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<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAllstyle, 2021, Curtia Wright, Danilo Deluxo, Elicser Elliot, Jacquie Comrie, Kreecha, MEDIAH, Moises Frank(Luvs), Ness Lee, Yung Yemi (Adeyemi Adegbesan), mutal \/ painting, 70 Canuck Ave, North York, On <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I visited two of Artworx public art installation hubs, the first being at Cloverdale Common,<\/strong> situated in Cloverdale Mall. Amid a bustling shopping centre I found a visually striking multimedia exhibition that has focused efforts to bring art out of the downtown core. I spoke with curator Claudia Arana about art accessibility and trauma healing. This exhibition HOME(LAND) <\/em>explores themes around home, land, kinship, and memory from different perspectives. The exhibition plans on featuring all the natural elements over the course of the next year. In this first exhibition water is the element that links the four artists together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Installation view of HOME(LAND) <\/em>at Cloverdale Common<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arana explains the importance of representing artists who are not from North America, saying that some of them have well known careers overseas and don\u2019t know how to get access or visibility in the Toronto art scene, \u201cAs an immigrant myself there hasn\u2019t been a lot of opportunities for particularly this type of artist to showcase their work.\u201d Arana noted that she has always found that the idea of home is very strong in their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The migration journey of the artists, in this exhibition for example, is how she is getting to know artists. Bloody Boats: Infinite Journeys 2.0 <\/em>by artist Akshata Naik is an interactive installation comprised of 4,500 individually folded boats. People are invited to leave a message on the boats and write their own stories. She is exploring the complexities of feeling dislocated through her migration journey, using an augmented reality element, as well as her first sculptural work Voyage -1<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Installation view of Bloody Boats: Infinite Journeys 2.0 by Akshata Naik at Cloverdale Common<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a deaf artist Peter Owusu-Asnah wants to advocate for people with disabilities. In his art practice he wants viewers to question accessibility gaps in our systems and society. He wants those who have disabilities and know the gaps to lead these conversations. His The Blue Series<\/em> is a personal and emotional exploration of the colour blue. He has more than 1500 variations of digital squares, and the artist has placed the pixels one by one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Blue Series by Peter Owusu-Ansah at Cloverdale Common<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this exhibition Arana has succeeded in connecting artists who are new to Canada with indigenous artists, as she has identified a shared experience and connection between these groups. The Onaman Collective in their multidisciplinary work Water and Land Protection Banners <\/em>are advocating for the pipeline protest at the border. The banners display traditional picture icons that reference nourishment and protection such as the Thunderbird. These banners are free for others to download; the idea being to make these motifs shared by everyone as viral as possible to empower political action. A video of how the members of the collective made the banners is included in the installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Installation view of Water and Land Protection Banners – Onaman Collective at Cloverdale Common <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shabnam Afrand\u2019s The Green Summit <\/em>explores the symbolic fluid transition and liminal space between life and death through the intersection of cultural and historical symbols. Afrand remembers the 176 passengers who died in the Ukrainian flight tragedy in 2020. The installation is comprised of a runway that viewers are invited to walk on, that leads to a door and mirrors with screens on either side. On these screens is footage from the plane crash, as well as a performative element in which the artist is lowering herself into water to heal. The installation brings attention to the political decision that led to this tragic event, as well as the cultural symbolism that represents memory and longing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Green Summit, installation by Shabnam Afrand at Cloverdale Common <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of the exhibition is Elegy for Souls on Hold<\/em>, made by Mirna Chac\u00edn. Using infrared photography, mapping projection, and augmented reality components, the artist has made a memorial for those who have passed during COVID-19. She has created an app that allows viewers to meet these individuals and celebrate their lives. The app opens to a slideshow of photos. Chac\u00edn has been in touch with each of the families of these people to make this project. This installation is multilayered: healing and mourning happens when you step into the installation, but the same impact is also happening behind the scenes, underneath all the conversations with the families that led to this. Chac\u00edn is inviting people to keep submitting photos of their loved ones as this is an ongoing collaborative project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elegy for the Souls on Hold by Mirna Cha\u00edn at Cloverdale Common <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next I visited the ARTWORX Pop Up Hub at Collision Gallery<\/strong> in Toronto\u2019s financial district. It is focused on locating self care in urban centres. I spoke with curator Emma Steen about the lack of care given to certain marginalized communities and the disparities between who has access and who does not. Steen said, \u201cI\u2019m interested in distinguishing the discussion that care is a human right and a need that we have. How can we push care and self care beyond being additional, or not as important? For women, non-binary folk, and anyone racialized or in the wider BIPOC queer community, self care is extra trivialized, but in order to take care of our communities we need to take care of ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a journey to find a word for \u201ccare\u201d in artist Laura Grier\u2019s native indigenous language, they created a new word, which translates in English to \u201chearts mind.\u201d On display, is Grier\u2019s process of finding this new word \u2013 and how to embody it. Grier uses a Japanese art practice to create 8ft tall scrolls that hang from the gallery ceiling. On each scroll is a different care act, such as footprints of them making dinner for their partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Collision Gallery Overview (L-R) K\u01ddd\u01dddz\u01dd\u0301hehts\u012f by Laura Grier, \u0241\u012fdz\u01dd\u0301\u0241en\u012f by Laura Grier and A Battlefield Medicinal Herb Living Green Under the Snow by Susan Blight<\/p>\n\n\n\n Artist Susan Blight has yarrow plants potted in the gallery space. Yarrow is medicinal herb with healing properties. Remarkably, the plant makes an air-trapping structure around itself which allows it to thrive in the winter, and it is proved historically that the plant has helped heal sick Indigenous people. This work examines the complexities of care and space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steen explained, \u201cBringing these plants in is bringing all these conversations we were having about authenticity, what is land as valued and not valued? Who values it? When things get to thrive or not thrive? The fact that we now have invasive species is another layer.\u201d A snail species not native to Canada is killing the yarrow, what is left is an interesting binary of life and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n