Always Vessels
Barry Ace, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Carrie Hill, Nadya Kwandibens, Jean Marshall, Pinock Smith, Natasha Smoke Santiago, Samuel Thomas, Olivia Whetung
Curated by Alexandra Kahsenni:io Nahwegahbow
Produced by Carleton University Art Gallery
January 20 to March 11, 2018
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 27, 2 pm
Remarks and exhibition tour with Alexandra Kahsenni:io Nahwegahbow, 2:30 pm
HOT TALK: Samuel Thomas, Saturday, March 3, 2 pm
Today, many contemporary Indigenous artists are investigating and incorporating traditional modes of making in their practices. This exhibition explores contexts for, processes of learning, making and the transfer and continuity of knowledge. By acknowledging artists’ desire and need to learn customary skills and techniques that in the past were met with resistance or repressed, this exhibition explores the different ways makers are seeking out and uniquely applying this knowledge.
This exhibition features nine contemporary Anishinaabek and Haudenosaunee artists who draw from multiple forms of training, and whose media and subjects range widely – from glass beads to photography, and from language to land. Yet their processes remain primarily informed by the contemporary translation of traditional knowledge as material and embodied practice. Their works offer insights into the tremendous range of skills and techniques unique to the Anishinaabek and the Haudenosaunee and the ways that knowledge, in its tangible and intangible forms, can at once embody, carry and hold meaning.
As Native people, when we think about our belongings—things made by our hands, minds and voices—whether they are found in an exhibition, a book, in museum storage, out on the land or in a family member’s living room, we’re never really just thinking about them "as things". They are, rather, meaningful objects, songs and stories that have the ability to carry, hold and transmit memory across time and space. Metaphorically, they are always vessels.
Up close and in motion
Selected Works from the Permanent Collection
Curated by Emma German
January 27, 2018 to January 20, 2019
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 27, 2 pm
HOT TALK: Emma German, Thursday, February 8, 7 pm
Rodman Hall Art Centre is home to a collection of nearly 1,000 works from the past three centuries, with a growing focus on current practices in contemporary Canadian art. The permanent collection is the result of a legacy of art collecting and philanthropy dating back to 1960 when Rodman Hall Art Centre was established as a public art gallery by community members. "Up close and in motion", a year-long constantly changing exhibition, is an effort to make Rodman Hall’s holdings visible while highlighting the collection’s purpose as a tool for research, study, and interpretation.
"Up close and in motion" features installation changes throughout its duration to slow down the act of viewing and stimulate close looking. Works enter the space, and then leave the space – the cycle occurs continuously over the course of the exhibition period, forming new iterations of itself with each shift. By dismantling the structures of linear display practices, Up close and in motion frames the exhibition space as flexible, and makes visible the institutional practices concerning the permanent collection’s scope and care.
With a focus on recent acquisitions of contemporary Canadian art, "Up close and in motion" examines Rodman Hall’s recent exhibition history alongside the permanent collection. Tracing important developments in contemporary art across genres such as hybridity within material structures, sculptural experimentation, performative gesture, and time-based media, many of these works will be displayed for the first time since being acquired for Rodman Hall’s permanent collection.
At this moment, we invite you to experience the permanent collection and consider the role it plays in representing our common aspirations, collective imagination and community spirit. Help celebrate this invaluable resource and support our commitment to a sustainable future.
