Black Studies in Translation : Opening + Readings

𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐲 𝐇𝐮𝐝𝐬𝐨𝐧, 𝐒𝐲𝐫𝐮𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐊𝐚𝐢𝐞 𝐊𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡

Free admission, at the Gallery

Join us for the opening of the Black Studies in Translation Conference with the Montreal launch of Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada (University of Regina Press, 2020) presented in collaboration with the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery. Hosted at the Gallery, co-editors Sandy Hudson and Syrus Marcus Ware will read from their book, writer Kaie Kellough joins with selections from his recently published collection Dominoes at the Crossroads (Véhicule Press, 2020), followed by a conversation moderated by activist and orator Annick MF.

More information → http://bit.ly/black-opening

Facebook event

Performance: Skin Tone

Wednesday, March 18, 5:30 pm

At the Gallery
Free admission
Facebook event

Skin Tone is the solo performance practice of James Nicholas Dumile Goddard. Skin Tone is saxophone, voice and electronics; is an exploration of possible futures; is a recapitulation of hi-stories erased; is an echo of free jazz both spiritual and harsh; is black. For this performance Skin Tone will re-mix and re-contextualize the installation piece how will we hold onto each other transforming the work from a spatialized to a durational piece, this transformation will highlight the confrontational nature of the piece and elaborate on the linkages between the content and both distant and recent history.

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Photo: Krystal Morgan

MFA OPEN STUDIOS
Wednesday, February 19, 2020   5:00-9:00 p.m.
VA Building - 1395 René-Lévesque Blvd. W

Click the MFA Open Studios link to read more!

Screening & Conversation with Steffani Jemison and Garrett Gray
Sensus Plenior and Similitude

Saturday, March 7, 2020 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

J.A. de Sève Cinéma, 1400 boul.  de Maisonneuve O. (Métro Guy-Concordia)
Free admission
In English
Facebook event

Performance by Steffani Jemison and Garrett Gray
On Similitude

Sunday, March 8, 2020, doors at 3:30 pm, performance at 4:00 pm,

Location to be confirmed
Free admission
Facebook event

Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Steffani Jemison is featured in a two-part weekend event positioning the history of mime and acts of mimicry as a means to explore black subjectivity and embodied communication.

The weekend begins with a screening of Jemison’s videos Sensus Plenior (2017) and Similitude (2019) followed by a post-screening conversation between Jemison and performer Garrett Gray. The next day, Jemison and Gray perform On Similitude, an experimental lecture and live companion to Jemison’s videos.

IN THE NO LONGER NOT YET

Opening: Wednesday, February 5, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

𝐌𝐢𝐫𝐲𝐚𝐦 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐬 𝐃𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐝𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝, 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐠, 𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐝, 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐚 𝐒𝐳𝐥𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐲𝐫𝐮𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐞

Curator: Julia Eilers Smith

𝐼𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑜 𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑌𝑒𝑡 operates on the premise that the apocalypse is not to come but ongoing. Shifting focus away from the familiar scenarios of planetary extinction, the artists in the exhibition point to reconfigurations of our apocalyptic narratives, insisting that the end is plural, both occurring and having already occurred, and uneven in its distribution across time and place.

Visit our website for full details → http://bit.ly/inthenolongernotyet

The exhibition continues through April 4, 2020.

http://ellengallery.concordia.ca/evenement/kan-ya-ma-kan-%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%8a%d8%a7-%d9%85%d8%a7-%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%86-once-there-was-once-there-wasnt/?lang=en

conversationsincontemporaryart:

Ursula Johnson
Friday, November 29 at 6:00pm
Concordia University, VA-114, 1395 René-Lévesque Blvd W.

Presented in collaboration with the TextilesTimeTrade symposium

This conversation is About Making Conversation.

In 2014, Ursula Johnson created a three component exhibition titled Mi’kwite’tmn: Do You Remember (Vous souvenez-vous)

The show’s three components were:

1. The Museological Grand Hall
2. The Archive Room
3. Processing (a performative space)

This nationally touring trilingual exhibition was hosted with a number of partners from various Indigenous communities, universities and public galleries. The premise of the show was to create a discourse around the importance of language and the handmade as having integral roles in the survivance of culture while exploring our individual roles within that construct of community and what that means to be an active member while exercising our privilege of exploration.

