Amartey Golding (b. 1988, London; based in Norwich) is a visual artist who was raised as a Rastafarian to an Anglo-Scottish mother, Ghanaian father, and Jamaican stepfather. Through the use of sculpture, film, and 2D work, he explores the portrayal of Black masculinity in the media and homophobia within Black British communities.

Amartey Golding (b. 1988, London; based in Norwich) is a visual artist who was raised as a Rastafarian to an Anglo-Scottish mother, Ghanaian father, and Jamaican stepfather. Through the use of sculpture, film, and 2D work, he explores the portrayal of Black masculinity in the media and homophobia within Black British communities. Preferring to work with mediums he is untrained in, he has also experimented with printmaking, fashion, and ballet. Golding studied art and design from 2005 to 2006 and architecture from 2007 to 2010 at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. He has had solo exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Denmark, and the UK, and in 2012–13, he was artist-in-residence at Tashkeel, Dubai. His 2016 film _Chainmail_ was lauded as “The must-see piece of this year’s London Art Fair” by _The Art Newspaper_. In 2019, Golding’s work was included in _Over My Black Body_, curated by Eunice Bélidor and Anaïs Castro at the Université du Québec à Montréal. 

_In the comfort of embers_ presents video works, garments, and photography by artist Amartey Golding. Fire is a central motif in the featured video works. In these stories, building a fire and keeping it burning provides the narratives with their symbolic core by marking transformative moments for the main characters: the chain-mail wearer and the Being. These protagonists face personal reckonings as they prepare to live in the absurd world that awaits them. Our perspective is restricted by the few temporal indications and contained spaces in which the narratives unfold. This may spark an important realization among viewers: we cannot know what it feels like to sit with another’s embodied experiences unless we live them ourselves. Golding relays the extraordinary essence of each character with reverence–they create life, exist in otherworldly bodies, and go through profound transformations alongside the few companions with whom they share a kinship.  
  
The video work _Chainmail 3_ takes place in Golding’s living room, and the intimacy of the private space speaks to the trust between the two protagonists, who never share a glance or a word. One helps the other put on a shielding yet overwhelmingly heavy chainmail jacket as they both prepare for the crushing consequence of this endeavour. The Being in Golding’s video work _Bring Me to Heal 2_ faces the violence of European history by walking into the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and witnessing the art collection’s brutal imagery. Before that, three storytellers, one of whom later accompanies the Being to the museum, gather around a campfire. They take turns recounting the story of “a horse who had been running for as long as all the animals could remember” while shaping a mass of hair into the Being. There is an unspoken bond between the nameless characters and a quiet strength to the way in which they care for each other. It resonates through their presence–they exist in their odd story because they are showing up for one another with a baring vulnerability.

Time slows down and anticipation amplifies in Golding’s worlds to convey the critical point at which these stories begin and end for the viewers. We invite you to feel the weight of the _Chainmail Garment 3 (Puffer Jacket)_ on display; to observe the interweaving of a multitude of Black hairstyles that cover the body of the Being; to engage with the dramatic poetry of the six photographs that give us another glimpse into the worlds depicted in Golding’s films. The works within In the comfort of embers are part of the fables and parables that the artist creates. These stories serve as metaphorical reminders to look inward and ensure that, as we fight oppressive systems and behaviors, we also self-reflect and make a concerted effort to neither internalize nor perpetuate the pervasive harm that is intrinsic to our societies. Golding explores African and Rastafarian protective and cultural practices in the narratives that populate his imagination because he believes in their ability to provide healing from generational traumas. At the same time, he invokes the inner child in his works, or what Toni Morrison believes to be “the first sentence of our childhood that we all remember, the phrase: ‘Once upon a time.’”

Amartey Golding: In the comfort of embers

Amartey Golding, Bring Me To Heal 2, 2021. Courtesy the artist..jpg

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SUPPORTED BY

Joséphine Denis, TD Curator of Education and Outreach Fellow, 2021–23 

CURATOR

Amartey Golding’s first solo exhibition in Canada features a selection of works revealing his engagement with intimacy, vulnerability, and physical strength.

In the comfort of embers

Julia Rose Sutherland is an artist and educator of Mi’kmaq (Metepenagiag Nation) and settler descent. Through her artworks, Sutherland navigates trauma and social issues associated with her Indigenous roots.

