February 4th – April 1st, 2023
Sediment: The Archive as a Fragmentary Base
Sandra Brewster, Filipa César, Justine A. Chambers, Louis Henderson, Pamila Matharu, Krista Belle Stewart.
Curator : Denise Ryner
Opening: Saturday February 4th, 3 – 5 PM
Tour by Denise Ryner, Saturday February 4th, 2 PM – 3 PM, in English
Justine A. Chambers will perform Heirloom on Saturday March 11th at 3 PM. In the Gallery’s large front window in the atrium
Where were you in ’92?, a project by Pamila Matharu, is featured at Optica until April 1st. Matharu is also participating in the exhibition Desire Lines. Displaced Narratives of Place at Artexte until March 25th.
Sedimentation is a geological process of settlement and solidification. Free-floating fragments come to rest at the bottom of a body of water where over time they lose their liquid content. Then gravitational pressure transforms these fragments into solid rock beds that not only become a firm base, but each layer serves as records of human and natural activity.
In order to re-imagine archives as material fragments that narrate presences, proximities and solidarities that persist as fissures in colonial ordering, this exhibition gathers the work of artists that represent movements against empire or movements along routes established in the wake of empire in terms of their text and image archives, and how such archives are configured into sedimentary bases upon which new identities, nations or diasporas may build and image themselves. Featuring film, video, photo and performance-based works by Sandra Brewster, Filipa César, Justine A. Chambers, Louis Henderson, Pamila Matharu, Krista Belle Stewart.
BIOGRAPHY
Denise Ryner is an independent curator and writer who has worked in Berlin and Vancouver. From 2017 through May 2022 she was Director/Curator of Or Gallery, Vancouver where she developed and presented a robust programming cycle of exhibitions, symposia and publications including the discursive project, Unmoored, Adrift, Ashore in collaboration with Anselm Franke, Jamie Hilder and Jordan Wilson, featured on in the series “Classroom” on the international platform Art&Education. Her current curatorial, research and writing interests include place-as-agent and transnational proximities and counterflows as a context for cultural production. Recent projects include: Sensing of the Wound: Whess Harman and Pamila Matharu (Or Gallery, Vancouver) and Ceremony: Burial of An Undead World (HKW, Berlin) co-curated with Anselm Franke, Elisa Giuliano, Claire Tancons and Zairong Xiang.
Sedimentation is a geological process of settlement and solidification. Free-floating fragments come to rest at the bottom of a body of water where over time they lose their liquid content. Then gravitational pressure transforms these fragments into solid rock beds that not only become a firm base, but each layer serves as records of human and natural activity.
In order to re-imagine archives as material fragments that narrate presences, proximities and solidarities that persist as fissures in colonial ordering, this exhibition gathers the work of artists that represent movements against empire or movements along routes established in the wake of empire in terms of their text and image archives, and how such archives are configured into sedimentary bases upon which new identities, nations or diasporas may build and image themselves. Featuring film, video, photo and performance-based works by Sandra Brewster, Filipa César, Justine A. Chambers, Louis Henderson, Pamila Matharu, Krista Belle Stewart.