Sitting together in a wide circle, a group gathered for the opening of the exhibition Universal Loss discussed the various works of five artists lining the walls of Gallery 101 on Jan. 21. It was a conversation about loss—a central theme to each of the pieces.
Ray Battams, an attendee, seemed emotional as he told artist Michèle Pearson Clarke how her photography set “It’s Good to Be Needed” has moved him.
He said this roundtable-style talk allowed him to understand why he was moved by the pieces surrounding him.
“It really is beautiful because it really touched me. It was so bittersweet and I didn’t know why; and now I know why,” he said.
The exhibition opened with a vernissage, and the round table discussion, and runs until Feb. 18. Curated by Ulysses Castellanos and soJin Chun, it features six artists: Michèle Pearson Clarke, Jinyoung Kim, Agustina Comedi, Alvaro and Boris Castellanos, and Gretchen Sankey. The works themselves range from photography and video to animated watercolour, and cover themes of loss in relation to spaces of home, sexuality, and relationships.
Gallery 101 is an artist-run, nonprofit centre located in Ottawa that showcases visual and media arts from Canadian and international artists alike. Georgia Mathewson, the gallery’s administrator, highlighted the diversity in both the artists’ backgrounds and the ways they interpreted loss.
“Sometimes people think of loss as just dealing with mourning and death, but loss can be loss of a dream, loss of a relationship, loss of childhood, nostalgia, these sort of things,” Mathewson said.
Castellanos, one of the curators with an endless supply of pop culture references, said he decided upon the theme of loss along with his fellow curator Chun because of its inescapable impact on people’s lives. According to him, no one can avoid loss, and this exhibition is meant to acknowledge its inevitability and the ways in which people document and overcome it.
“I hate the Clash but they have that song that says ‘I’ve been shown up, but I’ve grown up/ And I’m not down, I’m not down,’ and I think that’s pretty much what this show is about for me,” he said. He added that loss eventually results in some sort of progress.
Battams said life and loss culminate in one emblematic metaphor—the life raft—because you choose which items you’ll take with you on your raft, and which will sink the boat—what elements of the loss you experience will make you stronger, and which only hurt.
“What do you leave on shore, what do you throw down the slot, and what do you need so you can go lightly in whatever direction the wind is going to come and whip you?” Battams said.
– Photo by Angela Tilley. Works featured are “Foundation”, 2015 by Jinyoung Kim (sculpture); Left, “Objects on the Rooftop, Variation 6,” 2015 by Jinyoung Kim; Right, “Objects on the Rooftop, Variation 4,” 2015 by Jinyoung Kim. Photos are from the “Genealogy of Stationary Objects” series, 2015
