>>PREVIEW
KC ADAMS AND FARHEEN HAQ
Runs until December 16
TRUCK Gallery
Identity and its many facets go to the heart of photography in an exhibition at Truck Gallery titled In-Between.
The photographer is KC Adams, a young woman from Manitoba who has recently been gaining attention for the explorations of her Aboriginal background through art.
In this case, Adams uses her Cyborg Hybrid series to comment on the place that exists in between European and Aboriginal cultures. Also, a place between high fashion and low thoughts.
She uses digitally manipulated colour photos to create what at first looks curiously similar to shots from glossy fashion magazines.
Yet as an Aboriginal woman, Adams knows all too well that few magazines ever feature models with dark complexions in their pages and certainly not models wearing T-shirts with words stitched into them such as "scalping is in my blood" or "savage."
Conjuring the worst of what too many Canadians have privately (and sometimes publicly) thought of Aboriginal people can be risky territory. Adams has commented in the past that these photos have been viewed as offensive. Let’s hope so. The point, if it isn’t already obvious, is to smash our complacency over the head and awaken that place in our brains that is able to reflect on why we might be uncomfortable, even hostile, to someone who looks different than ourselves.
Although these photographs succeed, a strong argument could be made that the words on the models’ clothing distracts from instead of reinforcing the overarching theme. The imagery alone is strong enough to strike out at stereotypes through Adams’ effective de-construction of fashion’s conventions.
Using herself and her friends as models, Adams presents an altered world where stereotypes of Aboriginals (and indirectly Aboriginal art) are confronted.
Sadly, Canada remains a rich breeding ground for contempt of First Nations people. And this is all too common in the art world, where gallery owners have happily exploited Aboriginal artists for sizable profits. Aboriginal artists have also been complicit in many cases by cranking out drawings and paintings for eagles, wolves and bears for a marketplace that feeds this rumbling hunger of mediocrity.
Adams and a growing number of contemporary artists in Canada are thankfully turning away from this cultural pigeonhole to deliver something new, fresh, even unique.
Originally from Selkirk, Manitoba, Adams is also a graduate of Concordia University’s bachelor of fine arts program and a former staff member of the Plug in Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg.
Although the photographs on the gallery’s walls are convincing, the most telling part of this stereotype-smashing exhibition is that it was created by a university-educated woman of Aboriginal descent who is helping usher in a new wave of contemporary art in Canada.
Also included in this exhibition is a video installation titled Endless Tether by Fareen Haq. |
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