SHAPESHIFTERS // Carmen Levy-Milne
A curatorial essay by Carmen Levy-Milne on SHAPESHIFTERS, featuring the work of Kendell Yan, Chris Reed, and Romi Kim.
“You do not have to compromise parts of yourself to exist in a vessel” [1]
-Coyote Park, Heart of a Shapeshifter
In SHAPESHIFTERS, the collaborative artist trio Kendell Yan, Chris Reed, and Romi Kim explore the intersections of queer monsters inspired by myths and stories from their unique cultures. A common thread woven through Chinese, Cree, and Korean folklore is the notion of shapeshifters, beings that can transform themselves from one physical form into another. Including a series of lenticular printed photographs, an exploratory film, a performance, and a community-centered workshop, the artists come to this project with stories from their respective heritages while considering the intersections and compatibility between these folktales and their drag personas and gender identities.
Also known by their drag names Maiden China, Continental Breakfast, and SKIM, the artists involved in this exhibition are established and instrumental contributors to the contemporary art scene in “Vancouver.” They can trace their collaborations back to 2017, with an extensive history of co-creating artistic projects, performances, and exhibitions across contemporary art galleries and queer nightlife spaces, including SUM gallery, the Birdhouse, and The Polygon. SHAPESHIFTERS first began in 2023 with a residency at the James Black Gallery. With an already long history of exploring cultural traditions, queer identity, and drag as a critical medium in the field of contemporary art, the residency’s culminating exhibition and performance showcased the trio’s initial jump into dialogue around shapeshifters – inspired by conversations that uncovered the overlapping nature of myths from their distinctive cultures, and how they can provide an entry point into sharing and understanding queer lived experiences.
Today, we continue to witness the rise of anti-Trans legislation and sentiments, endangering lives on both a local and global level – including promises by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to impose legislation that bans gender affirming care for individuals under 17-years-old, and policies that require informing parents of any name and pronoun changes that students request in the classroom, policies that are already in place across Saskatchewan (Bill 137) and New Brunswick (Bill 713). [2] With these legislative endangerments and contemporary urgencies in mind, stories of shapeshifters provide incredibly poignant places to explore and express queer experiences, looking to ancient and constantly shifting mythologies, folklore, and storytelling traditions that speak to how Trans and gender non-conforming people have existed since time immemorial.
Left to right: 바리데기 이야기 알아요? He flew to guide them, 토끼의 간 이야기 들어 봤어요? She hid her liver and ran, 도깨비에 대해 들어본 적 있나요? They started to look like them, lenticular photographs, 2025.
Conceptualized by Kim are three lenticular photo prints encased in handmade frames, each featuring one member of the Shapeshifters collective. With every work containing two images of the artists in various stages of drag, shifting as you walk through the gallery and encountering them at different vantage points, visitors are left to view the two images as they interplay with one another, never quite separated, always overlapping, traversing the in-between. The titles of each work bear both Korean and English names, featuring Korean folktales and questions that Kim wishes to ask viewers before they delve into the individual worlds created in the shifting frames.
Korean goblins, mischievous rabbits, mountain legends, and tricksters abound throughout the works. Different by region, and shifting with each translation and oral retelling, the stories explored in the titles also speak to how these ‘myths’ are in constant flux, transforming as they are passed down to new generations of witnesses. In conversation with drag, the artists consider the artform and the body itself as a vessel from which to embody and contemplate the nature, meanings and lessons that shapeshifters carry.
In 바리데기 이야기 알아요? He flew to guide them (translation, “do you know the story of Baridegi”), SKIM is pictured with their black rimmed gaze piercing through white frills, resembling snow-capped summits. Baridegi, translated to ‘little thrown-away/abandoned one’, recounts the story of the first Korean Shaman and protector of souls; an abandoned 7th daughter, raised by mountains, magpies, and insects; who passes as a man on a seven-year journey through the underworld and back.
The next work, 토끼의 간 이야기 들어 봤어요? She hid her liver and ran (translation, “have you heard the story about the Rabbit’s Liver?”), features Maiden China bathed in red light, and is inspired by the mischievous nature of rabbits in Korean and Chinese folklore. In this re-telling, after being lured to a castle by the Dragon King, who requires her liver as a remedy to his ailments, the rabbit’s lies are what help her to escape back to the forest. From the elusive rabbit, whose quick thinking and tricks allow her to escape the grips of danger, how might we think of ‘passing’ as a means of survival?
