QUEER NEWFOUNDLAND HOCKEY LEAGUE (QNHL)

The CubeCraig Willms2023

Jan 10

Lucas Morneau

The Cube
January 14 to April 1, 2023

Curated by Craig Willms

Playfully and provocatively challenging the prevalence of homophobia and hyper-masculinity in the culture of team sports, Lucas Morneau’s Queer Newfoundland Hockey League (QNHL) proposes 14 fictional teams that reclaim, empower, and amplify LGBTQIA2S+ voices (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Two-Spirit, and the countless affirmative ways in which people choose to self-identify). With team names that include the St. John’s Sissies, Bonavista Buggers, and Ferryland Fairies, Morneau subverts pejoratives used against the LGBTQIA2S+ community, paired with places historically associated with senior hockey league teams in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Each team is represented by a hand-crocheted and rug-hooked jersey, a doily goalie mask, and a hockey card modeled by men, women, and gender-nonconforming players. The colours and jersey design reference senior teams associated with rural hockey leagues and now out-of-fashion National Hockey League team colours. The doily goalie masks reference Jacque Plante, who is considered the first goalie to wear a mask after suffering a serious facial injury. Plante was initially ridiculed for wearing a mask by players and fans who questioned his bravery and manhood. Over time wearing a mask became the norm and the narrative flipped; goalies would no longer be considered “brave” or “more of a man” for not wearing a mask. Morneau also offers a critical re-reading of female-gender stereotypes through material and imagery choices that reference the idea of “women’s work.”

Through QNHL, Morneau attempts to reclaim the derogatory comments often heard on the ice, in “locker room talk,” and off the ice towards those players who do not adhere to the unspoken masculine code often found in team sports. Morneau challenges the “old school” idea that athletes must act without emotion, must not draw attention to themselves ahead of the team, and must toe the line and keep things in the locker room. This project points to the unwritten rules and “back in my day, the right way” mentality that tends to dominate sports and so-called social norms.

By re-presenting jerseys, goalie masks, and hockey cards in this way, Morneau aims to deconstruct prevailing attitudes about the relationship between sports and the LGBTQIA2S+ community while bringing awareness to toxic behaviour both on and off the ice in sports culture, and beyond.

The Artist

Lucas Morneau is a queer interdisciplinary artist and curator of English-Newfoundlander and French-Québeçois European settler descent from Ktaqamkuk (Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada). They received their Bachelor of Fine Arts at Memorial University, Grenfell Campus, Corner Brook, Newfoundland, in 2016, and their Master of Fine Arts at University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 2018. They have received multiple awards, including the 2016 BMO First Art Award for Newfoundland and Labrador and the 2018 Cox & Palmer Pivotal Point Grant. Their work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, ArtsNL, and ArtsNB.

Through drag and masquerade, Morneau has created an alter-ego, The Queer Mummer, to explore gender performativity and to address hegemonic masculinity and its effect on gender expression and identity. Their practice employs several mediums, including photography, fibre art, performance, video, installation, printmaking, and sculpture.