In Solidarity
Malinda Francis, Rehab Nazzal
A Space Main Gallery
May 26 – July 8, 2017
Curated by: Vicky Moufawad-Paul
Presented by A Space Gallery in partnership with Trinity Square Video
In Solidarity is a two-person exhibition that features collaborative projects from Malinda Francis and Rehab Nazzal. Francis is a video artist that spent time in Haiti after the earthquake of 2010. She captured a grassroots international and multilingual community moving off the grid and building an "Earthship." Using recycled materials to rebuild the community school of "Sa-k-la-k-wel"–which translates into "If you survive it, you will see it."–and set in a picturesque but economically depressed location, the conical structure of the Earthship evokes spaceships that plan to leave earth for a more just future that we create and imagine together. Francis also includes video of Jane Finch Action Against Poverty as she follows them into the 2017 May Day march, an action which seek greater justice right where we are. Nazzal‘s is a community engaged project of "Cross Stitching Solidarity" using Palestinian embroidery techniques to bring people together at the gallery to make something that is larger then the sum of its parts. Francis and Nazzal, although using disparate visual strategies, both propose a kind of transnational solidarity that implicates, resists, and creates new possibilities for Mikinaakominis/Canada.
Biographies
Malinda Francis (a docuvixen film) is a Toronto based videomaker. Francis’ creation is based in an integrated consent driven process throughout the production period. Her immersed/imbeded community led process includes shared partnership/ownership models with the community members she documents. Malinda Francis has been following Jane Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP), a resident led action group which aims to eliminate poverty, for 9 years. She conceptualizes her work with JFAAP as an ongoing community story-telling project. She has been in production of her feature film called The Diaspora Travels: Haiti for 6 years. This project follows Haitian and diaspora led reconstruction projects after the 2010 Earthquake.
Rehab Nazzal is a Palestinian-born multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. Nazzal is currently an MFA candidate, Documentary Media Program, Ryerson University. She holds a BFA, University of Ottawa, Post Grad Studies, International Economic Relations, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, and B.A in Economics, Damascus University, Syria. Nazzal has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally in group and solo exhibitions, including International Yellowknife Film Festival, Montreal Palestine Film festival, SAW Video for the Media Arts, International Mini Print Festival, Gallery 101, and Ottawa X- photography Festival among other shows. Nazzal received a number of awards and grants including Edmund and Isobel Ryan Visual Arts award in photography, University of Ottawa, Documentary Photography for social Justice Award, Ryerson University, Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Ryerson University Scholarship, and city of Ottawa grant among others. Nazzal taught photography and drawing for several years at the Ottawa School of Art.
Vicky Moufawad-Paul (she/her) is a Toronto based curator and writer. She is the Director/Curator at A Space Gallery. She has curated exhibitions at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Carlton University Art Gallery, Gallery 101, MAI: Montreal arts interculturels, Latitude 53, Museum London, McIntosh Gallery, Contact Photography Festival, InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, A Space Gallery, and 16 Beaver. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario and an MFA in Film and Video from York University. Moufawad-Paul has published texts on several artists including Harun Farocki, James Luna, Emily Jacir, Wafaa Bilal, Taysir Batniji, Paul Dennis Miller, Deirdre Logue, Mohammed Mohsen, Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen, Juan Ortiz-Apuy, Basil AlZeri, Erica Lord, John Halak, Rehab Nazzal, Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Akram Zaatari, and Yto Barrada.