Curated by Žana Kozomora
Featuring work by Milutin Gubash, Jamelie Hassan, Tristram Lansdowne, Meryl McMaster, and Joseph Tisiga
“Today, a thought which desires to move beyond itself has to face the journey into the unknown without the reassuring distinction between what is and what is not. Today more than ever, to see is to create, to create is to make visible.”
Federico Campagna and Emmanuele Campiglio
What We Are Fighting For: A Radical Collective Manifesto, 2012
Regardless of our place in the world, we are each enveloped in larger myths, histories, traditions and legacies. At times, these inheritances are paralyzing, stifling desired change and growth. At the edge of one world and the start of another, however, is a precarious and productive place. Rather than viewing this journey as a linear procession, each arrival can be imagined as a state of being in-between all that remains from the past and all that is yet to come. At the edge of worlds, tectonic shifts disturb the foundations beneath our feet, making space for narratives that reimagine the worlds we share.
How do we ground ourselves in this precarious place of shifting borderlines in the wake of conflict and colonialism? Facing this question, narratives of utopia and dystopia often emerge. Failures of utopic dreaming and dystopic unravelling can make for incisive warnings, but they may also perpetuate a state of inaction. The works in this exhibition point beyond polarization to explore the ways in which we are always navigating the edges between worlds, where shared histories remain open as sites of contestation and creation. By unravelling monuments and inhabiting sublime landscapes, while entangling the personal with the political, a position at the far edge of worlds is a place that supports the creation of others.
Learn more about the life and practice of participating artist Milutin Gubash in this recording of our Artist Talk on Thursday 17 February. Artist Talks at KWAG are kindly supported by Momentum Developments and Sorbara Law.
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Milutin Gubash (Canadian, b. Serbia 1969). Monuments to Communists (#2), 2011. Pigment print, 152cm x 254cm. Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery Collection. Gift of the Artist, 2019. © Milutin Gubash. Courtesy of the Artist. Photo: Milutin Gubash.
