Thursday, February 13, 2014
FRAMING DAMES Exhibition Framing: Erika Defreitas' Exhibition "FACE VALUE"
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| Erica very happy with her framed work! |
Framing Dames is extremely privileged to have framed 10 pieces for Erica Defeitas' up coming exhibition "FACE VALUE"!
photo credit: I Am Not Tragically Colored (after Zora Neale Hurston) detail, by Erika DeFreitas, 2013-2014, photo credit: Daniel Ehrenworth
FACE VALUE at Gallery 1313
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 20, 7-9pm
Exhibition Run: February 19 – March 2, 2014
ARTISTS: Jordan Clarke, Erika DeFreitas, Olivia McGilchrist
CURATOR: Heidi McKenzie
The exhibition Face Value explores the complexities of mixed-race identity described by theorist Diana Taylor as "the double-coded neither/nor subjectivity." The three artists featured in the exhibition engage in self-portraiture to narrate their experiences of being mixed race women of Caribbean / European descent. In the artists' work, the mask is the focal point of self-reflexive inquiry − one that embodies, interrogates, and performs mixed-race in order to destabilize racialized stereotypes. The artists' use of masks – both literally and metaphorically – challenges society's ideas of who these women might be, at face value.
Jordan Clarke's self-portraits span a three-year process in which she produces paintings that represent herself in relation to her understanding of how others perceive the way she looks. Her use of masks both affirms her own sense of identity and challenges the way others see her as neither black nor white, but 'something in between.'
Erika DeFreitas uses language to subvert racial categorization. Her series of nine self-portraits enunciate the American anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston's phrase "I am not tragically colored." DeFreitas distorts these words by pressing her mouth against a plexiglass barrier. The resulting gestures symbolize a struggle between language and its embodiment, racial preconceptions and self-determination.
Olivia McGilchrist's photography and video installation focus on her sense of identity as a white woman born in Jamaica who has recently discovered that her family has African ancestry. Embedding herself in the Jamaican landscape to evoke the ghosts of this unknown ancestry, McGilchrist questions her complicity in the ongoing inequities of her native country.
Gallery 1313
1313 Queen Street West (at Brock)
Wednesdays – Sundays 1pm – 6pm
416-536-6778
www.gallery1313.org
Jordan Clarke's self-portraits span a three-year process in which she produces paintings that represent herself in relation to her understanding of how others perceive the way she looks. Her use of masks both affirms her own sense of identity and challenges the way others see her as neither black nor white, but 'something in between.'
Erika DeFreitas uses language to subvert racial categorization. Her series of nine self-portraits enunciate the American anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston's phrase "I am not tragically colored." DeFreitas distorts these words by pressing her mouth against a plexiglass barrier. The resulting gestures symbolize a struggle between language and its embodiment, racial preconceptions and self-determination.
Olivia McGilchrist's photography and video installation focus on her sense of identity as a white woman born in Jamaica who has recently discovered that her family has African ancestry. Embedding herself in the Jamaican landscape to evoke the ghosts of this unknown ancestry, McGilchrist questions her complicity in the ongoing inequities of her native country.
Gallery 1313
1313 Queen Street West (at Brock)
Wednesdays – Sundays 1pm – 6pm
416-536-6778
www.gallery1313.org
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