WESTERN FRONT – Feral Domestic

A cloud of red and magenta liquid is suspended underwater, blooming alongside tendrils of underwater plants.

Western Front is pleased to present an exhibition by Dani and Sheilah ReStack, who use video, drawing, and photography to contemplate queer desire, family, and collaboration in a time of planetary crisis.

The exhibition features a multi-channel installation of the video trilogy Feral Domestic (2017–22) and three artist books of drawings, writings, and images related to each work, which together document the artists’ ongoing interest in the domestic as a space of creative possibility.

Bubbles dynamically swirl around a person submerged in a green-hued body of water. Their sleeveless floral sundress bunches up around their waist as they tread.

Dani ReStack stands in front of a white wall, partially illuminated by a spotlight. She turns her face away from the camera. White text reading "Here is the place where you read the letter out loud. The letter I wrote to you with an accusation." is written across the bottom of the still.

Composed of the videos Strangely Ordinary This Devotion (2017), Come Coyote (2019), and Future From Inside (2022), the Feral Domestic trilogy traverses a seven year period in the ReStacks’ relationship as it materializes in their life and work, and intersects with questions of motherhood and reproduction.

Assembled from fragments of documentary footage, and fictional and restaged scenes with family and friends, each work moves dynamically between moments of conflict, desire, communion, joy, and the everyday. This emotional range is coupled with an attention to the natural world and the expressive potentials of colour, sound, movement, and materials—which are repeatedly cut, submerged, spilled, stitched, and buried—to provide proposals for reshaping current conventions towards new possibilities.

The Feral Domestic trilogy screens every hour on the hour during gallery visiting times and runs for a total duration of 53 minutes.

A bare leg bent at the knee is seen under a canopy of blue sheer fabric.

A close-up of a person's face as clear liquid is inserted into their eye with a plastic dropper.

To close the exhibition, an iteration of the artists’ ongoing performance Shameless Light (2016—) will be presented on April 6, 2024. For the performance, queer identified women and non-binary community members have been invited to write love letters, which they will read aloud under red neon lights to create space for queer love as an unruly and generative act.

Presented at Western Front, this exhibition serves as an introduction to the ReStacks’ practice and marks the commencement of their participation in our artists-in-residence program. During their residency, the ReStacks will further the development of a feature length video Stovepipe to the Sun.

About the Artists

Dani and Sheilah ReStack are collaborators. Feral Domestic, the trilogy of videos they made from 2016 to 2022 combines documentary footage from their lives, re-enactments and fantasy sequences for queer feminist imagining of past, present, and future. They live in Columbus, United States with their two daughters and are committed to the domestic as a place of unruly possibility—a portal for emotional logic, fragmentation, and new narratives that allows the quotidian to inform the sublime. Dani is Associate Professor at Ohio State University. Sheilah is Associate Professor at Denison University.

Accessibility

Western Front’s gallery is a ground-floor, wheelchair-accessible space with a partially accessible all-gender bathroom. Further details about visiting and accessibility at Western Front can be found here.

What to expect: The exhibition includes video works with sound and artist books with drawings, photographs and texts, which contain mature content including depictions of sexual acts, surgery, and blood.

Alternative formats: Film transcripts are available upon request at reception.

Dani and Sheilah ReStack, still from Strangely Ordinary this Devotion (2017). Courtesy of the artists.

Dani and Sheilah ReStack, still from Strangely Ordinary this Devotion (2017). Courtesy of the artists.
Dani and Sheilah ReStack, still from Future From Inside (2022). Courtesy of the artists.

Dani and Sheilah ReStack, still from Future From Inside (2022). Courtesy of the artists.
Dani and Sheilah ReStack, still from Come Coyote (2019). Courtesy of the artists.

Dani and Sheilah ReStack, still from Come Coyote (2019). Courtesy of the artists.
Dani and Sheilah ReStack, still from Strangely Ordinary this Devotion (2017). Courtesy of the artists.

Dani and Sheilah ReStack, still from Strangely Ordinary this Devotion (2017). Courtesy of the artists.
Dani and Sheilah ReStack, still from Future From Inside (2022). Courtesy of the artists.

Dani and Sheilah ReStack, still from Future From Inside (2022). Courtesy of the artists.

Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.