Exhibitions

• Soft Architecture: A Manifesto

  JOSÉE BERNARD, SHARYN YUEN, LISA ROBERTSON
  March 27–May 8, 1999

  Memory’s architecture is neither palatial nor theatrical but soft. — Lisa Robertson

  The project Soft Architecture: A Manifesto was realized through the collaborative efforts of Artspeak Gallery and Dazibao Gallery in Montréal, bringing together the work of artists Josée Bernard and Sharyn Yuen with writer/poet Lisa Robertson. Despite cultural difference and geographical distance, all three artists have used childhood and the notion of memory to discuss the discomforts of displacement. The intention of this project was to provoke ideas and forge links between different practices that would extend the parameters of both photography and writing. Inspired by a child’s quilt found in the house in which she grew up, Josée Bernard uses images and themes from Après les étoiles filantes that explore perceptions of comfort and the passing of time. The installation is meant as a symbol of fecundity and equilibrium in which memory and labour are juxtaposed. In Once Here, Sharyn Yuen addresses issues of displacement and dislocation. The departure point for this installation was inspired by stories of young Chinese girls sold overseas in the early 1900’s. Handmade shoes and images of childhood games become visual metaphors for vulnerability and innocence.

  A bilingual publication with prose by Lisa Robertson accompanies the exhibition.

• Amazon

  CAROL SAWYER
  May 2–June 6, 1998

  This playful multi-media installation, reflects Carol Sawyer’s continuing investigation of female characters found in literature, popular culture and opera. Amazon is a photographic installation inspired by the evil femme fatales of 60’s and 70’s mythic fantasy movies. In Sawyer’s exhibition the Amazon serves as a humourous and critical model of bitchy autonomy and self-assertion; it is an identity or fiction that enables women to transcend expected roles of femininity. With its overlapping texts of gender, sexuality and power, the Amazon pushes beyond the limits of mortal and terrestrial boundaries.

• Women of Allah

  SHIRIN NESHAT
  April 25–June 7, 1997

  Questioning issues related to fundamentalism, religion and a women’s role in the Middle East, Shirin Neshat’s photographs attempt to intersect the merging position of culture and politics of the state.

  Artspeak Gallery is pleased to present the work of New York based photographer Shirin Neshat. The Women of Allah series will be exhibited at the Artspeak Gallery until June 7. This series of work has been an on-going project that started in 1993. Various components from this series have been exhibited at different international venues—1995 Venice Biennale, 1996 the Istanbul Biennial, and the “Jurassic Technologies Revenant” the 10th Biennial of Sydney, Australia. Shirin Neshat was born in Qazvin, Iran in 1957. She left Iran in 1974 to pursue Fine Arts at the University of California where she received her MFA in 1982. In 1990 Neshat visited Iran for the first time in 16 years. Afterward, returning to the United States, her work took on a dramatic shift as she began a formal exploration of the complex role negotiated by Iranian women throughout history. As a young adult Neshat left Iran before the Revolution that took place under the Khomenini regime in 1978/79. She made photographs which discussed these issues, using herself as the subject.

  Examining the paradoxical position of Iranian women she reflected on personal memories of the homeland. Memories that included wearing a chador to Mosque and the influence of Iranian feminist poets. Many of these past experiences figure prominently in her work, resulting in highly charged, confrontational images, that represent a hybrid cultural construction of the self. Questioning issues related to fundamentalism, religion and a women’s role in the Middle East, Neshat attempts to intersect the merging position of culture and politics of the state. Excerpts of Farsi poems from contemporary writers like Forough Farokhzad and Tahereh Saffarazdeh have been applied directly onto the surfaces of the photographs in black and red ink. These poets figure prominently in Shirin Neshat’s work – they were women who addressed issues of sexuality and desire at a time when no else had dared to engage with such subjects. In addressing these issues Neshat not only tries to reconcile her past, but simultaneously provokes her audience into furthering the discussion.

  A catalogue publication, “Women of Allah” will be released on Friday May 16. Copies may be ordered through the gallery. This 33 page publication contains black and white and colour illustrations of the artist’s work, an essay by Jacqueline Larson and Ahmad T. The cost is $15. Add $2. additional for postage and handling. Cheques are made payable to Artspeak Gallery. Shirin Neshat will be in attendance for the book launch, and to present short, informal talk which begins at 8pm.