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Esperance, Western Australia.

© 𝓐𝓵𝓵 𝓡𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼 𝓡𝓮𝓼𝓮𝓻𝓿𝓮𝓭 𝓫𝔂 𝟐 𝓟𝓮𝓮𝓹𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓪 𝓒𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓻𝓪.

(𝒟ℴ𝓊𝒷𝓁ℯ 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝒫ℯℯ𝓅𝓈, 𝒹ℴ𝓊𝒷𝓁ℯ 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓅ℯ𝓇𝓈𝓅ℯ𝒸𝓉𝒾𝓋ℯ!)

#Photo #Photography #2PeepsAndACamera #Australia #WesternAustralia #Esperance #LocalArt #ArtGallery #Sign

REVIEW: A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE STUNTMAN ECONOMY

A Brief Overview of the Stuntman Economy that Governed Society Between 2247-2651 AD Followed by a Relic is the full title of a collaborative project by local artists Lauren Prousky and Jacob Irish. 

The collaboration is a 24-page coil-bound booklet, printed in black and white, with text provided by Prousky and accompanying visual elements contributed by Irish. The first production run was limited to 50 copies which were distributed by Prousky and Irish. 

“[Stuntman Economy] is a quietly tragic satire about how the systemic outsourcing of human experiences distorts and destabilizes the self,”  Prousky said in an overview provided by Irish. 

The project is split into two parts: a “Brief Overview of the Stuntman Economy” and a “relic”, with the relic being a series of journal entries providing insight into the life of a Stuntman. Stuntman Economy presents us with a vision for the front half of our current millennium—2247-2651 precisely. 

Prousky drags the gig economy to its logical conclusion: stunt work. “Stunts” meaning breakups, funerals, arguments; all the things that nobody is stoked to deal with, outsourced to a lower class.  

In the future that Prousky & Irish envision for us, we’ve progressed—in a very linear fashion—far away from trouncing Uber Eats drivers into navigating abominable conditions, towards a world where even the most banal discomforts are contracted out.  

Prousky describes the period preceding the “Stuntman Economy” as one of rapid technological innovation (RTI), where advancements in technology aim to ease the lives of those with the means to leverage them.  

Starting to sound familiar?  

When the demands of the wealthy start to outpace technological growth—“that…wasn’t rapid enough”—the wealthy outsource their dirty laundry to the lower class.  

Throughout the publication, the visual elements provided by Irish encourage disparate elements to coalesce, tying the academic feeling “overview” to the informal “relic” in a holistic way. The images are beautiful and haunting. Pixelated renderings inevitably evoke the retro-futuristic optimism associated with the internet before the dot com bubble exploded.  

They also work fantastically with the medium, and really blossom towards the end of the publication where a rendering of a poster is reproduced across a full page and mirrored onto the opposite side of the spread:  

“REMEMBER YOU’RE AT WORK” 

Stuntman Economy is equal parts ambition and restraint. The scope is defined by the format of the publication, but this limitation works mostly in favour of the work.  

At its best, the project is highly evocative, casually hinting at a robust and well thought out universe.  

At its most basic, Stuntman Economy reads like a proof of concept that could translate neatly into a variety of different mediums.  

Ultimately, it is the collaborative efforts of both Irish and Prousky that allow Stuntman Economy to coalesce into something much greater than the sum of its parts.  

While the potential is there for this project to be fleshed out into something like an alternate reality game (ARG) for example, or even just an intriguing work of speculative fiction, it also stands firmly on its own as a unique project undertaken by two noteworthy local creatives.  

More work from Prousky and Irish can be found through their respective Instagram pages: @laurenprousky and @bulgarsalad. 

THE LOCALIST: FEBRUARY 2026 WRAP UP

Softcult—When A Flower Doesn’t Grow  (LP) 

Release Date: Jan. 30, 2026

City: Kitchener 

Genre: Grunge, Shoegaze

After delivering four exciting EPs between 2021 and 2024 and touring extensively during that same time, the sibling duo of Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn have finally released their fantastically hazy debut full-length album. The project explores challenging and sometimes taboo themes such as mental health and misogyny through creatively contemplative and unapologetically honest song writing. 

