Artwork Collection

Intimate Spaces

Intimate Spaces is a limited series that interrogates the stereotypical nature and predictable flow of intimacies depicted in romantic comedies. Pulling from my personal archive of writing as a queer, BIPOC, first-generation Canadian woman, I destabilize the dominant form of heteronormativity. These stories feature other, diverse examples of intimate scenes, alongside romantic ones. They depict how being jolted into this time of isolation has placed new emphasis on our intimate experiences.

Video

Loved: an attachment

Jamie and Adam decide to see each other in a socially-distanced meeting in episode 4, and the ex-couple sink into a familiar rapport. Adam, a gay man, comes off as flustered, only composing himself once the pair move past their small talk. With... More

Video

Love you, bye!

Episode 6 follows Mark to a visit with his grandmother. She delivers heart-felt, personalized advice in response to Mark’s anxieties about his current situation. This episode represents queer imagining as we are unaware as an audience of whether... More

Video

You know I love you, right?

Episode one documents a video call between Caroline, a city dweller in her mid-twenties, and her father, a suburban, working-class family man. The two discuss the current events of March 2020. Caroline expresses her anxieties about the pandemic by... More

Video

ILY

Caroline carries the torch of the storyline into episode 2 which examines her relationship with her roommate and friend Heather. Some time in the first few months of Toronto’s quarantine, the two are watching a romantic comedy when Caroline... More

Video

I love you, too

Episode 5 bounces back to Heather and Caroline in a group setting with Heather’s friends Mark and Libby, queer people in a polyamorous, co-habitative relationship. Caroline behaves presumptuously toward Mark and Libby and oversteps into their... More

Work by

Natalie Chuck

New media, projection, video art

“Unbuilding the heteronormativity of romantic comedies in hopes of working toward a queer future.”