Start date: Saturday, February 11 2023.
Schedule:
On Saturday, February 11, 2023, from 12:00 PM to 4:30 PM
Resource person: Christian Iozzo - development@vac.ca
Location: Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON, M5V 2R2) to Visual Arts Centre of Clarington
Description:
The Visual Arts Centre of Clarington (VAC) is pleased to announce our inaugural exhibition of the 2023 season, Maria Simmons’ Anoxic Memory. Researcher and poet Abbi Flint once described peatlands as places of contestation and contradiction. From the dangerous to the health-restoring, the real to the imagined, the extractable to the preserved—our past and present are entangled in the mire. Canada houses 25% of the world’s peatlands, storing its highest density of these carbon-rich landscapes across Northern Ontario. Simmons works to unravel these ideas by transforming the VAC into an active peat mire, reimagining the bog’s primary three strata, one per floor of the gallery: Anoxic, Oxic, and Atmospheric. Visitors are invited to traverse the bog, discovering the natural biology and fantastical mythos found among its layers. Fermentation becomes a powerful force in this context—a preservation agent that parallels the anaerobic underbellies of Canadian peatlands. What is fermented and changed then has the potential to remain. Found artifacts are pressurized and preserved in the anoxic strata—fermenting, off-gassing, feeding, and becoming new. They are in relationship and in flux. Sounds erupt from the oxic layer, an otherworldly call pulling viewers to the atmospheric surface where sculptural ponds of brine and plantlife glimmer in the sunlight. The VAC invites you to attend our Opening Reception on Saturday, February 11, 2023, from 2 - 4 PM. Simmons and curator Megan Kammerer will lead an Artist Talk from 2 - 3 PM. Light refreshments will be provided, including mead fermentations produced from the exhibition’s living artworks. Visitors from Toronto are invited to take a free shuttle bus to the venue, departing from Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON, M5V 2R2, at 12:00 PM on Saturday, February 11, 2023. Registration for the shuttle bus is required. Accessibility Note: The VAC is not yet a fully accessible building, with stairwell access to our third-floor Loft Gallery. Please let us know if you require additional accommodations so we can meet your needs or provide additional seating as required.
Available: 25/40
Price: $0.00 Taxes waived
Notes: The bus will depart from Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON, M5V 2R2, at 12:00 PM. Please arrive at Factory Theatre 15 minutes before our noon departure. The bus will depart the VAC at 3:30 PM to return to 125 Bathurst Street.
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