Vanessa Godden (they, them) is a queer Indo-Caribbean and Euro-Canadian artist, educator, and curator. They are based in Tsí Tkarón:to/Toronto, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, including Mississaugas of the Credit, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat peoples. Godden’s transdisciplinary practice explores how personal histories and the body in relation to geographic space can be conveyed through oral and somatic storytelling in art. They draw from their multi-ethnic diasporic experiences to build multi-sensory performances, videos, sound installations, book art pieces, and net-art that unfurl the impacts of trauma on the body, connections to community, and tethers to culture. Godden is a sessional lecturer at the Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Toronto. They are the co-founder of the curatorial collective Diasporic Futurisms. Godden holds a PhD from the Victorian College of the Arts, an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a BFA from the University of Houston.
