Dawit L. Petros, Sign. 2003
Image courtesy Wedge Collection and Tiwani Contemporary. ⓒ 2020 Dawit L. Petros.
“Do I look more African than Canadian? If I permit this am I saying Canadians are white and Africans are Black? And if one is Black one cannot have been born here, one cannot be Canadian.”
— Austin Clarke
“Cultural identity… is a matter of becoming as well as being. It belongs to the future as much as to the past. It is not something which already exists, transcending place, time, history and culture.”
— Stuart Hall
James Barnor, Drum Cover Girl Erlin Ibreck, London, 1966.
Image courtesy of Wedge Collection, Autograph ABP. © 2020 James Barnor.
In-Conversation
with Dr. Mark Sealy MBE, Director of Autograph ABP and Dr. Kenneth Montague, Founder of Wedge Collection, moderated by Dr. Julie Crooks, Associate Curator of Photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Recorded discussion on the history and contemporary politics of Black identity as represented in Britain and in Canada.
Anique Jordan, 94 Chestnut at the Crossroads. 2016
Image courtesy Wedge Collection. ⓒ 2020 Anique Jordan.
Sandra Brewster, Blur 14, 2019.
Image courtesy Wedge Collection and Georgia Scherman Projects. ⓒ 2020 Sandra Brewster.
In-Conversation
with Liz Johnson Artur, London-based photographer and Anique Jordan, Toronto-based artist, curator and writer, moderated by Liz Ikiriko, independent curator. Recorded discussion on the importance of documenting Black daily life and the social and political value of self representation.
Liz Johnson Artur, Untitled, 2016.
Image courtesy Wedge Collection. ⓒ 2020 Liz Johnson Artur.
Joy Gregory, Autoportrait, 1989-1990.
Image courtesy Wedge Collection. ⓒ 2020 Joy Gregory.
Wedge Collection / Canada House / Position As Desired
Position As Desired: Exploring African Canadian Identity | Photographs from the Wedge Collection is the first major exhibition to examine the history, movement and experiences of Black Canadians through contemporary photography. This touring show was co-organized with the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto) where it first opened in 2010, before travelling to the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 (Halifax) in 2013, followed by an expanded presentation at the Art Gallery of Windsor in 2017. The Wedge Collection was established in 1997 in Toronto by Dr. Kenneth Montague. It is one of Canada’s largest privately owned collections of contemporary artworks that explore African diasporic culture and contemporary Black life.
The High Commission of Canada in partnership with The Wedge Collection will host a new version of Position As Desired at the Canada House Gallery in Trafalgar Square, London, UK in July 2021. In anticipation of the physical presentation, an online engagement will be on view beginning in October 2020. This newly curated arrangement will provide a discourse between Black British and Black Canadian lens-based artists works.
A showcase of works by notable Black British artists provides an important parallel to the Black Canadian artistic practices being explored in Position As Desired. Synergistic themes are on display, including beauty, memory, community and resistance to oppressive forces. There is also a strong connection through shared histories of migration and colonialism. However, significant differences are also apparent in the respective evolutions of personal style, expressions of protest, and regional perspectives of identity and representation.
The addition of important works by Black British artists will serve as a necessary reminder that the Black Canadian experience has many parallels across the diaspora.