michelle. “Capricious creatures: Animal behaviour as a model for robotic art,” Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research 15.1, 2017. 53-60.
Pullen, Treva Michelle. “Skawennati’s TimeTraveller™: Deconstructing the Colonial Matrix in Virtual Reality,” ALTERNATIVE: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 12.3, 2016. 236-249.
Pullen, Treva Michelle. “Arcade Fever: Economics, Affect and Interface Design of the 1970s and 1980s Video Arcade,” JAWS: Journal of Arts Writing by Students 2.1, 2016. 43-50.
Curatorial:
2018
Sights of Feeling | Milieux Institute, Montreal, October 19, 2018.
Femynynytees | Arts Visuels Émergents, Montreal, July-August 2018.
2017
SF: Speculative Fictions | Media Gallery, Concordia, December 2017.
YMX: Migration, Lands and Loss after Mirabel | POPOP Gallery, Montreal, April 2017 (exhibition coordinator).
YMX: Migration, Lands and Loss after Mirabel | Media Gallery, Concordia, March 2017 (exhibition coordinator).
Tel Quel/As Is: Montreal Signs Project Recent Acquisitions | Media Gallery, Concordia, February, 2017.
2016
Whimsical Bodies | OCAD University, Toronto, May 4-8, 2016.
#nature: An Installation by Sean Martindale | OCAD University, March 12-14, 2016.
Genderpoo (installation by Coco Guzman) | OCAD University, March 13, 2016.
2015
Threshold | BoxCar Studio, Toronto. October 16-18, 2015.
Lively Objects | Museum of Vancouver, August 16th – October 9, 2015 (curatorial Research Assistant)
GradEx 2015 | OCAD University, April 29th – May 3, 2015.
2014
Influenc(Ed.) Machines | 49 McCaul, November 17-December 2, 2014.
