as I walk Toronto

an exhibit at Doris McCarthy Gallery, U of T Scarborough.

“Bringing together artists who consider the power dynamics of image-making in their distinct practices, Now You See Me includes Black, Indigenous, and artists of colour, who variously identify as women, femme, and non-binary. They use photography to explore issues related to gender and cultural identity, asserting themselves as directors of their own images to pose questions about the complex cultural and gender-related politics that underlie self-representation.”

The above quote comes from the Doris McCarthy Gallery website where you can find more information about the exhibit.

below: “Skin Deep” by Chun Hua Catherine Dong shows self-portraits ‘masked’ in Chinese silk fabrics, a gesture that implies submission.

below: A video by Vivek Shraya titled “Legends of the Trans” is a photoessay based on “Legends of the Fall”, a 1994 movie starring Brad Pitt.  Throughout the essay, the main character, Tristan, wears a bindi (coloured dot) on his/her forehead.

below: Meryl McMaster juxtaposes a self-portrait with a hand written copy of a poem called ‘Onondaga Madonna’ written by Duncan Campbell Scott in 1898. Scott was the deputy superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932.  He played a predominant role in the establishment of residential schools; under his direction the forcible removal of Indigenous children from their homes to attend residential schools was made compulsory,

below: Danya Danger presents three photos of women in embellished black leather fetish masks as she explores the relationships between sexuality, gender, and power.

below: Gaëlle Elma has a couple of large photos in this group exhibit. Her work deals with perceptions of sexuality, human bodies, and blackness.

below: Leila Fatemi has centered her exhibit around vintage postcards of Muslim women.  Here they are printed such that the image depends on the angle from which you view the picture.

“Generated from different perspectives and experiences, these works share a reckoning with the historical and contemporary uses of the camera as a tool to perpetuate degradative narratives.”