The final image in the series, 도깨비에 대해 들어본 적 있나요? They started to look like them, (translation, “have you ever heard about Dokkaebi?”), sees Continental Breakfast surrounded by shadows, with their black garments, resembling oil tresses, cascading down their body and melting into the background. The Dokkaebi, or Korean goblin, is a creature that is often found in dark spaces, known as a shapeshifter and bringer of great fortunes. For Continental Breakfast, Dokkaebi are considered alongside stories of Tricksters that have been passed down from generation to generation – with tales that vary across different Cree communities. Known as beautiful and alluring figures, these Tricksters often make themselves known in rural areas, enticing humans through their otherworldly nature.
fieldmouseoceanwave, experimental video installation, 2025
fieldmouseoceanwave, is an exploratory film that was conceptualised by Yan and visually inspired by Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests that depict hundreds of different individuals from which Andy created “superstars” – a clique of New York City personalities that he promoted and who appeared in his work during the 1960s and 70s. With this visual motif as a launching point, the Shapeshifters’ film showcases six Transgender individuals from a variety of different backgrounds to celebrate the authenticity of transition, and to trouble notions of what kind of lives embody superstardom.
Featuring the interviewees jaye simpson, Whess Harman, Sandrine Umuhoza, Billy Nguyen, Iris Houngbo, and Nyomi Williams, the creation of the film took place in a relaxed shooting environment where participants were free to talk, chat back and forth, and stop and restart as they felt comfortable. Starting with four deep breaths, and taking breaths between each ‘scene’, the interviewees are then asked to explore each prompt by discussing and embodying different feelings, moods, and concepts.
Remnants of Petal Trials, performance by Continental Breakfast, Maiden China and SKIM, roses, plastic gloves, knife, 2025.
Presented at the exhibition opening, and conceptualised by Reed, is Petal trials, a performance that features the three artists in drag and in the context of Alternator’s Main Gallery space. Throughout the performance, the artists reflect on ideas of scarcity and individualism that are ingrained from a young age, especially as you begin to join the workforce and may be subject to the concept of competitive wages and a ‘what’s theirs is not mine’ mentality. As they are shared, gathered into jars, and gifted to audience members, the flower petals that are part of the performance express a need for collectivity – emphasizing how there is no way that it is more beneficial to bear the weight of what we must carry alone.
Whether touching on the running out and limiting of resources, or an imbalance of labour, Petal trials speaks to how we are all victims of the capitalistic systems that are being created and perpetuated around us. As the artists don rubber gloves and gather around a white plinth in the middle of the gallery space, the performance creates a sterile environment akin to those used in galleries and museums for processes of preservation. With the fragility of the flower petals and inevitability of their decay in mind, the artists also look to question the limitations and sustainability of such preservation methods. Thinking of conservation in the realm of the body and our wellbeing, the performance itself emphasizes the necessity of collectivity and support – elements that are often at the core of queer community and found family.
Carmen Levy-Milne (she/her) is a curator and cultural worker born and raised on the unceded land of the xwməθkwəy̓ əm people. As a diasporic Jewish settler, her practice is primarily concerned with the philosophy of tikkun olam (“the repair of the world”), where she sees her work in the arts sphere as responsible for uplifting reparative, decolonial, and critical artistic responses to our broader social, political, and cultural circumstances. She holds an MA in Critical & Curatorial Studies from UBC and a BA in Communication and Cultural Studies with a Minor in Religion and Cultures from Concordia University. Her work has been featured by the AHVA Gallery, the Burnaby Art Gallery, Centre A, Deer Lake Gallery, and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.
Shapeshifters are a multidisciplinary QTIPOC artist collective based on the stolen lands of the xwməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. Romi Kim (they/them) , Chris Reed (they/them), and Kendell Yan (she/they) are close friends, drag performers and accomplices. Also known as SKIM (he/him), Continental Breakfast (they/them) and Maiden China (she/they).
Shapeshifters have been collaborating since 2022. Their artistic practice is rooted in collective care, cultural and community histories, kinship, and queer liberation. Shapeshifters have exhibited work at Sum gallery (2022), the Vancouver Queer Film Festival (2023), James Black Gallery (2023), and Queer Arts Festival (2023).
Footnotes
[1] Park, Coyote. Heart of a Shapeshifter: 2spirit Love Medicine. Queens, NY: GenderFail, 2022.
[2] French, Janette. “Alberta premier says legislation on gender policies for children, youth coming this fall.” CBC News. February 1, 2024. Accessed via https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/danielle-smith-1.7101595