THE COMMUNITY IS THE GALLERY: “THREE-THIRTY” AT THE DORIS MCCARTHY GALLERY AND BEYOND

Exhibition Reviews | Rachel Deiterding

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While online exhibitions have become the new norm over the past year, there are many exhibitions and media that are not easily transformed for the digital world. Despite this, galleries such as the Doris McCarthy Gallery (DMG) have continued to engage audiences with their in-person offerings without any bodies passing through the gallery space. 

On October 3rd the DMG opened their first exhibition since their unexpected closure due to COVID-19 in March. Three-Thirty, curated by Scarborough native Anique Jordan, features work by Aaron Jones, Kelly Fyfe-Marshall, and Ebti Nabag. For a few short weeks, visitors were able to visit the exhibition in person before the gallery closed its physical space again to limit the transmission of COVID-19. Elements of the exhibition resisted being transformed into an online format. Kelly Fyfe-Marshall’s three-channel video POWER asks Scarborough community members “what does power look like for you in the midst of this moment of revolution?” The conversation that it presents calls for a three-dimensional interaction with the videos as the viewer is swept into the conversation from multiple directions. Creative curatorial approaches that focused on public art and making the exhibition accessible for, and in fact a part of, the wider Scarborough community, allowed some elements of the exhibition to continue to thrive at a distance.

Kelly Fyfe-Marshall, POWER (still from three-channel video installation), 2020. Image: Toni Hafkenscheid. [Source]

As a whole, Three-Thirty focuses on the after-school hour to explore the way that young people assert their authority and more generally, how power is constructed and manipulated in particular spaces. The exhibition is concerned with how individuals influence their environments when they are told that they do not have the power to do so. While the gallery portion of the exhibition is presented at the DMG, Three-Thirty, is also made up of satellite installations at Malvern Public Library and Lester B. Pearson Collegiate which features monumental murals installed on the exterior of each structure. 

These exterior elements kept the exhibition alive in the COVID-19 era, however, they were not built into the exhibition to help keep us apart, but rather to bring the community together. Aaron Jones, worked with the Rita Cox Black and Caribbean Heritage Collection to develop Seeing Knowledge, a series of collages that reflect on alternative models of classifying and building knowledge based in the body and ancestral worlds. The collages were combined to create the 23-foot mural that adorns Malvern Public Library.

Aaron Jones, Seeing Knowledge, 2020. Public installation at the Malvern Public Library. Image: Toni Hafkenscheid. [Source]

Ebti Nabag’s photo-murals were developed with students from Lester B. Pearson Collegiate, depicting them smiling, laughing with friends, in their element, and in control of their own images. Two murals are installed on the exterior of Lester B. Pearson Collegiate, and a third at the DMG. The scale of the murals commands the viewer's attention and conveys the agency of the youth, depicting worlds of seriousness and playfulness where they are in control of the present and the future.

 

Ebti Nabag, Bubble of Youth, 2020. Public installation at Lester B. Pearson Collegiate Institute. Image: Toni Hafkenscheid. [Source]

Together, these murals take on the themes of power and agency taken up by Three-Thirty, while also thinking about where power and decision-making lie in particular communities. While DMG exhibitions are free, the external elements of the exhibition extend notions of accessibility, acknowledging that not all groups represented feel welcome or in control in traditional gallery spaces. Taking the work beyond the physical limits of the gallery and placing them at the epicenter of the wider community functions to promote engagement with art from different audiences and brings these themes into discussion in community spaces rather than exclusively in the gallery. The proximity of the installations also facilitates the opportunity for community members to stop and reflect on their neighbourhood as they move among important local landmarks. Jones and Nabag’s murals embody a sense of empowerment, exuding the agency and knowledge of those who are often cast aside. While they promote discussions surrounding power, agency, and place, they implicitly, and maybe even more powerfully, serve as a reminder of the individual agency of each member of the Scarborough community.

  

Three-Thirty, 2020. Installation view. Image: Toni Hafkenscheid. [Source]

Online spaces have provided a platform for museums and galleries to continue sharing information and presenting exhibitions when it has been dangerous to gather inside. While expanding access in some senses, digital spaces have limited others, neatly packaging the world into disconnected 2D realities. Perhaps, thinking about land, exterior spaces, and direct community access are worthy open-air alternatives as COVID-19 persists and as we enter into a post-COVID era of curatorial practice.