At each venue, Johnson engaged in a 30-35 hour long physically intensive performance where she processed an ash log on-site.

When visitors interacted with Johnson and asked her what she was “making” she would reply - “conversation.”

Bio

Ursula Johnson is from Eskasoni First Nation and is an alumna of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally since graduating in 2006. Her interdisciplinary practice is based in performance and installation, stating she “changes mediums based on who I am talking to and the conversation I am inciting.”

Johnson has been shortlisted for the Salt Spring National Art Prize (2015) and the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award (2016). She was a recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Reveal Indigenous Art Award (2016), the Finalist for Sobey Art Award (2017) and Finalist for the NS Masterworks Award (2019) for her installation Moose Fence.

This talk is presented in collaboration with the TextilesTradeTime symposium

Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art (CICA) events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve and the lectures are held in English. To learn more about CICA and to access recordings of previous lectures, please visit our website.

concordia.ca/cica

Performance

Wednesday, December 4, 5:30 pm

The installation ( x ) x + [ ( x ) x { x } x x ] { x } +  will be performed by Kite as a score, simulating a distorted vision of an Oglala Lakota cosmologyscape. As they unfold out from the Cube, the objects and sculptures on display will interfere with and manipulate the performance’s adjoining sound composition, in tandem with the artist’s body-interface.

Free admission
Location: SIGHTINGS Cube
1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Hall Building
Ground floor

http://bit.ly/Ashoona-Events

conversationsincontemporaryart:

On est tu heureux hen.

Friday, November 8 at 6:00pm
Concordia University, de Sève Cinema
McConnell Library Building, LB-125, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.

“This conversation is a conversation about conversation.”

On est tu heureux hen. is the victim of a fatal attraction for adventurous enterprises - risky, dangerous and even impossible, some witnesses would have said. This tendency leads the collective through an irreverent but insightful practice, that could not be identified, explained or documented without recourse to absurd strategies. Exploring the connections between reality and trickery, between a factual event and its fiction, On est tu heureux hen. likes to simulate and extrapolate what is, and what could have been. The collective tends to be involved in a never ending problematic, which turns out to be the very sense of its practice and which must be kept secret at all costs.

Bio

On est tu heureux hen. was founded in 2008 (2009?) on a cold February day by Frédérique Laliberté and Sarah L’Hérault. Its work has been presented in Quebec City, Vanier, Wendake, Montreal, Mexico, Switzerland, in the Sahara desert and on the Internet. The collective wears clothes. Its astrological sign is Aquarius. If you want to know more about its personality, please feel free to google “Aquarius’’. On est tu heureux hen. holds not one but two Masters from well-known and cool institutions whose names are alas too long to be included in a 100-word bio.

*Frédérique Laliberté is the 2018 recipient of the Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art

Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art (CICA) events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve and the lectures are held in English. To learn more about CICA and to access recordings of previous lectures, please visit our website.

concordia.ca/cica

-

« Cette conversation est une conversation à propos de conversation. »

On est tu heureux hen. est victime d’une attirance fatale envers les entreprises d’envergure – risquées, dangereuses et même impossibles, auraient dit certains témoins. Cette inclinaison l’entraîne dans une pratique irrévérencieuse mais perspicace, que l’on ne saurait cerner, expliquer ou documenter sans avoir recours à d’absurdes stratégies. Explorant les relations entre réalité et supercherie, entre l’événement concret et sa fiction, On est tu heureux hen. joue à simuler et à extrapoler ce qui est et ce qui aurait pu être. Le collectif tend à être impliqué dans une problématique sans issue, qui se trouve à être le sens même de sa pratique et qui doit être gardée secrète à tout prix.

Bio

On est tu heureux hen. est fondé en 2008 (2009 ?) lors d’une froide journée de février, par Sarah L’Hérault et Frédérique Laliberté. Son travail a été présenté à Québec, Vanier, Wendake, Montréal, au Mexique, en Suisse, dans le désert du Sahara et sur Internet. Le collectif est habillé. Son signe astrologique est Verseau. Si vous voulez en apprendre plus sur sa personnalité, n’hésitez pas à googler “Verseau”. On est tu heureux hen. détient non pas une mais bien deux maîtrises qui proviennent d’établissements reconnus et cools dont les noms sont hélas trop longs pour être inclus dans une bio de 100 mots.

