Fleeting Fixities
from June 13th to June 17th 2024 at Atelier Galerie 2112.
A group of ten undergraduate Fine Arts students from Concordia University, spanning a wide range of artistic practices, have been brought together to showcase their work in the exhibition Fleeting Fixities.
Artists have been invited to explore permanence, degradation, and ephemerality through a focus on materiality. Through mediums such as bronze, ceramic, wood, and textile, investigations on overconsumption, craftsmanship, and cultural survival are brought to the forefront of this exhibition. In an era of mass production under capitalism, our societal and personal connection to the goods we consume has been severed. Fleeting Fixities fosters a newfound connection with one’s artistic process and the tools and items integral to the act of creation.
Organized by [UN]PROMPTU, a Montreal-based artist collective dedicated to supporting and uplifting emerging artists, Fleeting Fixities offers Fine Arts students an opportunity to display their work in an off-campus gallery setting; promoting discussion and connection on contemporary anxieties surrounding the consumption of art and its material implications.
How can creation be framed as a radical act, opposed to ever-increasing waste production and the homogenization of craft?
Fleeting Fixities is an exploration to deconstruct and to rebuild materiality and its storied relationship to time and culture. Whether artists have reached into the past, the future, or somewhere in between, material intentions are highlighted as an integral part of building a sense of community and identity in the artistic realm.
Featured Artists:
Fraser Place @sdcard_decontrol
Gemma Stevens @gemmamstevens
Oli Sinclare @oli.sinclare
Lily McGillivray-Griswold
Elyanne Desaulniers @desaulnes
Kathryn Frances McTaggart @kathrynfmct
Jérôme Zerges
Isabella Bursey @bellabursey.art
Isabela Markus Nafarrate @isabela.markus
Sabrina Perrotti
Curators:
Keza Morin @k3zart
Abby Brock @abbybrock
Vernissage Thursday June 13th, 6 P.M. to 10 P.M.
Artist talks at 7 P.M.
Full Curatorial Statement:
In an era of mass production and overconsumption, care, craftsmanship and the value of materiality have fallen to the wayside. In an effort to meet exponentially increasing product turnover speeds, the production of everyday infrastructure and goods have prioritized speed and profit margins at the expense of consumers and workers who power the system. Furthermore, contemporary concerns regarding the rise of over-pollution, the shortened lifespan of consumer goods, and their impact on our climate prove more important than ever. In this call for submissions, we invite artists to consider materiality and its temporal implications in relation to the production of visual art and craft in late-stage capitalism. How can creation be framed as a radical act, opposed to ever-increasing waste production? Considering where and how materials are sourced, historical methods and practices of producing work, and one’s personal relationship to time, we prompt questions of who, or more abstractly, when artists are making their art for, exploring intentions of ephemerality and permanence. How do your material choices impact your art’s lifespan? How do you source these materials, and where are they destined to end up in one hundred years? Another important aspect of this exhibition is considering how visual art has been employed as a method of transcending time, as a means of cultural survival amongst marginalized communities throughout history. Different factors, such as access to certain materials, privilege to obtain practical knowledge and connection to preservatory practices all inform the creative process when contextualizing oneself in a cultural historical continuity, or ensuring its future survival. To conclude, Fleeting Fixities is an invitation to explore, to deconstruct, and to rebuild materiality and its storied relationship to time. Whether you are reaching into the past, the future, or somewhere in between, this exhibition welcomes all reflections on permanence and degradation.