Fossilized Sunshine
Dates TBC
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Camille Turner and Camal Pirbhai
Shaheer Zazai Larissa Sansour Lisa Jackson Wally Dion Timothy Yanick Hunter Curated by Matthew Kyba Image: Lisa Jackson, Biidaaban: First Light, 2018, still from the immersive virtual reality film. |
The Visual Arts Centre of Clarington is pleased to present Fossilized Sunshine, an exhibition exploring the relationship between cultural archeology and decolonial
counter-futurisms. Through Afghan, Palestinian, Indigenous, and Afro-Futurisms, the seven exhibiting artists dismantle colonial narratives by prioritizing polyphonic communities’ artefacts and their cultural histories. While conventional futurisms often rely on visionary technology, space travel, and science-fictive elements, Fossilized Sunshine is instead inspired by ethnoarchaeology, the study of contextualizing archaeological objects through the observation of contemporary cultures. Conflating past, present, and future, the artists use archaeological materials as catalysts to (re)invent diverging future realities severed from Western hegemony. |
Artist biographies
Camal Pirbhai was born in Canada but raised in Switzerland and trained as a couturier in soft furnishings in the UK. Drawing from his expertise fabricating large-scale textile projects, hand-sewn furnishings and intricate embellishments, Camal has evolved a multidisciplinary artistic practice exploring a wide array of materials, media processes such as sculpture, fiber, installation, painting, performance and media art. Although the majority of Camal’s work is commissioned for private collectors and is recognized for its esthetic beauty there is always a deeper layer of meaning.
Shaheer Zazai is a Toronto based Afghan-Canadian artist with a current studio practice both in painting and digital media. Zazai received a BFA from OCAD University in 2011 and was artist in residence at OCAD University as part of the Digital Painting Atelier in 2015.
Zazai’s practice focuses on exploring and attempting to investigate the development of cultural identity in the present geopolitical climate and diaspora. The digital works revolve around Microsoft Word and imagery drawn from traditional Afghan carpets. Through mimicking carpet-making methods, Zazai creates his own designs in Microsoft Word, where every knot of a carpet is translated into a typed character. While the digital is a process based exploration, the paintings have been an internal investigation into vulnerability and fear.
Zazai is a recipient of Ontario Arts Council grants and he was a finalist for EQ Bank’s Emerging Digital Artist Award in 2018. Since graduating, Zazai has had several solo and group exhibitions such as those at the Capacity 3 Gallery, CAFKA Biennial 2019, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant., Double Happiness Projects and Patel Brown Gallery. His digital works have been covered by CBC Arts in 2018, Ajam Media Collective in 2019 and Globe and Mail in 2020.
Zazai’s practice focuses on exploring and attempting to investigate the development of cultural identity in the present geopolitical climate and diaspora. The digital works revolve around Microsoft Word and imagery drawn from traditional Afghan carpets. Through mimicking carpet-making methods, Zazai creates his own designs in Microsoft Word, where every knot of a carpet is translated into a typed character. While the digital is a process based exploration, the paintings have been an internal investigation into vulnerability and fear.
Zazai is a recipient of Ontario Arts Council grants and he was a finalist for EQ Bank’s Emerging Digital Artist Award in 2018. Since graduating, Zazai has had several solo and group exhibitions such as those at the Capacity 3 Gallery, CAFKA Biennial 2019, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant., Double Happiness Projects and Patel Brown Gallery. His digital works have been covered by CBC Arts in 2018, Ajam Media Collective in 2019 and Globe and Mail in 2020.
Born in East Jerusalem, Larissa Sansour (PS/DK) studied Fine Art in Copenhagen, London and New York. She represented Denmark at the 58th Venice Biennale. Recent solo exhibitions include Dar El-Nimer in Beirut, Bluecoat in Liverpool, Chapter in Cardiff, New Art Exchange in Nottingham and Nikolaj Kunsthal in Copenhagen. Sansour is represented by Lawrie Shabibi in Dubai and Montoro 12 Contemporary Art in Rome and Brussels. She lives and works in London.
Timothy Yanick Hunter is a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in Toronto Canada. Hunter's practice employs strategies of bricolage to examine non-neutral relationships relating to Black and Afro-diasporic experiences as well as concurrent strategies of decolonization. His approach alternates between exploratory and didactic; with a focus on the political, cultural, and social richness of the Black Diaspora. Hunter's work often delves into speculative narratives and the intersections of physical space, digital space, and the intangible.
Wally Dion is a visual artist living and working in Binghamton, New York. He is a member of Yellow Quill First Nation (Salteaux). Dion holds a BFA from the University of Saskatchewan and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Throughout much of his career, Dion’s work has contributed to a broad conversation in the art world about identity and power, and can be interpreted as part of a much larger pan-American struggle by Indigenous peoples to be recognized: culturally, economically, and politically, by settler societies. Utilizing large scale portraiture, found object sculpture, site specific installation & kinetic sculpture Dion has expanded upon this practice to include themes of personal history & spirituality.
Dion has exhibited extensively throughout Canada & the USA and has had numerous solo exhibitions including: Wally Dion: Current (2019), Boise Art Museum; Color Wheel (2017), Urban Shaman Gallery, Winnipeg; Wally Dion: Star Blankets (2011), Ottawa Art Gallery; Thunderbird Series (2010), Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon; Red Worker (2008), Grunt Gallery, Vancouver; and Wally Dion (2008), MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina.
Dion has exhibited extensively throughout Canada & the USA and has had numerous solo exhibitions including: Wally Dion: Current (2019), Boise Art Museum; Color Wheel (2017), Urban Shaman Gallery, Winnipeg; Wally Dion: Star Blankets (2011), Ottawa Art Gallery; Thunderbird Series (2010), Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon; Red Worker (2008), Grunt Gallery, Vancouver; and Wally Dion (2008), MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina.
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