The School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO) will be having an in-person exhibition this September to showcase the work of its graduating students. Originally scheduled in March, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the school to postpone and rethink the annual exhibition.
Micheal Tardioli, SPAO founder and director of education, said an online exhibition was not appealing because a virtual exhibition does not do the quality of students’ work justice.
He added that because the students’ work is in both large print format and a photo book, having an online exhibition would not be as experiential as seeing it in person.
Darren Pottie, SPAO gallery and programming manager, said that planning the exhibition required flexibility and patience because of the uncertainty of the situation.
“It’s both the normal planning process of an exhibition, but then there’s a whole second component where it’s, ‘How do we promote these students the best we can?’”
According to Pottie, this year’s exhibition will have digital components in addition to the in-person exhibition. There will be video-taped artist talks, exhibition installation views for people who are unable to come to the exhibition, and there will be more texts describing the work for people to read. These digital components also help market the students to the arts community and will remain a part of future exhibitions.
“I’m really happy from a gallery’s manager point of view that I don’t have to cancel it—it’s a huge rite of passage,” he said. “I remember my graduate exhibition, it’s that feeling of you working for two years for something and then you finally have it.”
From the students’ perspective, the COVID-19 pandemic allowed them to fully complete their artwork and their book for the exhibition.
“We have a better idea of our work, we also get to conceptualize our ideas a little more than we would have initially if this COVID thing didn’t happen,” Stephane Alexis, a recent SPAO graduate said. “So it’s a toss-up. I mean, it’s good and bad.”
Ava Margueritte, another recent SPAO graduate, added that the COVID-19 shutdown gave her the opportunity to slow down and finish her work.
“I think I’ve produced more work during the pandemic than I would have otherwise,” she said. “I started to become more playful and experimental and I branched out on to more painting and drawing, but I still did photography.”
Margueritte added that she also used photography as a therapeutic outlet.
“Usually, I’m very concept-based where this time I found it more of a healing process to use my camera for a tool to cope with what was going on, rather than to use it to kind of project a narrative,” she explained.
The students described the exhibition as a milestone in their artistic careers. Although the pandemic has slowed things down, this exhibition is an opportunity for them to present their work to audiences in Ottawa and around the world.
“It’s a compilation of everything we’ve learned,” Margo McDiarmid, another SPAO graduate and former CBC news anchor and journalist, said.
“What this show is for me, this is the best I can do at this point in my career as a photographer,” she added. “It’s really neat to be able to show that to my friends and my family, and also other people who look at photography critically.”
McDiarmid, whose project focuses on the “grim reality of winter” and the ways people cope with it, said that she hopes her work helps people think about winter, resilience and where this country is headed in the next few months.
Alexis said he hopes his project, which focuses on the history of Black hair and reclaiming heritage, helps to bring a sense of optimism and awareness to the Black community.
“I know there’s a lot of depression happening and a lot of mental health issues happening within the community, so I’m hoping to build some sort of awareness,” he said. “Hopefully, show our community in a different light in a way to give ourselves a little optimism for the future.”
Margueritte’s project focuses on coming of age, feminism, and looking at historic representations of women. She said for her, the ability for people to slow down and interact with the books is what matters most.
“I’m an artist with invisible disabilities, and you’ll get that from my art and that will kind of help the viewer understand a bit more about my work and where I’m coming from,” she said. “COVID has given us an opportunity to slow down and I’m really hoping that’s what comes out when people come to view our exhibition.”
Tardioli said he hopes that people come out to the exhibition so that the artists are able to get more eyes on their work.
“I would like to return to normal and get to the packed house—start doing the business of art again,” he said.
“Vernissages are maybe not a way to be intimate with the work, but it’s these artists here now [who] have to start to play the game and go to the shows and network, market their work,” he added. “The more people see their work, the better it is.”
The exhibition runs from Sept. 5 to Sept. 20. Details can be found on the SPAO website.
Featured image by Saarah Rasheed.
