Installation and Workshop, Nuit Rose Festival , The 519 Community Centre, Toronto, 2026
The trillium is the official flower of Ontario and has been used as the province’s logo since 1964. This flower has also become a symbol of queerness and bisexuality. The trillium is a self-pollinating plant that has both male stamens and female pistils. These plants were identified as “bisexual” by botanists in the 19th Century. Reflecting this, the Mexican Bi Pride flag, designed by Francisco Javier Lagunes Gaitán and Miguel Ángel Corona, incorporating a trillium, debuted in Mexico City’s Pride parade in 2002.
In 2006, the Liberal Government of Ontario hired Bensimon Byrne agency to design a new logo. The highly stylized logo was described by then NDP MPP Peter Kormos as resembling “three men in a hot tub”. Once seen, it cannot be unseen. Sadly, the PC government replaced our sexy logo in 2019.
Ants help trilliums reproduce through a process called myrmecochory. As they travel, ants eat the seeds’ coating and discard the seeds widely. The result is a beautiful, dense ground cover of flowers, called a drift.
The theme of the 2026 Nuit Rose Festival of Queer Art, was rewilding. I facilitated a workshop where participants used stencils to recreate the logo and fill these gallery wall. Like ants, together we created a trillium drift.
Thanks to The Throbbing Rose Collective, John Rubino, The 519, Malka Greene, Lareese Hall, Deborah Kenley, and Jessica Thompson.
