Jennifer Long, Untitled from the Caesura series, 2020.

Tether

April Hickox, Natasha Lan, Jennifer Long, Kelly O’Brien, Theola Ross, Arpita Shah, Jessica Wohl

A Space Main Gallery, A Space Windows

September 20 – November 2, 2024

Reception September 20, 2024, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm

The often-invisible work of caregiving is constant and undervalued. Tether explores narratives of motherhood and correlated themes, including artwork by April Hickox, Natasha Lan, Jennifer Long, Kelly O’Brien, Theola Ross, Arpita Shah, and Jessica Wohl. This group brings together parents of toddlers, children with disabilities, and school-aged youth, who have actively explored their personal experiences of being or becoming a parent within their practice. From sewing to filmmaking and photography, this collection of artworks ranges from works produced three decades ago to the current moment. Interweaving themes relating to the experience of time, visibility, intimacy and memory, these artists examine their relationships with parenting and their larger connection to the world in which we live.

Biographies

April Hickox is a Canadian lens-based artist, teacher and independent curator who lives on the Toronto Islands. Over the course of 37 years, April has mined the distinctions between personal and public sites through film, video, photography and installation.

Natasha Lan is an emerging curator and artist based in Toronto. She is Hakka-Mauritian, born in London, UK and raised in Canada. An image- and fiber-based artist, her work explores themes of memory, emotional endurance, identity and belonging.

Jennifer Long is a Canadian artist, curator, and arts administrator whose practice draws inspiration from the quiet moments and rituals of everyday life. Themes of vulnerability, transformation, memory, and community are explored within her artwork with a focus on her experiences of the shifting stages of mothering.

Kelly O’Brien is a mother and independent filmmaker living in Toronto. Her short diary films have screened internationally and online for NY Times Op-Docs. Her live documentary performance/family slideshow, Postings From Home, has been featured at documentary festivals throughout Canada and is currently being adapted into a feature film.

Theola Ross (2S) is originally from Pimichikamak Cree Nation. She completed her Bachelor of Social Work degree at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2018 and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba in 2000. Theola is a filmmaker and her latest film, êmîcêtôsêt-Many Bloodlines in 2020, premiered at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. It was named the winner of the Betty Youson Award for Best Canadian Short Documentary. The film received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Short Documentary at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021. She is currently in the development stage of her first feature-length film, appt.

Arpita Shah (b. 1983, Ahmedabad, India) is a photographic artist based between Eastbourne and Edinburgh, UK. She works in photography and film, exploring the intersections of culture and identity. Shah spent an earlier part of her life living between India, Ireland and the Middle East before settling in the UK. This migratory experience is reflected in her practice, which often focuses on the notion of home, belonging and shifting cultural identities.

Jessica Wohl received her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and her MFA from the University of Georgia. She is an Associate Professor of Art and Chair at the University of the South, and her studio practice includes drawing, painting, embroidery, quilting and collage.