Gratuites et ouvertes au public, toutes les activités du Cycle de conversations sur l’art contemporain (Conversations in Contemporary Art ou CICA) sont tenues en anglais. Premiers arrivés, premiers servis! Pour en savoir plus sur le CICA et regarder les conversations des années précédentes, consultez la page concordia.ca/cica.

concordia.ca/cica

conversationsincontemporaryart:

Aaron McIntosh

Friday, October 25 at 6:00pm
Concordia University, VA-114
1395 René-Lévesque Blvd W.
aaronmcintosh.com

This conversation is a meander through interspecies relationality.

What are the implications for queer “worldmaking” as it encounters the heteronormative, colonialist understandings of nature and ecology? Aaron McIntosh’s own upbringing by generations of farmers impressed upon him a clear distinction between cultivation and ferality. Linking the very human-centered concept of “weeds” with xenophobia and homophobia, he launched the Invasive Queer Kudzu project, which destigmatizes and reclaims the invasive kudzu vine to exponential grow LGBTQ2+ visibility across the Southern United States. Informed by critical readings in queer history, nature studies, queer ecology and ethnobotany, this conversation asks us to imagine queerness entangled with nature-based undercurrents, more akin to the sexually-expressive and gender-variant dynamisms of the plant world.  

Bio
Aaron McIntosh is a cross-disciplinary artist whose work mines the intersections of material culture, family tradition, sexual desire and identity politics in a range of works including quilts, sculpture, collage, and writing. His exhibition record includes numerous solo and group exhibitions and his residencies include Haystack Mountain School of Craft, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and Banff Centre for Creative Arts. His critical writing has been published in the Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, Surface Design Journal, and the Journal of Modern Craft. He currently lives and works in Montréal, where he is Associate Professor of Fibres & Material Practices at Concordia University.

Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art (CICA) events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve and the lectures are held in English. To learn more about CICA and to access recordings of previous lectures, please visit our website.

concordia.ca/cica

___

Cette conversation est une flânerie des relations inter-espèce.

Quelles sont les implications de la création d’un monde queer en terme d’hétéronormativité et de conceptions coloniale de la nature et de l’écologie? Pour Aaron McIntosh, élevé par des générations d’agriculteurs, la distinction entre cultivation et féralité a été inculqué à un très jeune âge. Reliant le concept de «mauvaises herbes» à la xénophobie et à l'homophobie, il a lancé le projet Invasive Queer Kudzu, qui vise à déstigmatiser et à récupérer le kudzu, une plante envahissante, afin d'accroître la visibilité des LGBTQ2+ dans le Sud des États-Unis. S'appuyant sur des analyses critiques de l'histoire queer, d’histoire naturelle, de l'écologie queer et de l'ethnobotanique, cette conversation nous demande d'imaginer que les vies queer entremêlées avec le naturel. Peut-être en tant qu’humains nous sommes plus reliés aux différents modes d’expression de genre et sexualité propres au monde végétal que ce que l’on pense.  

Biographie
Aaron McIntosh est un artiste interdisciplinaire dont le travail explore les intersections de la culture matérielle, de la tradition familiale, du désir sexuel et de la politique identitaire dans diverses œuvres, notamment des quilts, sculptures, collages ainsi que des essais. Il a exposé internationalement dans de nombreuses expositions de groupe ainsi que plusieurs expositions individuelles aux Etats-Unis. Ses résidences incluent Haystack Mountain School of Craft, le Virginia Center for Creative Arts et le Banff Centre. Ses écrits critiques ont été publiés dans le Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, Surface Design Journal et The Journal of Modern Craft. Il vit et travaille à Montréal, où il est professeur agrégé en Fibres & Pratiques Matérielles à l'Université Concordia.

Gratuites et ouvertes au public, toutes les activités du Cycle de conversations sur l’art contemporain (Conversations in Contemporary Art ou CICA) sont tenues en anglais. Premiers arrivés, premiers servis! Pour en savoir plus sur le CICA et regarder les conversations des années précédentes, consultez la page concordia.ca/cica.

concordia.ca/cica

conversationsincontemporaryart:

Crystal (Mikinaak) Migwans
Friday, October 18 at 6:00pm
Concordia University, VA-114
1395 René-Lévesque Blvd W.

