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Sediment: the archive as a fragmentary base
Louis Henderson, Bring Breath to the Death of Rocks, 2018. Installation view of the exhibition Sediment: The Archives as a Fragmentary Base. Exhibition curated by Denise Ryner at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, 2023. Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro
Installation view of the exhibition Sediment: The Archives as a Fragmentary Base. Exhibition curated by Denise Ryner at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, 2023. Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro
Sandra Brewster, Token (Medicinal Herbs), from the series Token, 2019. Installation view of the exhibition Sediment: The Archives as a Fragmentary Base. Exhibition curated by Denise Ryner at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, 2023. Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro
Pamila Matharu, INDEX (SOME OF ALL PARTS), 2022. Installation view of the exhibition Sediment: The Archives as a Fragmentary Base. Exhibition curated by Denise Ryner at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, 2023. Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro
Krista Belle Stewart, Seraphine, Seraphine, 2014. Installation view of the exhibition Sediment: The Archives as a Fragmentary Base. Exhibition curated by Denise Ryner at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, 2023. Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro
Filipa César, Spell Reel, 2017. Installation view of the exhibition Sediment: The Archives as a Fragmentary Base. Exhibition curated by Denise Ryner at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, 2023. Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro
Installation view of the exhibition Sediment: The Archives as a Fragmentary Base. Exhibition curated by Denise Ryner at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, 2023. Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro
Open

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.