Scott Benesiinaabandan Frances Adair Mckenzie Payam Mofidi Aaron Pollard Future (Im)perfect

Date(s): Nov 16 to Dec 14 2019

Exhibition

Opening and 35 years of OBORO (festive evening of performances)
Saturday, November 16, 2019, 5 p.m. Free entry, contributions are welcome

The exhibition Future (Im)perfect, curated by Aaron Pollard with the participation of Anne Parisien, features works by Scott Benesiinaabandan, Frances Adair Mckenzie and Payam Mofidi.

Rooted in feminist, postcolonial and indigenous futures, the proposals from these three Montreal artists offers critical and audacious perspectives on territories and bodies that speak to OBORO’s mandate while inviting us to take a look forward to the next 35 years. Frances Adair Mckenzie’s virtual reality exploration entitled Space Portrait invites contemplation, addressing the body as territory and industrial control over our insides. Reproduced as stereoscopic imagery in the virtual reality headset, Mckenzie’s objects echo throughout the exhibition space. Payam Mofidi’s sculptural installation and video projections form part of an ambitious body of work called Colonial Body Islands. With shrouded figures, water and light, Mofidi evokes the current and impending mass movement of people, underlining the devastating impact of dominant powers on the body politic. Scott Benesiinaabandan points to Anishnaabe ceremonial and learning lodges as a way of unpacking photographic processes and considering our relationship with light. In his piece I am the sun. We are medicines wrapped in light, Benesiinaabandan hones in on the ubiquitous blue tarp as a connecting fabric that encompasses differing languages and ceremonial structures.

Further readings:

Scott Benesiinaabandan is an Anishinabe intermedia artist that works primarily in photography, printmaking and video. Scott has recently completed international residencies at Parramatta Artist Studios in Australia (2012), Context Gallery in Derry, North of Ireland (2010) and is most recently been awarded the University Lethbridge/Royal Institute of Technology iAIR residency 2013, along with international collaborative projects in both the U.K and Ireland.

http://www.benesiinaabandan.com/

Frances Adair Mckenzie is an interdisciplinary artist based in Montréal whose practice includes video installation, sculpture, animation, and collaborative ventures. She holds a diploma in New Media from B.C.I.T. and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University. She has exhibited work at the Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides; Centre Clark and Oboro in Montréal; and Parisian Laundry and the Satosphère of the Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT).

http://francesadair.com/

Payam Mofidi is a multidisciplinary artist born in 1980 in Tehran, Iran, and based in Montreal. A unique lyrical aesthetic language and an epistemological expression are central to his process of creating and narrating his works. Mofidi’s practice deals with paradoxical notions: power and decline, agony and comfort, innocence and impurity. He often portrays his characters in situations where they seem to trapped in loops, which metaphorically evokes the actuality of humanity and the global social order and control.

Aaron Pollard is a multidisciplinary artist from Montreal who has been producing and presenting video art and multimedia performances since the early 1990s. His works have been shown in Canada and abroad. He studied at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design and Concordia University, where he completed an MFA. He is the co-founder of 2boys.tv as well as researcher and head of OBORO’s multimedia sector.

http://www.2boys.tv/