“This conversation is an offering of words for water and weavers.”

Anishinaabe mat-weaving is a practice of responsible, reciprocal connection with place. Looking to historical examples while responding to current movements in Indigenous activism, this talk considers the role of weavers in the gendered labours of governance and treaty-making, the significance of bulrushes as the first water protectors, and the terms of our relations with the non-human in the face of ongoing ecological devastation.

Crystal (Mikinaak) Migwans is an Anishinaabe of Wiikwemikoong Unceded Territory and a doctoral candidate in Art History at Columbia University, currently undertaking dissertation research on natural fiber weaving traditions in the Great Lakes. Migwans’ work focuses on museum objects as relatives, and the place-making labor of customary artforms.


This lecture is presented in collaboration with TextilesTradeTime, a series of events at Concordia University exploring the histories, presents and futures of textiles, with a focus on Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal as a locus of trade across cultures, nations, fibres and moments.

Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art (CICA) events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve and the lectures are held in English. To learn more about CICA and to access recordings of previous lectures, please visit our website.

concordia.ca/cica

conversationsincontemporaryart:

Alastair MacLennan

Friday, September 27 at 6:00pm
Concordia University, de Sève Cinema
McConnell Library Building, LB-125
1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.

Presented in collaboration with VIVA! Art Action

“This conversation is releasing, holding, forming and being in the process of art-making”.

The planned address will involve showing a 29 minute video, an artwork alluding to alchemy, involving four artists working together, of whom I’m one. It includes sound, but no spoken words in French or English. Then several edited, 3-4 minute videos of my solo and duo performances will be screened, followed by showing a few stills of one’s drawings/works on paper. The process is then opened up for discussion and questions from audience/spectators. I’m happy to discuss any related issues. My work involves location/dislocation, placement/displacement, time ‘being’/time edited, underlying issues being political, social and cultural. Our gathering together can meet the ‘unforeseen’.

This lecture will not be recorded.

Bio
Alastair MacLennan represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale, in 1997. During the 1970’s and '80’s he made long, non-stop performances of up to 144 hours duration, in Britain, America and Canada. He is a founding member of Belfast’s Art and Research Exchange (1978). He ran the MA Fine Art program in Ulster Polytechnic, later the University of Ulster, for eleven years. He travels extensively in Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, North America and Canada, presenting Actuations (performance/installations). Since 1989 he’s been a member of performance art entity Black Market International, which performs globally. He is a founding member of Belfast’s Bbeyond Performance Art organisation.

Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art (CICA) events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve and the lectures are held in English. To learn more about CICA and to access recordings of previous lectures, please visit our website.
concordia.ca/cica

___

« Cette conversation libère, retient, forme et intègre le processus de création artistique. »

La conférence débutera par la projection d’une vidéo de 29 minutes, une œuvre sur l’alchimie et la collaboration entre quatre artistes, dont moi-même. Elle comporte des sons, mais aucun mot parlé en français ou en anglais. Plusieurs montages vidéo de 3 à 4 minutes de mes performances en solo et en duo seront ensuite présentés, suivis de quelques plans fixes de dessins et d’œuvres sur papier. Suivront une période de questions et une discussion avec les membres du public. Je discuterai avec plaisir de tout sujet connexe. Mes travaux abordent différents thèmes : l’établissement et la dislocation, l’installation et le déplacement, le temps « en soi » et le temps modifié, les enjeux sous-jacents de l’expression d’idées politiques, sociales et culturelles. Notre rassemblement se veut ouvert à l’« imprévu ».

La conférence ne sera pas enregistrée.

Biographie
Alastair MacLennan a représenté l’Irlande à la Biennale de Venise de 1997. Au cours des années 1970 et 1980, il a créé de longues performances continues allant jusqu’à 144 heures en Grande-Bretagne, aux États-Unis et au Canada. Membre fondateur du Art and Research Exchange (1978) de Belfast, il a dirigé pendant onze ans le programme de M.A. en beaux-arts de l’École polytechnique d’Ulster, plus tard devenue l’Université d’Ulster. Il voyage beaucoup en Europe orientale et occidentale, en Asie, en Amérique du Nord et au Canada pour présenter des « actuations » (performances et installations). Depuis 1989, il est membre du groupe d’art performance Black Market International, qui se produit à l’échelle internationale. Il est également membre fondateur de l’organisme d’art performance Bbeyond de Belfast.

