PAST EXHIBITIONS
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![Kieran Dick: Bleigießen [lead casting]](/content/ryerson/ric/exhibitions/epast/jcr%3acontent/center/uiwtextimage_2/image.img.jpg/1371565852361.jpg "Kieran Dick: Bleigießen [lead casting]")
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Ken Woroner: Hardscrabble
June 19 – July 14, 2013
Student Gallery
Photograph Caption: Ken Woroner, Rachel, Golden Valley, Ontario, 2011
Now known as Golden Valley, Hardscrabble was the name European settlers first gave to the small northern Ontario community upon their arrival in the 1870s. These two names neatly bracket the combination of struggle and promise present in this rural location and its starkly beautiful, economically challenging terrain. Straddling a divide between subjective concerns and empathetic engagement, this series of photographs blends the personal with the documentary. While disparate elements arc from introspection to wider perspectives, veiled references to intergenerational trauma imbue the work with a somber subtext. These images of Golden Valley focus on the struggle to survive–the Hardscrabble.
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Images of Women and War
June 4 - 14, 2013
Salah J. Bachir New Media Wall
Photograph Credit: Photographer Unknown, [“THE PENTAGON, NERVE CENTRE OF DEFENSE. The Pentagon has the largest private branch telephone exchange in the world. Occupying 32,000 square feet, it has facilities for accommodating a city of 125,000. It also has available facilities for 300 operators and supervisors. This is one of several restricted areas in the building”], Arlington County, Virginia, no date. BS.2005.276421 / 172-525
The Women and War project is an exploration of the female experience within war. It attempts to create a greater understanding of women who were and are exposed to war. Targeted issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder help bring focus to the outcomes and effects war has on women.
Over 60 photographs (including versos) selected from the Black Star Collection will be shown on the Salah J. Bachir New Media Wall to coincide with the conference and theatre performances in Toronto. This project is particularly timely as we see Canadian troops returning from the war in Afghanistan.
Co-developed by Peggy Shannon and Candice Monson Women and War is a multi-dimensional project, which uses theatre performances in conjunction with workshops and symposia in Greece, Croatia and Canada to generate discussions related to women’s experiences of war and post-traumatic stress disorder.
In July 2012 the project began in Greece with a conference, theatre and dance performances and a photography exhibition of images from Ryerson’s Black Star Collection in Athens, Greece.
The three plays developed for this project are based on Greek mythology. Written to encourage social discourse through the artistic approach of acting and dance. Each play parallels Greek myths with modern day warfare, spotlighting the issue of post-war and it’s effect on women and society. The three productions were written by leading female playwrights: Judith Thompson (Canada), Timberlake Wertenbaker (Britain) and Velina Hasu Houston (USA/Japan). Truly a creative approach – the impact is sure to be great.
The project, which received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in the spring of 2011, will continue until 2013. Additional support has been provided by Ryerson University, the Ontario Arts Council, the University of Athens and Mirvish Productions.
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ARNAUD MAGGS
SCOTIABANK PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD
May 1 - June 2, 2013
Main Gallery
Arnaud Maggs (1926 – 2012) was an artist of rigour, crystal clear vision, humour, and a humbling sense of awe for singular moments and the connections between them. Like other great artists before him, Arnaud Maggs leaves behind a wealth of artistic creation that at once challenges and adds to our understanding of the photographic medium. The Scotiabank Photography Award (SPA) exhibition at the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC) features a selection of work handpicked and poignantly curated by the artist during his final months: Kunstakademie (1980), André Kertész: 144 Views (1980), The Dada Portraits (2010) and After Nadar: Pierrot Turning (2012). Through the exhibition the ever-introspective Maggs allows us a glimpse of the photographer himself.
In 1973, when he was 47 and a successful illustrator and fashion photographer, Maggs decided to become an artist. The production of his first major work, 64 Portrait Studies (1976-1978), laid the foundation for an artistic practice to which he remained devoted. His career was one of continuous development, remarkable technical expertise, incredible attention to detail, and visual brilliancy. Maggs adopted photography as an artistic tool to document people and objects. The history of photography, archival research and process, were all-significant to him. In Spring & Arnaud (a 2013 documentary by Marcia Connolly and Katherine Knight) Maggs, addressing his work, says fittingly: “For me, it’s a record of myself, of my existence.”