Julia Rose Sutherland is an artist and educator of Mi’kmaq (Metepenagiag Nation) and settler descent. Through her artworks, Sutherland navigates trauma and social issues associated with her Indigenous roots. In doing so, the artist encourages more meaningful conversations about Indigenous healing practices, feminism, and identity politics, among other topics. Sutherland’s interdisciplinary art practice employs photography, sculpture, textiles, and performance. She earned her MFA at the University at Buffalo (2019) and her BFA in Craft and New Media at the Alberta University of the Arts, Calgary (2013). 

Rouzbeh Akhbari is a Tehran-born, Toronto-based artist working in video installation and film. His practice is research-driven and usually exists at the intersections of storytelling, critical architecture, and human geography.

Rouzbeh Akhbari is a Tehran-born, Toronto-based artist working in video installation and film. His practice is research-driven and usually exists at the intersections of storytelling, critical architecture, and human geography. Through a delicate examination of the violence and intimacies that occur at the boundaries of lived experience and constructed histories, Akhbari uncovers the minutiae of power that regiments the world around us. He holds a BFA in Sculpture and Installation from the Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. 

Joi T. Arcand is an Ottawa-based artist from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Treaty 6 territory. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with Great Distinction from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, in 2005.

Joi T. Arcand is an Ottawa-based artist from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Treaty 6 territory. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with Great Distinction from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, in 2005. In 2018, Arcand was shortlisted for the prestigious Sobey Art Award. Her practice includes photography, digital collage, and graphic design. Using Cree language and syllabics, Arcand creates works of art that not only render visible her own complex relationship to language as a nēhiyaw iskwēw raised in the Prairies but also reclaim and Indigenize public spaces through this new visibility. 

Aylan Couchie is a Nishnaabekwe interdisciplinary artist and writer hailing from Nipissing First Nation. Her works explore the connections between colonial/First Nations histories of place, culture, and Indigenous erasure, in addition to issues of (mis)representation and cultural appropriation. 

Aylan Couchie is a Nishnaabekwe interdisciplinary artist and writer hailing from Nipissing First Nation. Her works explore the connections between colonial/First Nations histories of place, culture, and Indigenous erasure, in addition to issues of (mis)representation and cultural appropriation. Couchie’s sculptures and videos address various themes, including the acknowledgement and reclamation of Indigenous lands through language as well as the trauma around forgotten histories. She is a NSCAD Univeristy, Halifax, alumna and received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto, where she focused her thesis on reconciliation and its relationship to monument and public art. She’s currently in her second year of study at Queen’s University, Kingston, where she’s working on her PhD in Cultural Studies. 

Simon Fuh is an artist and writer based in Toronto. He has a Master’s of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto, where he was awarded the Joseph Armand Bombardier SSHRC Scholarship.

Simon Fuh is an artist and writer based in Toronto. He has a Master’s of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto, where he was awarded the Joseph Armand Bombardier SSHRC Scholarship. Fuh works with sound, installation, video, drawing, and sculpture. He tends to build relationships with friends and the community through his work, often incorporating a performative or narrative element that influences the trajectory of his projects. This flexible, social-conceptual approach informs how Fuh explores recurring themes of place, memory, and microhistory. 

Anique Jordan is an award-winning artist, writer, and curator whose practice stems from and returns to the communities that inform it.

Anique Jordan is an award-winning artist, writer, and curator whose practice stems from and returns to the communities that inform it. As an artist, Jordan creates what she calls “impossible images” that combine foundations of traditional Trinidadian carnival and hauntology—a theory referring to past social or cultural elements that linger in the present like a ghost—to challenge historical narratives. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. 

_in parallel_ is a group exhibition that brings together six artists from Tkaronto and surrounding areas. Rouzbeh Akhbari, Joi T. Arcand, Aylan Couchie, Simon Fuh, Anique Jordan, and Julia Rose Sutherland explore how visual documentation and cultural practices can reclaim the narratives of their respective communities despite colonialism’s persistence. The artists’ pursuit of alternative histories reflects a desire to preserve connections to lands, peoples, and ways of living that mould who they are. In doing so, they also highlight the impact of oppressive forces on numerous communities around the world that continue to resist erasure by undertaking land-based resistance.  
  
