The Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) launched four new fall exhibitions on Sept. 12.
The exhibitions are We Are Continually Exposed to the Flashbulb of Death: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg (1953-1996), TRANSACTIONS, Patricia Reed: The One and the Many and genderhow?
All four exhibitions have common themes of identity and belonging.
“One of the common threads throughout all the exhibitions is the idea of the categories that are imposed upon us, but also categories that we self-identify with,” said Heather Anderson, curator at CUAG. “Of course, there’s pervasive categories like gender, sexuality, race, and citizenship, but throughout the exhibitions, there’s ideas of how you create a sense of belonging.”
The exhibition opening party received a turnout of about 200 people over the course of the evening. Kama La Mackerel performed spoken word poetry, and DJ Memetic performed a vinyl set.
TRANSACTIONS is a group show of six artists: Kalkidan Assefa, Coco Guzman, Elisha Lim, Kama La Mackerel, Oli Rodriguez, and Morgan Sea. The show is about transgender activism.
“I curated a show that would have blown my mind when I was 18 or 19. I was thinking about the community here on campus and about the young students coming in who may be queer or curious, or just even for the non-queer students who want to brush up their education and support and be a good ally to their queer friends,” said Cara Tierney, guest curator for TRANSACTIONS.
According to Anderson, TRANSACTIONS is meant to be a complement and counterpoint to Allen Ginsberg’s exhibit. His exhibit is a series of photographs drawn from an archive of thousands of photographs spanning the early 1950s to the 1990s. His photographs documented counterculture, queer counterculture, in particular.
“We called Cara Tierney to put together a show that would be almost like an updating of the ideas expressed in [Ginsberg]’s exhibition,” Anderson said.
Patricia Reed’s The One and the Many exhibit uses symbols of the nationstate, such as anthems and flags, to highlight the ways in which people are placed in categories globally. In one of the pieces, Reed takes excerpts from various national anthems to create one long audio piece.
Lastly, genderhow?, by Jennifer Dickson, Kent Monkman, Gabrielle de Montmollin, Becky Singleton, and Douglas Walker, features photographs and video works to explore the conventional notions of femininity and masculinity.
TRANSACTIONS and genderhow? will run until February, while Ginsberg’s exhibit and The One and the Many will run until December.
There will be several events in the next few months to accompany the exhibits, such as workshops, artist talks, and panels. During these events, the washrooms on the lower level just outside the gallery will be gender-inclusive.
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