Charles Campbell: An Ocean to Livity

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Charles Campbell, "Black Breath Spectacle," 2022

digital print. Photo by Dennis Ha

Artist in Conversation & Spring Opening: Saturday, April 15 | 6:30 p.m.−9 p.m.

From the intimacy of a quiet inhalation to the distance between continents,Charles Campbell: An Ocean to Livity brings together large-scale metal and mixed media sculptures along with immersive and participatory multichannel audio installations. Tapping into the fecundity of the Black diasporic imagination, Campbell reconstructs and reinvents lost connections, lamenting the violent disruptions of the past while constructing a home for Black communities’ strength of being.

Central to the exhibition is Black Breath Archive, an installation of breath recordings from Surrey and other Lower Mainland residents. Campbell strips away racial hierarchies and holds up Black breath as its own force—a carrier of ancestry and experience, a creator of community and something that, even in its most subtle presentation, changes the way we think, feel, and live.         

Other artworks that address breath and breathing are the series Black Breath Archive Portraits, Maroonscape 3: Finding Accompong, and Breath Cycle. Campbell’s Black Breath Archive Portraits translate the transient idiosyncrasies of breath into a glowing configuration of light boxes. The five-metre tall Maroonscape 3: Finding Accompong derives its shape from the bronchial structure of a human lung as well as the forked shapes of slave yokes (forked wooden sticks used to tie captives together in a line). Breath Cycle gestures towards a deeper past, connecting the oxygen we breathe to its production in symbiotic, multispecies communities of ancient lichen. Both these latter works nod to fractal geometry and binary counting systems that originated in Africa.

These works are inspired, in part, by sites and histories of Jamaican anticolonial resistance and slave rebellion. Similarly pointing to the pasts and potential futures is a sprawling set of sculptures Ghost Islands/Mid-Atlantic Refugia that surfaces the Atlantic Ocean’s deep-sea topography to make islands of refuge for the souls lost in the Middle Passage.

“Livity” is a Rastafarian word that can either mean way of life or the life force present in every living thing. The artworks in An Ocean to Livity evoke a sense of journey, worldly interconnectedness, and communal struggle against the injustices of times past and present, geographies far and near.

The spring opening reception will also celebrate Masi Medicine: Joyful Nourishment, a fusion of dance, poetry, and movement, Art by Surrey Secondary Students: Connected, a showcase of new works by talented young artists throughout the Surrey School district, and Cindy Mochizuki: Autumn Strawberry, a video installation of a Japanese Canadian dance and art performance.

On Saturday, May 13 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Charles Campbell will lead an exhibition tour that delves into the ideas, histories, and experiences that led to this exhibition of new and recent works. 

Rungh is a media partner and The Black Arts Centre is a community partner for Charles Campbell: An Ocean to Livity.  

About the Artist

Charles Campbell is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and curator who lives and works on lək̓ʷəŋən territory, Victoria, BC. His artworks have been exhibited widely in Canada and internationally and include sculptures, paintings, sonic installations, and performances. Campbell is the recipient of the 2022 VIVA Award from the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation and the 2020 City of Victoria Creative Builder Award. He holds an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmith College and a BFA from Concordia University.