Gratuites et ouvertes au public, toutes les activités du Cycle de conversations sur l’art contemporain (Conversations in Contemporary Art ou CICA) sont tenues en anglais. Premiers arrivés, premiers servis! Pour en savoir plus sur le CICA et regarder les conversations des années précédentes, consultez la page concordia.ca/cica.concordia.ca/cica

conversationsincontemporaryart:

Javier González Pesce                  

PRESENTED IN COLLABORATION WITH DARLING FOUNDRY

Friday, September 13 at 6:00pm
Concordia University, de Sève Cinema
McConnell Library Building, LB-125
1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
concordia.ca/cica

Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve. The lectures will be held in English.

Tous les événements du programme Conversation in Contemporary Art sont gratuits et ouverts au public. Les sièges sont assignés selon le principe du premier arrivé, premier servi. Les conférences se dérouleront en anglais.

concordia.ca/cica
_____________________

Love, politics, gravity and other sources of attractive energy

“In my work I reflect on how bodies and matter move through space as they react to attractive or repulsive substances and energies. Through a research on entities as love, politics, economy or other simple physical phenomena such as gravity, I intend to observe how all matter is entangled in a network of attractive forces that define their material, spiritual or ideological position.”                                                                                                                                   - Javier González Pesce

Bio
González Pesce is a visual artist and independent curator, who lives and works in Santiago, Chile. He holds a BFA in sculpture from ARCIS University (2008) and studied at Diego Portales University. He has exhibited his work mainly in Chile, China and Switzerland, and in group shows in Argentina, the US, Greece, Uruguay and Colombia. He was nominated for the Altazor Awards in the category Sculpture (2012) and won the first Price at the Young Art Contest of the Visual Arts Museum and Minera Escondida (2012). Since 2011, González Pesce co-directs the alternative exhibition space LOCAL Contemporary Art.

Website of LOCAL Arte Contemporáneo
Video about Javier González Pesce’s work
Darling Foundry

-« Dans mon travail je réfléchis à la manière dont les corps et la matière se déplacent dans l'espace et réagissent à des substances et à des énergies tantôt attractives, tantôt répulsives. Par le biais d'une recherche sur des entités telles que l'amour, la politique, l'économie ou d'autres phénomènes physiques simples tels que la gravité, j'observe comment toute matière est imbriquée dans un réseau de forces d'attraction qui définissent leur positionnement matériel, spirituel ou idéologique. »
                                                                             
                                                                                        - Javier González Pesce
Biographie
González Pesce est un artiste et commissaire indépendant, qui vit et travaille à Santiago du Chili. Il a été formé à l'École d'Art Visuel de l'Université Diego Portales et a obtenu en 2008 un diplôme de l'Université ARCIS, avec une spécialisation en sculpture. Son travail a été exposé principalement au Chili, en Chine et en Suisse, et lors d'expositions collectives en Argentine, aux États-Unis, en Grèce, en Uruguay et en Colombie. Il a été nominé pour le prix Altazor Awards dans la catégorie sculpture (2012) et a remporté le premier prix du Young Art Contest of the Visual Arts Museum and Minera Escondida (2012). Depuis 2011, il co-dirige le lieu d'exposition alternatif LOCAL Contemporary Art.

Site internet de LOCAL Arte Contemporáneo
Vidéo sur le travail de Javier González Pesce
Fonderie Darling                           

MAUREEN IV

April 29 to May 4, 2019
Vernissage: Tuesday, April 30, 6-9pm
Yves Laroche Gallery, 6355 St Laurent Blvd  

Founded in 2016, the annual Maureen exhibitions showcase the collective work by students in the Studio Arts MFA Program. This collaborative exhibition features sculpture, photography, painting, fibres, film and video, intermedia works, and performance. Entirely organized, curated, installed and hosted by current MFA students, Maureen IV presents the diversity of aesthetic forms and lines of inquiry that are cultivated within our various research-based studio practices.

Please join us in celebration at the vernissage on Tuesday, April 30th from 6-9pm! Refreshments and food will be served.

Join our facebook event here.

Special thanks to the Concordia Council on Student Life and the Faculty of Fine Arts for their generous contributions to make this event possible.