Close Knit by Aganetha Dyck. Courtesy of The Art Bank

Thunderstruck

Aganetha Dyck, Brendan Fernandes, Angela Miracle Gladue, Jillian Groening, La calq, Michelle Latimer

A Space Main Gallery

November 21 – December 18, 2019

Opening November 21, 2019, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm

Curated by: Jenn Goodwin

Opening night performance of Reverence by Brendan Fernandes- November 21, 2019. 7:00pm

Reverence is a performance by Brendan Fernandes that intervenes at cultural events and in public spaces where the dynamic of watching and being watched take place. Breaking the fourth wall and leveling the performer and the viewer, the work invites the tension and awkwardness of gratitude into the audience's space by subjecting them to a corps of dancers bowing in procession. The work incorporates this gesture repetitively to question its relation to class, privilege and hegemony.

The works of six artists are brought together to explore ideas of presence through movement, repetition, and landscape, employing the undercurrent of dance. Through these corporeal and material gestures the exhibition also considers the traces left behind in a physical practice.

Through repetition of a gesture or action, greater resonance and impact results through the recurrence; a dance move to a pulsing rhythm, a hand threading beads over and over again, a list of names cycling iteratively to create a community, a visual that is greater than the sum of its parts. Each piece creates an alternative focal point to the exhibit, and together, the works on display emphasize that physical and lived intelligence, somatic storytelling, body to body transmissions and connections, are not fleeting or ephemeral, but hold their own immense place and power.

Special thanks to the Art Bank for their support of this exhibition, as it is a redacted version of the exhibition at the Âjagemô in Ottawa.

Biographies

Aganetha Dyck, born 1937, is an acclaimed artist known internationally for her collaborations with live honeybees and her transformation of domestic objects and processes. Since the late seventies, her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions across Canada, in the U.S., England, France and in the Netherlands and is held in collections of major galleries including The Vancouver Art Gallery, The Winnipeg Art Gallery and The National Gallery of Canada. A selection of awards include The Manitoba Arts Council Award of Distinction (2007), Canada’s Gorvernor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts (2007). Winnipeg Art City’s Award (2013). Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making a Mark Award (2014).

Born in Kenya of Indian heritage, Brendan Fernandes immigrated to Canada in the 1990s. He earned his MFA (2005) from The University of Western Ontario and his BFA (2002) from York University in Canada. Accolades include: grants from The Ontario and Canada Councils for the Arts including the prestigious International Residency in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2007 he will have three solo shows across Canada and has been invited to exhibit in the Western New York Biennial at The Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY. Fernandes recently completed the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and is presently participating in The Lower Manhattan Cultural CouncilÕs Work Space Residency program. He currently resides in New York and continues to exhibit both nationally and internationally.

Angela Miracle Gladue (Cree name Iskoces (Little Fire/Spark) and b-girl name “Lunacee”) began fancy shawl and Metis dancing at age six. By 17, she learned the traditional art of beadwork to make powwow regalia and gifts for people. At 18, Angela met a group of Indigenous b-boys in Edmonton and became a student of hip-hop culture and break dancing. She has trained under several teachers and trailblazers and has battled and performed at countless events worldwide. Most recently, she’s performed as a lead dancer with A Tribe Called Red.

Jillian Groening’s work explores care, resilience, and embodied memory while shifting in and through transdisciplinary methods of movement scoring. Her performance work has been presented through MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art), Jazz Winnipeg, and Plug In ICA’s Summer Institute, and her art writing has been supported by The Dance Current, Dance International, and Young Lungs Dance Exchange. Groening holds a BA(Hons) in Dance from the School of Contemporary Dancers in affiliation with the University of Winnipeg and is currently pursuing a Masters in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University.

La calq is an anonymous artist, as well as a minor dance institution. Taking its name from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec (CALQ), it uses the feminine to highlight and challenge the hegemonic political structures embedded in cultural heritage institutions. La calq’s choreographic works, writings, and installations aim to undo cultural objectivity by insisting that dance institutions be minor, loose, ever in motion and risk disappearing.

Michelle Latimer (Metis/Algonquin) is the showrunner, director and writer of the Viceland series RISE, which premiered at the Sundance Festival and won Best Documentary Program at the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards. While filming RISE, Michelle spent 9 months documenting the Standing Rock occupation in North Dakota. Her short film NUUCA, explores the relationship between extractive industries and violence perpetrated on Indigenous women and girls. Her films have screened internationally including at Sundance, TIFF, Berlin, and Cannes.

Jenn Goodwin is a graduate of the Master of Visual Studies – Curatorial Studies program at the University of Toronto. She received a BFA from Concordia University in Contemporary Dance with a minor in video. She is a dance artist, curator, and producer. Over the last 20 years her dance work and short films have been shown across Canada and internationally from St. John’s Newfoundland, The Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa, Tangente and Studio 303 in Montreal, The Next Wave in Melbourne, Australia, Brussels, Amsterdam, New York City, Vancouver and extensively in Toronto. Goodwin is one half of the art band MORTIFIED with Camilla Singh which is a band that uses choreography, drum kits, tap dancing, and cheerleading as its instruments. Goodwin has worked with Toronto’s Nuit Blanche since it’s inception in 2006 and has curated performance and exhibitions for Summerworks Festival (2016), The Drake Hotel, and Harbourfront Centre. She has written for the Journal for Curatorial Studies, Canadian Theatre Review and The Dance Current. She lives in Toronto with her husband and their two sons.