{"id":42837,"date":"2019-05-20T19:57:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T23:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=42837"},"modified":"2019-05-23T23:25:21","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T03:25:21","slug":"ayana-v-jackson-at-campbell-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=42837","title":{"rendered":"Ayana V. Jackson at Campbell House Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jackson\u2019s Fissure<\/em>, presented by Scotiabank Contact\nPhotography Festival in partnership with Campbell House Museum, exhibits a\nselection of photographs from her two earlier series Intimate<\/em> Justice\nin the Stolen Moment<\/em> (2017) and Dear Sarah<\/em> (2016). Jackson\u2019s art is\nthe materialization of activism against what she describes as the \u201chyper-sexualisation\nand objectification\u201d of black bodies, and explores black identity by\ndeconstructing racial and gender stereotypes embedded in her reference material\n\u2013 19th and 20th century archival photographs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson\u2019s studio-based portraiture involves using a camera attached to a computer screen in a process that she describes as \u201cperforming characters\u201d in a mirror and playfully dancing women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ayana V. Jackson, Seeking the Source of Perfection<\/em>, from the series Intimate Justice in the Stolen Moment<\/em>, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Jackson\u2019s first exhibit in Canada, Fissure<\/em> is loaded with socio-political connotations that challenge the role of colonial racism and transatlantic slavery in the construction of black identity within fine art and photographic portraiture. As an extension of her earlier series Archival Impulse and Poverty Pornography<\/em> (2013), Intimate<\/em> Justice in the Stolen Moment<\/em> represents the black female body not as the enslaved, abused or colonized but as women in \u2018stolen moments,\u2019 in respite, far away from captivity. Jackson\u2019s art interrupts the colonial-ethnographic stereotype of black identity by breaking the false narrative paradigm of the angry, unrestrained black woman and replacing it with a calm weightless vulnerability and sensuality for the public\u2019s gaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ayana V. Jackson, Saffronia<\/em>, from the series Intimate Justice in the Stolen Moment<\/em>, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The subjects of Jackson\u2019s self-portraits merely seek a moment of solitude, intimacy and fragility which the viewer can relate to. In visiting Campbell House, the reality of colonial racism resonates with the knowledge that the heritage house was built in 1822 before slavery was abolished in Canada in 1834. The importance of Jackson\u2019s self-portraits Saffronia<\/em> and Sarah Forbes<\/em> above the mantelpieces alongside the stern portraits of Sir William Campbell and his wife cannot be over-stated as a literal step toward the reconstruction of black identity within the contemporary international art world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ayana V. Jackson, Sarah Forbes<\/em>, from the series Dear Sarah<\/em>, 2016<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In questioning gender and racial stereotypes through self-portraits, Jackson described how she has become \u201cless guarded\u201d to the representations of violence and nudeness. Explaining her process, Jackson stated that \u201cbecause I\u2019m dealing with images that are politically complex and problematic, I felt that I had to use my body.\u201d Jackson maintains that she is \u201cnot giving permission to objectify,\u201d but rather trying to bring attention to the true nature of black women in their elaborate characters and beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ayana V. Jackson, Lucy<\/em>, from the series Intimate Justice in the Stolen Moment<\/em>, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson\u2019s work in the Intimate Justice <\/em>series also captures those cherished seconds of comfort, joy, sweet tenderness and kindness unrelated to slavery, servitude or hardship. Moments of Sweet Reprieve<\/em> intimates compassion and calmness, a humanity that Jackson\u2019s work communicates in order to change societal preconceptions of slavery and black identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ayana V. Jackson, Moments of Sweet Reprieve<\/em>, from the series Intimate Justice in the Stolen Moment<\/em>, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samples of Jackson\u2019s Dear Sarah<\/em> series that appear in Fissure<\/em> document the life of a young 19th century Yoruba princess named Aina (renamed Sarah Forbes Bonetta) who was liberated from captivity with the help of the British, and later became the goddaughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Jackson recreates archival images of Sarah by imagining and recreating her playfulness and joy in S. Bonetta<\/em> and her noble ancestry as an African princess (as recognized by Queen Victoria) in Sarah Forbes<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Printed on fabric the Dear Sarah<\/em> series hang from the ceiling of the Ballroom in Campbell House Museum swaying to the movement of visitors, inviting the viewer to identify with the vulnerability of \u201cbeing a black woman in white spaces\u2026grappling with blackness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ayana V. Jackson, S. Bonetta<\/em>, (left) and Etta<\/em> from the series Dear Sarah<\/em>, 2016<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a degree in sociology, Jackson utilizes the study of\niconography, African and European adornment, portraiture and the transatlantic\nvoyage of slaves to the Americas in order to develop her oeuvre in questioning\nand challenging the existing theories. Jackson\u2019s work embodies a sensitive, emotional\nreality of endurance and resilience in the black female body, which she described\nas “A movement study. Everything that I am doing at the moment is about\nthat. I am looking for motion and weightlessness. I want to shake the load off.\nMy work has always been quite political. It is perhaps aesthetic, but it is\nultimately a form of activism. I want to liberate the black body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keren Sedmina<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images\nare courtesy of Scotiabank Contact Photography\nFestival, Ayana V. Jackson, and Galerie Baudoin Lebon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Exhibition information: Ayana V. Jackson, Fissure, <\/em>May 1 \u2013 June 2, 2019, Campbell House Museum, 160 Queen St. West, Toronto. Gallery hours: Tue \u2013 Fri 9:30 am \u2013 4:30 pm, Sat \u2013 Sun  12 \u2013 4:30pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Keren Sedmina<\/strong><\/p>\n

“My work has always been quite political. It is perhaps aesthetic, but it is ultimately a form of activism. I want to liberate the black body.\u201d<\/p>\n

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