Blackflash 42.2

"October 2025

Editorial Note: Domestic Crisis

At first glance, you might be surprised by what’s not in this issue. Absent are some of the usual lodestones of domesticity: overt references to parenting, gender roles, or household labour. Martha Rosler’s Semiotics of the Kitchen makes a brief appearance, but only as a foil. Yet, even without explicit citation, the framing of this issue is undeniably indebted to the feminist and queer canons of art and literature. The classic Second Wave slogan, “the personal is political,” ricochets across many of the texts here. If by now, the phrase feels self-evident (cliché even), its realization remains imperfect. In a digital landscape that incentivizes oversharing, the line between empathy and voyeurism feels increasingly blurred.

Just as the issue was beginning to take shape, Canada, like much of the world, was swept into a fresh wave of protectionism, sparked by threats of U.S. tariffs and spearheading a fever pitch of atypical nationalism. Several of the works in this issue consider how the domestic is shaped not only by private life but also by global currents, family histories, and consumer goods, nudging at the conditions that shape how we live, where we live, and with whom we choose to share our lives..."

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