Carry Forward

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Marjorie Beaucage, "Speaking to Their Mother," 1992

video, 26:00. Photo: Robert McNair, courtesy of Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery.

Exhibition runs from October 20, 2018 to January 2, 2019 at Sherwood Gallery and November 9, 2018 to January 13, 2019 at Central Gallery 

Circulated by Kichener-Waterloo Art Gallery

Maria Thereza Alves, Marjorie Beaucage, Deanna Bowen, Dana Claxton, Brenda Draney, Barker Fairley, John Hampton, Jamelie Hassan, Mike MacDonald, Nadia Myre, Krista Belle Stewart and Maika’i Tubbs.

The term “carry forward” suggests passing or transferring something on to the next generation, yet also refers to taking account of gains and loss. Some values can be traced through records and paperwork, yet others are elusive, sustained in fragments, memories, stories, knowledge, and place. This exhibition brings together artworks that engage with, question, and re-form the authority and authenticity of documents and documentation. Through painting, documentary, installation, video, and photography, artists examine historical texts, photographs or imagery, and lend emphasis to absence, omission, or the redaction of detail.

 Carry Forward was inspired by the way artist Mike MacDonald’s video art informed and was informed by his practice as a documentarian. The integrity of his work aligns with the concept of “speaking nearby” defined by theorist and artist Trinh T. Minh as a way of being in relation to the world, an indirect-ness, “A speaking that reflects on itself and can come very close to a subject without, however, seizing or claiming it.”[1] Artists in Carry Forward speak from and they speak nearby. This exhibition invites us to consider the value of dissonance and the significant stakes of deciding what, how and from where, we carry forward.

- Lisa Myers, Guest Curator

[1] Nancy N. Chen, "Speaking Nearby: A Conversation with Trinh T. Minh-ha," Visual Anthropology Review 8, no. 1 (1992), 87.