CHURCH FIGHT— Self-Titled EP (EP)

Release Date: Feb. 13, 2026

City: Cambridge 

Genre: Skate Punk

This brand new five-piece punk rock band comprised of veteran musicians has come hot out of the gate with a high octane three-track debut EP that is guaranteed to incite a brawl. With a blisteringly high tempo consistent across the entire project, the band has put together a collection of aggressively catchy punk songs with intricate melodic guitar riffs as a key focal point. 

Daphne—Jeepers (EP) 

Release Date: Feb. 13, 2026

City: Kitchener 

Genre: Instrumental Pop, R&B

The exciting debut EP release from Daphne is fully instrumental and irresistibly groovy. Blending smooth R&B instrumentation with accessible melodies from popular contemporary music makes for an easy and enjoyable listen. The track list includes four covers: Dua Lipa’s “Levitating”, SZA’s “Snooze”, Justin Bieber’s “SPEED DEMON” and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Tears”.

A Horse Named Friday—Dana & Evelyn (Demo)

Release Date: Feb. 21, 2026

City: Kitchener

Genre: Chamber Folk

Eight raw and emotional live recordings preceded by six carefully delicate studio versions make up the collection of songs on A Horse Named Friday’s latest demo project. This listening experience breathes a sense of fresh perspective into the songs with the addition of the band’s stage banter and audience noise helping the listener to truly connect with the intimacy of the performances. 

KROKA— Have You Lost Your Mind? (Single) 

Release Date: Feb. 26, 2025

City: Kitchener

Genre: Desert Rock

Kroka is a three-piece rock band with a sound that is significantly heavier than expected based on their limited roster size. Their newest single features slow, heavy and fuzz-laden guitars as well as a gritty yet soulful performance from lead vocalist Richard Fenna. The song explores the idea of indulging in our distractions as an act of avoidance and the inevitability that we all must eventually address our problems.

Album artwork sourced from Bandcamp. 

DIRTY WORK STUDIO BRINGS RISOGRAPH PRINTING TO KW

Waterloo Region now has its first risograph print shop, thanks to the team behind Dirty Work Studio.  

The four studiomates, Sid Drmay, Elise Glaser, Shalaka Jadhav and Natalie Vuong, came together through what they describe as a mutual interest in creating a space where visual artists can gather to develop their printing and publishing skills with peers. 

The initial idea for Dirty Work Studio came about when Jadhav and Drmay attended a studio sale put on by the previous tenants—a pair of artists who have since moved out East. 

“Sid and I, at different points in the afternoon [had come] by. We saw the space, sort of had the same idea and got really excited about the potential,” Jadhav said. 

Around the same time that the studio space became available, Drmay was also in the middle of acquiring a SF5130 risograph printer via a connection in Montreal. 

“Risographs are a print method that uses an ink drum and soy-based ink, that basically uses a stencil method to push ink through the stencil and print onto the page, and you can do a lot really quickly,” Drmay said.  

“It’s really popular with art prints, because you can do so much to add depth to your print,” they said. 

“For example, with inkjet printing, it combines the different colours as it’s putting it on, whereas with [risograph printing], each [ink] drum is the colour. So, you can get really vibrant colours that you wouldn’t get with traditional print methods,” Vuong said. 

Outside of Dirty Work Studio, all four studiomates are heavily involved with local arts organizations and community groups within the region.

Glaser manages the independent magazine collection at Disko Coffee. Drmay runs KW Zinetopia and the Hamilton Zine Machine. As part of her freelance graphic design work, Vuong handles design and social media for Roux Bakehouse. Jadhav is a member of the Creek Collective, KW Zinetopia and is also a writer-in-residence for CAFKA.25.  

