Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Soundings: an Exhibition in Five Parts

 

Visited Soundings: an Exhibition in Five Parts at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery yesterday. Curated by Candice Hopkins and Dylan Robinson, the exhibition seeks to "move beyond the mere acknowledgement of land and territory ... [by] ... offering instructions for sensing and listening to Indigenous  histories that trouble the colonial imagery." Participating artists include Tania Willard, Maggie Groat, Greg Staats, Raven Chacon and Cristóbal Martínez (see image above).

The tone of these instructions, both visually and sonically, is generally low-key, almost solemn, consisting of traditional "soundings", be they Indigenous, classical or electro-acoustic. I wish there were more interruptive elements, like what I heard on CBC's Unreserved while driving back from the gallery -- Iqaluit musician Lucie Idlout's gorgeously Hendrixian "Birthday". Too much of this exhibition felt like a sunny Sunday at the Anglican Church of Canada.


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