These artists and works have been brought together as a way of finding the commonalities and differences among various forms of resistance in times of crises. How do we put differing liberation movements in dialogue to find the shared experiences that can make all of us co-conspirators, comrades, and allies? In her photographs, Anique Jordan confronts racist stereotypes with intimate portraits of Black people, while Julia Rose Sutherland engages with Indigenous traditions and knowledge to create sculptures that foster a collective healing. Joi T. Arcand reclaims Indigenous land with a site-specific commission that marks The Power Plant’s Fleck Clerestory with affirmations in nēhiyawēwin (Cree), while Simon Fuh’s vinyls retrace the original paths of two rivers in Ontario that colonists rerouted. A film co-directed by Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson, and sculptures by Aylan Couchie reveal how nation-states continuously disrupt lands and people.  
  
_in parallel_ is the first of two exhibitions that will present the work of twelve local artists, evoking The Power Plant’s very first exhibition, _Toronto: A Play of History (Jeu d’histoire)_, 1987. Both of the 2023 exhibitions will bring together tensions, hopes, and the transformative spaces artists create in the unfolding aftermath of settler colonialism. Specifically, in parallel will highlight the intimate connections between land and body, while expressing each artist’s desire for changes that can lead to an intercommunal future. 

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ARTS PARTNER

Joséphine Denis, TD Curator of Education and Outreach Fellow, 2021–23  
Jacqueline Kok, Nancy McCain and Bill Morneau Curatorial Fellow, 2021–23  

CURATORS

_in parallel_ is a group exhibition that brings together six artists from Tkaronto and surrounding areas, exploring how visual documentation and cultural practices can reclaim the narratives of their respective communities despite colonialism’s persistence. 

in parallel

Brenda Draney (b. 1976, Sawridge First Nation, Treaty 8, with a strong connection to Slave Lake; based in Edmonton) has been featured in exhibitions at the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff (2019); Fogo Island Arts (2019); Oakville Galleries (2018); Kitchener-Waterloo Gallery (2017); Audain Gallery, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver (2017); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2016); Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (2015); and Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon (2013).

Brenda Draney (b. 1976, Sawridge First Nation, Treaty 8, with a strong connection to Slave Lake; based in Edmonton) has been featured in exhibitions at the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff (2019); Fogo Island Arts (2019); Oakville Galleries (2018); Kitchener-Waterloo Gallery (2017); Audain Gallery, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver (2017); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2016); Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (2015); and Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon (2013). She received her Master of Applied Arts from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver (2010) and her BFA from the University of Alberta, Edmonton (2006). In 2014, Draney was the recipient of the Eldon and Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize, and she won the 2009 RBC Painting Competition. She is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver. 

_Drink from the river_, Brenda Draney’s first solo exhibition at The Power Plant, features a selection of existing and newly commissioned works that examine the complex nature of intimacy. Referencing her own memories and experiences living in Edmonton, the artist explores the layered meanings embedded in everyday motifs and situations. However, instead of simply reproducing these elements, Draney is more interested in addressing how their meanings can shift when filtered through individual interpretation. Furthermore, by deliberately leaving blank spaces in her paintings, Draney leaves room for viewers to deeply reflect on the subject matter presented. Audiences are invited to connect to the wide range of emotions tied to the nuanced experience of intimacy that the artist explores in her works.   
  
_Drink from the river_ thus not only considers how memory shapes identity but suggests that nostalgia—the pain stemming from the desire to recreate something from the past—can lead to a more profound understanding of oneself. Draney's commitment to representing critical moments from her life and the life of her community, as seen in her conscientious and sensitive approach to painting, makes her one of the most notable contemporary artists of her generation.

Brenda Draney: Drink from the river

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Brenda Draney, Visit, 2021. Oil on canvas, 170 x 277 cm. Courtesy Gage and Luke Allard. Image courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography.

Rob & Monique Sobey  
  
Anonymous Donor  


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Jacqueline Kok  
Nancy McCain and Bill Morneau Curatorial Fellow, 2021–23

_Drink from the river_, Brenda Draney’s first solo exhibition at The Power Plant, features a selection of existing and newly commissioned works that examine the complex nature of intimacy.

Drink from the river

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Amartey Golding: In the comfort of embers

in parallel

Brenda Draney: Drink from the river

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