The Holy Bible: NIV's They Edition (Version 1, March 2019), 2019. Zondervan NIV Holy Bible, Ultra-Fine Point sharpie Permanent Marker in Red, and audio component.
The Holy Bible: NIV’s They Edition (Version 1, March 2019) examines and analyses God’s pronouns in the Holy Bible with a sole focus on “The Old Testament”. For this examination, Canaviri changed every time the Bible referenced to God as a “he” and turned it into a “they”. As someone who grew up being taught that God does not have a specified gender, she have always questioned why God was said to be a “he”. While in pursuit of this work, Canaviri discovered that in the case of romantic languages, God being a “he” makes sense for sentence structure. However, in terms of English (Canaviri's first language), the only substantial reasoning for why God is referred to be a male or masculine is through social convention and through translation. While the translation of the Bible into vernacular was done a few centuries ago, there have been edits to the Bible since but no widely sold Bible has referred to God as a “they”. Thus, the decisions to edit the Bible seemed necessary for her investigation and for the pursuit of my her personal belief.
Your Words, They Weigh, 2019, concrete stone mix, water, chicken wire and canola oil. Rectangular molds constructed out of wood and CNC carved.
The title of this work, Your Words, They Weigh, is meant to describe the burden and panic women feel when reacting to what is being said to them by men they know or have just met. When comments like these are made, there is a sense of entitlement to them by the person who made it. While the person making these comments are saying them in passing and tend not to think twice about it, it leaves a mark on the person receiving it to the point that the words become engraved in their memory. This work serves as a remind for women that they are not alone in these experiences and a reminder to men to know that their words hold an abundance of meaning.
Does your city look like this?, 2018-2019, used "selected" shirts, acrylic white paint and stencils.
Does your city look like this? is a sculptural work meant to investigate the number of stabbings in the City of Brampton starting from September 29, 2015 - this date as marking the first shirt and stabbing of Canaviri's brother. As a way to cope with her new found role in this victim community as the third anniversary of the stabbing arose, she sought after each article acknowledging a stabbing that had occurred in Brampton. Each shirt represents every person stabbed with the title of the article stencilled in white paint by hand. In the selection of these shirts, Canaviri visited the location of the stabbing and combined it with the the description of the victim to create a profile to buy a used shirt for at a local Brampton thrift store. As more stabbings occur in her city, Canaviri's graveyard of shirts grow and call for intervention among local authority.
Number of stabbings as of March 2. 2019: 56
Most Recent: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2019/03/02/man-suffers-life-threatening-injuries-in-brampton-stabbing-2/
Number of stabbings as of March 2. 2019: 56
Most Recent: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2019/03/02/man-suffers-life-threatening-injuries-in-brampton-stabbing-2/
My Religion, it taunts (my apologies), 2018, victorian dual-sided black and red fabric clad on a built, wooden structure with accompanying soundwork played on a speaker.
My Religion, it taunts (my apologies) is based off of the biblical quote of “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalms 22:1). Initially, Canaviri chose this quote because of her own personal conflict with her Catholic heritage in comparison to her relationship with God. Upon first developing this idea, she wanted to build a monument that took its form as a cloth confessional as what was built and the noises it made were her truth at the time. What can be heard is her prayers, her hymns and, very evidently, the desperation in her voice to reconcile her relationship with God that Canaviri believed was damaged by her religion. Thus, arose a seven-foot tall box that is less than two-feet in width and is clad in a Victorian fabric.
Click here to listen to the associate soundwork.
Click here to listen to the associate soundwork.