Not the Camera, But the Filing Cabinet: Performative Body Archives in Contemporary Art

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Sophie Sabet, "Though I am Silent, I Shake," 2017

excerpt from single channel video. Courtesy of the artist.

Opening reception: Thursday, September 13, 4:00 – 6:00 pm at Gallery 1C03Remarks at 4:30 pm by Dr. Roewan Crowe. Featuring performance by Christina Hajjar and exhibition tour by curator Noor Bhangu.

Workshop with Ayqa Khan for young feminists of colour, 18-28 years of age: Saturday, September 15, 1:00 – 3:00 pm at Mentoring Artists for Women's Art (MAWA), 611 Main Street

Panel discussion: Monday, September 17 at 2:30 pm in Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, 3rd floor of Centennial HallModerated by Noor Bhangu and featuring artists Sarah Ciurysek, Dayna Danger and Ayqa Khan.

Exhibition tour with curator Noor Bhangu: Tuesday, September 18 at 11:00 am at Gallery 1C03

Not the Camera, But the Filing Cabinet: Performative Body Archives in Contemporary Art is a group exhibition curated by Noor Bhangu. The exhibit features the work of 10 national and international artists that explore representations of the female and non-binary body through painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, video, audio, and performance works. Artists include Susan Aydan Abbott, Jade Nasogaluak Carpenter, Sarah Ciurysek, Dayna Danger, Christina Hajjar, Ayqa Khan, Luna, Matea Radic, Sophie Sabet, and Leesa Streifler.

Using the “filing cabinet” as a metaphor for a feminist archive and archiving practices, Not the Camera, But the Filing Cabinet unpacks the ways in which the body itself can be a location for personal and collective histories. In particular, the focus is on issues of body image, aging, psychic trauma, displacement, diasporic movement and, most importantly, cultural survivance. This exhibition decisively presents a challenge to official archives by elevating the agency of women, queer, and non-binary artists in narrating their own stories from places of localized knowledge. In doing so, it signifies the female body as a worked surface that can be worked again in the present and future.