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Days of Reading: beyond this state of affairs

September 30, 2018 to December 30, 2018

Shannon Bool • Natalie Czech • Fabiola Carranza •  Raven Chacon (with Laura Ortman and Suzanne Kite) • Leah Decter • Sameer Farooq & Jared Stanley • Theaster Gates • Hassan Khan • Ken Lum • Sylvia Matas • Jeanne Randolph.
Curated by Sarah Nesbitt and Jenifer Papararo

Artist Talk with Shannon Bool
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Sameer Farooq, Jeanne Randolph & Jared Stanley in conversation
Friday, September 28, 2018
Nuit Blanche Opening
Saturday, September 29, 2018 | 7pm – 1am
Panel Discussion with Raven Chacon, Laura Ortman & Suzanne Kite
Saturday, September 29 , 2018 | 6pm
Performances by Laura Ortman & Suzanne Kite
Saturday, September 29, 2018 | 8pm
Artist Talk by Ken Lum
Thursday, November 1, 7pm |

Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art is eager to announce the opening of our fall exhibition, Days of Reading: beyond this state of affairs. Structured around general notions of indexing, collecting, cloaking and the reveal with a focus on material and an overlay of poetry – the exhibition is grounded in the use of text, often found, poetry, and the everyday, with historical and political narratives interwoven as material, including the popular Black cultural magazine Jet in Theaster Gates’s work Do I Know You, 2017; the Haitian Declaration of Independence in Liberté ou la morte by Fabiola Carranza; strip mall signage in Ken Lum’s 117 Dwight Eisenhower Blvd; and in recently uncovered medieval graffiti in All Saints Bench, 2018 by Shannon Bool.

Natalie Czech, Hassan Khan, and Sylvia Matas present language using banal everyday signifiers: magazine print ads, LED signage, or newspaper clippings, which they parse into poetic and political gestures. Jeanne Randolph, and Sameer Farooq and Jared Stanley activate collections through ficto-criticism (Randolph) and speculative museums (Farooq and Stanley), and Leah Decter, like Carranza, excavates language from the archive of her maternal grandfather’s ship’s manifest coming in to Canada in her woven work, (through)line(age) 1779-1925-2013, 2013. As part of the exhibition Raven Chacon begins a new book project in dedication to the life of Zitkála-Šá, an early 20th century Yankton Dakota woman that will be comprised of twelve musical scores dedicated to twelve contemporary Indigenous women “working in the field of contemporary music performance or composition.”

The exhibition is to be read as one moves through it. Through a paring of objects and texts, how histories are captured and presented surface in prosaic terms, but carry the weight of history’s missteps and misrepresentations.

– Curated by Sarah Nesbitt and Jenifer Papararo

We would like to acknowledge Video Pool Media Arts Centre as co-producers of For Zitkála-Šá by Raven Chacon, which is a work in progress.

Associated Programming
Tuesday, September 25, 7pm | Artist Talk with Shannon Bool
Friday, September 28, 7pm | Sameer Farooq, Jeanne Randolph and Jared Stanley in conversation
Saturday, September 29 | Nuit Blanche, Exhibition open 7pm to 1am
7-11pm | Opening Reception 
 6pm | Panel Discussion with Raven Chacon, Laura Ortman and Suzanne Kite (in partnership with Video Pool Media Centre)
8pm | Performances by Laura Ortman and Suzanne Kite
Thursday, November 1, 7pm | Artist Talk Ken Lum
Presented by the School of Art, University of Manitoba & Plug In Institute of Contemporary, and hosted by the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Eckhardt Hall, 300 Memorial Boulevard, Winnipeg.

LIST OF WORKS

Shannon Bool, All Saints Bench, 2018. Carrera marble, 8.2 feet x 16 inches x 18 inches. Courtesy the artist & Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto.

Natalie Czech, A poem by repetition by Vsevolod Nekrasov 2, 2015. 2 archival pigment prints, 2 frames each 25.75 x 20.75 inches. Courtesy the artist & Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf.

Natalie Czech, A poem by repetition by Robert Grenier 2, 2017. 2 archival pigment prints, 2 frames, each 28.5 x 21 inches. Courtesy the artist & Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf.

Fabiola Carranza, Liberté ou la mort, 2010. Lithgraphy on newsprint, with metal flashing, each 11.25 x 8 inches, installation dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist.

Raven Chacon, Whistle Quartet (for dog whistles), 2001. Print on canvas, 102 x 91 inches. Courtesy the artist.

Raven Chacon (with Laura Ortman and Suzanne Kite), For Zitkála-Šá, 2018. A series of discussions and sound workshops in progress. Courtesy the artists.

Leah Decter, (through)line(age) 1779-1925-2013, 2013. Wool and cotton jacquard hand-loom weaving, dimensions xx –xx . Courtesy the artist.

Sameer Farooq & Jared Stanley, If it were possible to collect all navels of the world in one place and present them standing on the steps to ASCENSION, 2018. clay, wood, paint, engraved plastic, 72 x 96 x 42 inches. Courtesy the artists.

Theaster Gates, Do I Know You, 2017. Bound Jet Magazines, steel shelves, 8.25 x 171.5 x 6.5 inches. Collection of Michael Nesbitt.

Hassan Khan, Sentences For a New Order, 2017, LED lights on Gewiss GW68003N electricity box – 7 sentences, each 17 x 8.5 x 4.75 inches, approximate installation length 14.5 feet. Courtesy the artist & Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris.

Ken Lum, 117 Dwight Eisenhower Blvd, 2009. Plexiglas, enamel paint, powder-coated aluminum, 97 x 82 x 2 inches. Courtesy the artist & Royale Projects, Los Angeles.

Sylvia Matas, Wind, 2008. Cut-out newspaper, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist.

Sylvia Matas, This Year and the Next, 2008. Cut-out newspaper, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist.

Jeanne Randolph, My Claustrophobic Happiness, 2018. Borrowed artworks, text, mixed–media and metal fencing, dimensions 8 x 24 feet. Courtesy the artist & the collections of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, The University of Winnipeg & Plug In ICA.

Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art recognizes we are on Treaty One Territory, the traditional territories of the Anishinaabe, Métis, Cree, Dakota and Oji-Cree Nations.

Plug In ICA extends our gratitude to all the artists who are participating in Days of Reading, with thanks to the numerous galleries who have facilitated the exhibition of works and to Mike Nesbitt for loaning us work from his private collection.

In general and as always, we thank the artists we work with, our generous donors, valued members and dedicated volunteers. With special thanks to our Director’s Circle. You make a difference!

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council and Winnipeg Arts Council. We could not operate without their continued financial investment and lobbying efforts.

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