The Scotiabank Photography Award (SPA) is designed to raise the international profile of Canada’s leading photographic artists. For more information please visit: www.scotiabankphotoaward.com
Presented by Scotiabank
Organized by the Ryerson Image Centre
In partnership with the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival
Photo Caption: Arnaud Maggs, After Nadar: Turning Pierrot, 2012 © Estate of Arnaud Maggs, Courtesy of Susan Hobbs Gallery
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Lead and Light: The Evolution of Lumiere Press
May 1 – June 2, 2013
Student Gallery
Lead and Light explores twenty-seven years of hand-printed, hand-bound photography books published by Toronto’s Lumiere Press. The press, launched in 1986 by Canadian photographer Michael Torosian, has produced twenty-two limited edition volumes to date, on a diverse array of photographers including Paul Strand, Edward Steichen, Aaron Siskind, and Edward Burtynsky. Using material selected from the press archives—from manuscripts to maquettes, as well as original prints by major twentieth-century photographers—the exhibition focuses on the creative and intellectual processes by which Lumiere Press publications are researched, designed, and meticulously produced.
This exhibition and accompanying publication have been produced by second-year students in the Photographic Preservation and Collections Management Master of Arts programme at Ryerson University, Toronto, under the direction of Professor David Harris.
With special thanks to the generous support of the Howard and Carole Tanenbaum Family Charitable Foundation.
Photograph Caption: A box of magnesium plates used in printing design elements of Lumiere Press publications.
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HUMAN RIGHTS HUMAN WRONGS
January 23 – April 14, 2013
Curator: Mark Sealy
Main Gallery
WARNING: Please be aware, this exhibition contains photographs that may be disturbing to viewers due to the graphic or violent nature of the subject matter. Viewer discretion and parental guidance are advised.
Using the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a point of departure, HUMAN RIGHTS HUMAN WRONGS examines whether images of political struggle, suffering and victims of violence work for or against humanitarian objectives, especially when considering questions of race, representation, ethical responsibility and the cultural position of the photographer.
Featuring more than 300 original prints from the prestigious Black Star Collection, HUMAN RIGHTS HUMAN WRONGS begins circa 1945 and includes photographs of well-known Civil Rights Movement events such as the Selma to Montgomery March and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The exhibition also features images of the independence movements in many African countries, a selection of portraits of Nobel Peace Prize winners, and photographs, magazines and books which document protests, war and conflict from the Vietnam War to the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.
The exhibition functions as a catalytic enquiry into photojournalistic practice, addressing the legacy of how photographs have historically functioned in raising awareness of international conflict. It critically considers the cultural meaning these photographs produce, how inhumane acts are rendered photographically for us to look at, and the visual legacy they leave behind. We see the wide dissemination of photographic images of humankind in abject, euphoric or violently explicit conditions. How do these images assist us in understanding the case for civil and human rights?
Guest Curator Mark Sealy has a special interest in photography and its relationship to social change, identity politics and human rights.
Since 1991 as director of Autograph ABP he has initiated the production of many publications, exhibitions and residency projects and commissioned photographers and filmmakers worldwide. In 2002, he jointly initiated and developed a £7.96 million capital building project (Rivington Place), which opened in 2007 and developed in partnership with the Institute of International Visual Arts.
He has written for several international photography publications, including Foam Magazine (Amsterdam), Aperture (New York) and Next Level (London). Published in 2002, Sealy’s book project published by Phaidon Press Limited entitled Different, focuses on photography and identity and is produced in partnership with Professor Stuart Hall.
His most recent curated projects include the commissioning of The Unfinished Conversation a film-work by John Akomfrah on the political life of Professor Stuart Hall first staged at the Bluecoat Gallery as part of the Liverpool Biennial 2012. Roma-Sinti-Kale-Manush, a group show that examined the representation of Roma Communities across Europe was on display at Rivington Place (London) from May 25 to July 28, 2012.
He has served as a jury member for several prestigious photography awards including the World Press Photo Competition. He has also guest lectured extensively throughout the UK and abroad including The Royal College of Art and has recently devised MA studies programs for Sotheby’s Institute of Art on global photography.
Sealy is currently a PhD candidate at Durham Centre for Advanced Photographic Studies at Durham University, England. His research and curatorial practice focuses on photography and cultural violence.
In February 2010, Mark Sealy conducted an interview with Civil Rights photographers Bob Fitch and Matt Herron. To watch an excerpt of the interview, please click here.
A 30-minute audio tour guided by Mark Sealy, which accompanies the exhibition is available here. A transcript of the audio guide is also available here.
Presented by TD Bank Group.
With additional funding the Paul J. Ruhnke Memorial Fund, the Howard and Carole Tanenbaum Family Charitable Foundation and Ryerson University.
HUMAN RIGHTS HUMAN WRONGS is a collaboration with Autograph ABP (supported by Arts Council England).
