Heidi Barkun

Heidi Barkun explores constructions of identity through a transdisciplinary art practice, seen through a feminist and scientific lens. Her art is informed by a personal history marked by medical interventions due to chronic illness. The focus on infertility in her recent work follows six years of failed attempts at in vitro fertilization.

At RE:SOUND, Heidi is doing an English performance of her sound work Quantified Failure (the recorded French version is available at a listening station). She will also give a presentation entitled Here I am not a Woman: Quantifying the Failure of In Vitro Fertilization, as part of Track 3 - Session 3.10, Spoken Boundaries: Voice Studies + Gender/Sexuality + Race/Origin II.

Heidi is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Visual & Media Arts and Feminist Studies at Université du Québec à Montreal (UQAM), Canada, where she received numerous scholarships including the Claude-Courchesne scholarship for Visual & Media Arts, and the Anita-Caron scholarship for Feminist Studies. Barkun is the 2018-19 recipient of the Réseau québecois en études feminist (RéQEF)-UQAM master’s scholarship for excellence from the Quebec Network for Feminist Studies. She has presented her art and her research in Canada, Europe and the United States. Her master’s thesis exhibition, LET’S GET YOU PREGNANT! opens at the Galerie de l’UQAM in February, 2020.