“I was coming from Seattle, and within the first month, there was a zine fair that Sid was running which was just right up my alley,” Glaser said. 

“I feel really lucky to have met everyone. There’s a really vibrant arts community here,” she said. 

Beyond its function as a print shop, the studiomates hope to cultivate Dirty Work Studio as a catch-all space to support programming and events.  

“All of us, we come from print, community organizing, makerspaces,” Jadhav said.  

“It started off as a co-working space and a print studio, but the past few weeks [there has been] a lot of programming. Having informal spaces for creative community [to] get together is how interesting work and collaborations can happen,” they said.  

“On average in a month, we’re looking to have at least five or six events. I’ve got a monthly cyber-thriller movie night, [Elise] has her monthly lecture series, there’s a deplatforming series going on right now. At this point we have a few things lined up where we’re providing space for folks doing different things, working with them to make their events successes too,” Drmay said. 

“As much as we love working here and having that workspace, it is also really important to all of us to be able to have folks in here and run fun things, bring people together, because I think we’re all very passionate about having that kind of space here,” they said.  

The studio is not currently categorized as a non-profit and is therefore operating without any public funding, although they are eligible for some grants.  

“This is a labour of love. We currently don’t have any funding to this work. We were very lucky at our launch to get donations,” Jadhav said.  

“For this to be more sustainable, it would be amazing to have more support from the community.” 

Dirty Work Studio is open for risograph printing as of this past February and can be contacted for quotes at [email protected].  

News about upcoming programming can be found on their Instagram  
@dirtyworkstudio. 

This article has been updated to reflect the following facts : It was Drmay, not Jadhav who purchased the printer; the earlier version of this article stated that the studio cannot be categorized as a non-profit—this is incorrect as they could be classified as one after going through the legal process.

This Sunday, I was so lucky to part of the lineup for spec theatre’s the Strange Hour!

https://haskashaunt.com/2026/02/23/my-presentation-on-the-strange-hour-feb-22nd-2026/ #YYJ #LocalArt #Hope

COMMUNITY THROUGH KOLLECTIVE

At Kollective Studios, community is among their core tenants alongside creativity, choreography and just a little bit of chaos. Among Kitchener- Waterloo’s newest creative ventures, the Kollective Studios partnership introduced Kollective Kreations, a crafting space that focuses on the art of decoden. Decoden is derived from the Japanese words for decoration (deco) and phone (den). Known for its over-the-top cute designs, decoden is a DIY craft using whipped cream-inspired glue and adorablecharms to decorate items like phone cases, Polaroid frames and accessories.

Their grand opening weekend for their new venture took place over the weekend of Jan. 9 to 11, 2026. Community members came out en masse to try their hand at decoden and to support business duo Kezea Shayne Gamboa and Alex Duong.

Following up the successful launch of their dance studio Kollective Khaos on Aug. 22, 2025, the two are now offering alternative creative outlets to their dancers as well as the wider Waterloo Region audience.

As an immigrant who came to Canada from the Philippines with her family in 2017, Gamboa always found that community was a big part of her life. Being able to foster a creative community in a leadership role has been a lifelong dream of Gamboa’s, starting in high school where she choreographed dances and taught them to her classmates.

“I really want to build a community where it’s filled with different stories, different backgrounds and different types of creativity,” Gamboa said. Gamboa and Duong met in 2023, in one of Gamboa’s K-pop dance classes. They quickly became friends through the environment that Gamboa cultivated in her classes, with post-class group dinners to Korean BBQ.

Duong loved the atmosphere so much that he began encouraging Gamboa to open her own studio and further expand her ethos to more than just her own classes.

“That’s where Kollective Khaos dance comes from. We want everyone to feel like they’re part of it and that they’re not just coming for dance class. It’s a safe space and a place where you can feel empowered to be yourself or discover new parts of yourself,” Duong said. Gamboa’s ambitions were not just limited to the dance studio either; on weekends the dance studio used to sit empty, but now Saturdays and Sundays host bustling decoden workshops, allowing folks to come out and try a different kind of creativity.

