PFOAC hosts a curated exhibition by Matthew Sanderson as part of ART MATTERS - Concordia University's undergraduate visual arts festival.
EXHIBITING ARTISTS:
Quang Hai Nguyen
Aja Palmer
Le Lin
Jay Krakower
Jennifer Lee
Dear family: twenty years was just yesterday
This exhibition comprises five artworks, each of which a kind of confession. Pain, confusion, and discomfort, bubbling up from beneath the surface, words left unsaid to those who have caused us harm. Each work speaks to a feeling of being out of place, lost, sort of incompatible with the strange world in which we find ourselves. As time moves on in a steady rhythm, and we find ourselves on the cusp of adulthood, fear, avoidance, and guilt can result in a state of seemingly perpetual aimlessness and stagnation. Trauma inflicted in childhood manifests in strained, tense, estranged relationships with our family members, in which both real and imagined distance can prevent us from expressing how we truly feel.
Here, this interdisciplinary exhibition proposes that art making can become a source of catharsis, self expression, and clarity. Among the five works included, common themes of clothing, place, landscape, the body, and daily rituals emerge, across mediums including painting, photography, sculpture, video, and artist books. Central to each work is the embodiment of the artist themself, either directly pictured, or obliquely indexed through a silhouette, an absence, or a recurring motif. Ultimately, the aim of this exhibition is to consider this wavering dichotomy of presence versus absence of the self, and its relationship to mediating difficult, painful experiences of the past.
Each piece is an intimate, deeply personal confession of truth; together, they emerge as a sort of collective letter, to which the recipient is a blank space, a blurring of identities between family members, our inherited cultures, and our past childhood selves. - Matthew Sanderson, curator
Aja Palmer, This is Where, video, audio, screen recording, photographs.
This is Where explores the spaces where certain events happened(or certain things were said or felt) in relation to my long-distance relationship with my dad. In my past project and with this one, I’ve aimed to use my own personal experience and fraught relationship with my father as a way to speak to larger themes of migration,parental relationships, mental illness, and abuse-both emotional and sexual- along with speaking of feelings of grief, longing, tension and anger. It is a very personal take on the process of coming to terms with trauma. This is a way for me to express myself through these memories and make use of the strong emotions I feel towards my father, which have been exacerbated by the distance between us. In juxtaposing a variety of video clips, audio messages, photographs and texts, I hoped to convey the overwhelming nature of memories/thoughts that occur in my mind and the contradicting emotions that come with remembering certain moments. Using Google maps, I chose to show specific spaces where both important and banal moments happened between my father and I. I make use of photos and childhood videos to portray cheerful moments along with more difficult ones. By using different ways of exploring space, this tangibly demonstrates the distance I experienced between myself and my father, while hopefully connecting to viewers’ personal narratives and struggles. The piece culminates in a raw telling of a truth that has been suppressed for far too long. The self-portraits included here are a way to portray my mental state in attempting to come to terms with this trauma and have, for years, been a tool for me to express myself as this practice almost acts as a form of therapy.
Quang Hai Nguyen, to: the moon, ongoing photographic series.
There's this sort of feeling of powerlessness when it comes to trying to understand, in a broad way, the meaning of our existence. Knowing that there will eventually be an ending to everything that we build and cherish, we end up constantly wondering why something suddenly comes and goes at any moment of our life. Personally, I come to feel overwhelmed and even more frightened about the consciousness of our disappearance than death itself. As we desperately seek an answer or ways to cope with the fear of being left alone, to: the moon is an ongoing visual conversation towards my anxiety of our inevitable future and a reminder to everyone, including myself, that we are and will still be loved no matter the distances that separate us.
Through the internal world of dreams, this project takes place in a re-imagined world of the unknown and ever-growing landscape that is surrounding us. While these pictures reveal the never-ending cycle of life and death, nature manifests itself as symbolic figures mimicking the fragile and lonely state of our being. As we slowly become small traces of time, I hopelessly wish for a future in which we can all somehow be together again.
Jay Krakower, My Body and Clothing
Clothing is something that plays a significant role in a fat person's life. I have always had trouble finding things that fit me right. Through three watercolours I allow the viewer to watch me put on clothing and a towel, giving them an intimate experience with my body while I watch them. The items shown are a sweatshirt, pants, and a towel. These are all significant pieces of clothing symbolizing the most comfortable, in the sweatshirt, the hardest to find clothing to fit, being pants, and a basic need that do not fit, being a towel. As I interact with the items it becomes clear to the viewer that they are in my space joining in my experience. The spaces represented are places in my current living space that I have spent significant time in due to the pandemic. Clutter and mess are prevalent in these spaces as I struggle with depression. Clothing is a necessity to be able to function within our society, yet for fat people it is widely inaccessible.
Jennifer Lee, The Pleasure Dome, Yarn, Stuffing
Inspired by the notion of a tool and/or a toy, the Pleasure DomeTM takes inspiration from the colourful children's toys and the normalization of sex toys for all genders, sexualities, and sexual orientations. The first sex toy designed for tactility and touch, the Pleasure DomeTM is a stress ball, or sex plushie for the hands. By providing forms of comfort for individuals to hold and caress, this toy challenges the idea of what a "sex toy" can be and how our bodies (and what part of our bodies) can interact with it. Inspired by product design as well, the Pleasure DomeTM is a full concept and marketed product, including a toy catalogue for you to order your own toy. Because every individual has their unique preferences and kinks, this product invites you to build-your-own personalized toy for your needs and desires.
Le Lin, "我只穿了一条短裤 / I only wore a pair of shorts" and "回味 / Aftertaste", Two book set. 5 ¾" × 8"
Book: Epson 7900 Inkjet print, Silkscreen print on Yasutomo 6MMU Shoji paper, Nepal Light paper, and Cromatica Translucent paper. Two-book set 5 ¾ in × 8 in. 2019.
I dedicated the month of September 2019 to come to terms with unanswered questions: What is the relationship between my Queer body and 潮州 / Teochew? How far back can I trace my ancestors? How do I know when I've reached a destination? What discussions can be raised through intergenerational story-telling? How do memories propagate and affirm our understanding of one another and to spirit? How do senses outside of the preconceived five enact diasporic sentiments? I explored these questions every day, and my process became an act of healing, a ritual of care.
The Ritual: Every Wednesday at 7AM, I gather my thoughts and somatically paint Chinese calligraphy on my body with words that are carefully chosen. My friend and photographer Peniel Hong visits me in my home and documents this 1-2 hour ritual. I do some tests first on newsprint before inking my body, and after the performance of putting words on my body, I fill my bathtub with water and wash the ink off before dressing and starting my day.
There are two books created to document the process: "我只穿了一条短裤 / I only wore a pair of shorts" captures the calligraphy and research. "回味 / Aftertaste" documents the bathing and free prose.
_______
The gallery would like to thank Joyce Joumaas, coordinator of Art Matters 2021, for giving us the opportunity to contribute to this extraordinary festival initiated by Concordia University undergraduate students and to Camille Emmanuelle Legault, technical coordinator for her support.
OPENING HOURS
The gallery is open to the public from WEDNESDAY TO SATURDAY from 12 PM to 5 PM, without appointment.
We limit the number of visitors to 6 people at a time due to the pandemic. We will ask you for a phone number that we will keep for 14 days for contact tracing purposes, if necessary.