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Alfredo Jaar: The Politics of Images
January 23 – April 14, 2013
Curator: Dr. Gaëlle Morel
University Gallery
Focusing on human rights, the Chilean-born, New York-based artist addresses political concerns and the relationship between ethics and aesthetics. His œuvre highlights ignored contemporary tragedies, such as genocides, epidemics and famines, and promotes cultural change.
In his works “Searching for Africa in Life” (1996) and “From Time to Time” (2006), Alfredo Jaar displays covers of news magazines to analyze the lack of visibility and the visual clichés about Africa disseminated in Western culture.
The artist’s three-channel video “We Wish to Inform You That We Didn’t Know” (2010), his most recent project on the genocide in Rwanda, acts as an epilogue to “The Rwanda Project, 1994-2000”, a series of twenty-five artworks developed to critique the world’s indifference and inaction to this mass murder.
Alfredo Jaar: The Politics of Images is made possible with the generous support of the artist.
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Clive Holden: UNAMERICAN UNFAMOUS
January 23 – April 14, 2013
Curator: Dr. Gaëlle Morel
Media Wall
Is it un-American to be un-famous? Are Americans failures if they die without fame?
Drawing from the Black Star Collection at Ryerson University, Clive Holden creates UNAMERICAN UNFAMOUS using the “un-famous” as an organizing principle in his selection of one hundred image details and faces. Plucked from obscurity, these people can be found in the backgrounds of famous photographs, or simply hidden in the depths of a photographic archive. At times they are literally seen over the shoulders of celebrities in the iconic photographs that capture the “American Century”.
The work’s media tile construction is made with a hybrid adaptation of photographic, cinematic, and web tools. Its many cultural influences arise from a wide variety of media and genres as the work spans the divide between time-based and non-time-based art forms. It also uses film leader as raw material (the beginning and end pieces of film reels). With a complex series of randomizing algorithms, these film loops are juxtaposed and continually remixed with the “unsung human leaders” found in the Black Star Collection, as well as with photographs of local un-famous un-Americans nominated by members of the general public. The work will evolve over the course of the exhibition as more images are submitted via social media.
You are invited to nominate a photograph of someone who is both un-American and unjustly un-famous for inclusion in UNAMERICAN UNFAMOUS. Nominations will be accepted until March 15th, 2013. Details are online at www.unamericanunfamous.com.
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Gemma Warren: Year Zero. A Prison With No Walls
March 20 – April 14, 2013
Student Gallery
A reflection on the relationship between memory, trauma, past, and present, the work focuses specifically on the repercussions of the Khmer Rouge genocide, which took place throughout Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The landscape photographs in this series provide a visual framework as documents of present sites inhabited by traumatic histories. Incorporating direct quotes from survivors, Warren creates a dynamic that reveals a gap between the atrocities that were suffered and what the landscape fails to reveal. Similar to the photographs, video and audio are looped to display images and sounds specific to S-21 Tuol Sleng prison and Choeung Ek Killing Fields, placing the viewer directly in front of the sites where so many lost their lives.
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From the Archive
January 23 - April 14, 2013
Selection by Sheldon Levy, President of Ryerson University
Great Hall
From the Archive begins a new series, where guest curators are invited to select photographs from the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC) Collection that will be displayed in vitrines located in the Great Hall of the gallery. RIC Director, Doina Popescu, explains that From the Archive “opens up the collection in exciting new ways to colleagues and friends of the Ryerson Image Centre, allowing them to participate directly in the activities of the centre and to share their personal selections and points of view with our visitors.”
Sheldon Levy, President of Ryerson University, is the first guest to make a selection of prints from the Black Star Collection. President Levy selected images by Civil Rights photographers Bob Fitch and Matt Herron, which will be on view from January 23 through April 14, 2013.
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Dominic Nahr: Captive State
January 23 – March 10, 2013
Student Gallery
In August 2011, Dominic Nahr travelled to Mogadishu with Alex Perry (TIME’s Africa Bureau Chief) to document the famine in Southern Somalia. They found overwhelming suffering and death. Around 150,000 of the 2.8 million Somalis affected eventually starved to death. Almost as appalling was the knowledge that a US anti-terrorism policy unwittingly blocked aid to the famine areas for years. Perry writes, “if drought set the conditions for last year’s famine in East Africa, it was man who ensured it.” When Nahr and Perry returned the Mogadishu the following year, the improvements were tangible. Al-Shabab had been cleared from the city by an African Union force. But as Perry states, “if Mogadishu was enjoying its longest sustained peace in 21 years of civil war, you couldn’t mistake that for a return to normality.”
Dominic Nahr graduated from the photography program at Ryerson University in 2008. He is represented by O’Born Contemporary in Toronto, and is a TIME Contract Photographer and Magnum Photos Nominee.
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