“When people ask for my advice on how to get over a choreography creativity block, I always tell people to do something else. Do something else that fires up that creativity that’s not dancing,” Gamboa said. “

It really helped me a lot with my creativity blocks and then, because you’re still using your brain, it’s just not on the one thing that you’re stressing about. It’s like a different type [of creativity] and it’s making your brain happy again and allowing it to breathe,” she said.

At its core, Kollective Studios is all about community and connection. For both Gamboa and Duong, without opportunities to socialize together outside of class, they wouldn’t have some of the meaningful relationships they do now. Every month the studio holds a movie night in their space which they pair with a themed dance routine. In January, they watched Bring It On: All or Nothing and learned a routine with guest instructor Sky Pahl, Canadian Football League and National Lacrosse League cheerleader and dancer.

“[It’s] a great time, because we have like a little slumber party almost, so we get to talk to each other … we get to hang around, we get to laugh at the movie and talk about it. I think that’s a huge thing with building community, and I think we’ve had a good response,” Duong said.

Kollective Studios offers multi-week sessions and drop-in dance classes from Monday to Friday in the evenings. On weekends, Kreations runs from noon to 6 p.m. and offers a multitude of accessories for crafters to customize. The studio is moving on Feb. 8 from their current location at 275 Larch St. in Waterloo to a bigger space at 259 King St. W., Unit 203 in Kitchener.

THE LOCALIST: JANUARY 2026

Local Goblin—“Write My Story” (Single) 

Release Date: Jan. 9, 2026

City: Waterloo 

Genre: Metal

Local Goblin’s newest song comes on the heels of their debut single, “Forklift Certified”, which was released on Dec. 12, 2025. With the entirety of the band consisting of University of Waterloo students, there is a refreshing, youthful energy to their sound. Both of Local Goblin’s singles incorporate inspiration from a variety of genres such as nu metal, death metal and grunge.  

FRANKIE FLOWER—”VELVET COLLAPSE” 

(Single) 

Release Date: Jan. 21, 2026

City: Waterloo 

Genre: Alternative

Beginning with only jangly guitars and a soft vocal delivery, “VELVET COLLAPSE” showcases a lofi pop sound that feels like floating through a nostalgic daydream. FRANKIE FLOWERS makes the decision to boldly withhold any percussion until halfway through the song, leaving space for the vocals and lyrics to truly shine.  

Red Orkestra—Letters From Afar (LP) 

Release Date: Feb. 2, 2026

City: Waterloo 

Genre: Alternative, Folk

Originally formed by singer-songwriter Johnny Charmer in 2003, Red Orkestra returns with their seventh album, Letters From Afar, where they explore themes of love, longing, hope and resistance. Packed full of thoughtful and poignant lyricism, the band injects feelings of intimacy and political passion across the entirety of the ten-song track list. 

Living Room for Small—“wastemytwenties.3AM” 

(Single) 

Release Date: Jan. 15, 2026

City: Waterloo

Genre: Alternative, Pop

The alt-pop trio Living Room For Small have reimagined their song “WASTE MY TWENTIES”, which was originally released as part of their 2024 album PRETTY LITTLE DROP DEAD GORGEOUS. This new version is gentler and slower, and spacey by comparison. The production changes more clearly highlight the feelings of introspection and existentialism within the lyrics. 

Red Output—“Mud Wit Burz” (Single) 

Release Date: Dec. 21, 2025

City: Kitchener

Genre: Indie Rock, Post Punk

The first single from Red Output’s forthcoming EP, “Mud Wit Burz” is a high-tempo vocal tongue twister with an infectious energy that necessitates getting up and dancing. The band describes their song as a “big celebration of Love” that is meant to evoke the feeling of dancing at a concert with your friends.  

Album artwork sourced from Bandcamp.