 

Ebti Nabag, I'm Listening, 2020. Public installation at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, UTSC. [Source]

For more information about Three-Thirty, and to watch the short documentary about the show click here!

FUNNY REBEL SHELLEY NIRO SPEAKS AT RYERSON IMAGE CENTRE

SHE’S MY MUSE (SPECIAL EVENT EDITION)

BY: KATHLEEN LEW

On Wednesday May 9th, 2018, Scotiabank Photography Award winner (2017) Shelley Niro spoke at the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC). This talk was part of CONTACT programming, the festival that is currently taking over Toronto galleries with photography for the month of May. The following is a special edition She’s My Muse, providing Musings’ readers with highlights from Niro’s SOLD OUT artist talk.

Shelley Niro, The Rebel, 1982, Ryerson Image Centre.
Photo Courtesy of Kathleen Lew.

To Niro, photography is sculpture, and much more than taking a picture. Working until she is satisfied, Niro pushes how far she can take one image. This has led to an impressive body of work that combines photography, film, beadwork, and painting. Niro is known for exploring Indigenous identity and challenging colonial stereotypes, often focusing on Indigenous women. The directness and humour that is prevalent in Niro's art shines in her speaking. Niro captivated a full auditorium with ease.

Niro began the talk with establishing her practice as treading into unknown territory with art. She then narrated the works included in the current exhibition at the RIC. Niro’s demeanor was calm and matter-of-fact, her honest descriptions of her art bringing the audience to laugher one minute and shocked silence the next.

Rebel (1982) is a photograph of Niro's mother printed in black & white, then later painted to add colour. The title Rebel reflects the name of the car in the photograph, as well as Niro’s mother being “a bit of a rebel.” Niro’s playful honestly continued with her explanation of the 1992 series This Land is Mime Land. She described entering a local costume store and putting on "whatever fit" to create the triptychs made up of a contemporary image, a photograph of a family member, and “me being me.” 

Shelley Niro, This Land Is Mime Land: Five Hundred Year Itch (detail), 1992, Ryerson Image Centre.
Photo Courtesy of Kathleen Lew.

An interesting topic of discussion was Niro’s use of technology throughout her career. Niro described printing and cutting photographs by hand to surround them with beadwork in the 1990s. She was asked about the difficulty in transitioning to Photoshop, answering that navigating the digital world is increasingly easy. However, Niro expressed her continued attachment to analog film and black & white photographs.

Amid the laughs there were also somber moments. Indigenous realities crashed over the audience when Niro recalled the outbreak of the H1N1 virus. Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario asked the government for medical assistance, only to receive body bags (represented in the digital print Stories of Women: Bagging It, 2012). These transitions did not feel forced, but a natural reality of her work and experiences.

Niro explained that Indigenous stories are not always well known. Niro’s art demonstrates a balance between politics and humour, as she strives to bring laughter to Iroquois artwork and explore representations of Iroquois as a “highly developed matriarchal society.”  She described missing and murdered Indigenous women as ever-present. Niro photographs her mother, sisters, nieces, and children, to represent what real Indigenous women look like outside of colonial stereotypes—thus creating positive images of Native women. 

It's Wednesday, and as usual we're open late until 8:00pm. Come see our new season of exhibitions, including our Scotiabank Photography Award: Shelley Niro exhibition. . . . . Installation view of Shelley Niro's The Shirt, 2018 (c) Clifton Li, Ryerson Image Centre

A post shared by Ryerson Image Centre (@ricgallery) on May 2, 2018 at 12:23pm PDT

The simplicity of Niro’s explanations was refreshing. She admitted that some work is self-explanatory, and she cannot come up with an essay for every piece. Niro’s assurance that you do not always have to fully understand a work of art to experience visual satisfaction was comforting and genuine.

Lastly, it was revealed during the talk that Niro’s next big project is a feature film! Other key takeaways include: untwisted DNA is a “damn good design” for Wampum belts and “make what you want to make, then put it out there.”

Want to read more about the survey exhibition of Shelley Niro currently at the RIC? Check out Kesang’s review from earlier this week! Shelley Niro (curated by Gaëlle Morel) is on display April 27th - August 5th 2018.

Photo Courtesy of Kathleen Lew.