in parallel

Rouzbeh Akhbari, Joi T. Arcand, Aylan Couchie, Simon Fuh, Anique Jordan, and Julia Rose Sutherland

Ongoing Exhibition

Feb 03 – May 14 2023

Simon Fuh, The Don at Dawn, The Humber at Dusk, 2022. Vinyl installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid

SUPPORTED BY
ARTS PARTNER

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

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.

Works by Joi T. Arcand and Simon Fuh, in parallel, 2023. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Simon Fuh, The Don at Dawn, The Humber at Dusk, 2022. Transparent vinyl installation. Courtesy the artist. Installation view: in parallel, The Power Plant, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Joi T. Arcand, Decoded, 2023. Printed vinyl and laser-cut acrylic. Commissioned by The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, 2023. Courtesy the artist. Installation view: in parallel, The Power Plant, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Works by Anique Jordan, Aylan Couchie, and Julia Rose Sutherland, in parallel, 2023. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Works by Anique Jordan, Aylan Couchie, Julia Rose Sutherland, and Rouzbeh Akhbari, in parallel, 2023. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Works by Aylan Couchie and Julia Rose Sutherland, in parallel, 2023. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Works by Anique Jordan, in parallel, 2023. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Works by Aylan Couchie and Julia Rose Sutherland, in parallel, 2023. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Aylan Couchie, Aki, 2018. Sage, sweetgrass, cedar ashes, wood, acrylic. Courtesy the artist. Installation view: in parallel, The Power Plant, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Works by Aylan Couchie, Julia Rose Sutherland, and Rouzbeh Akhbari, in parallel, 2023. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Works by Julia Rose Sutherland and Rouzbeh Akhbari, in parallel, 2023. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Works by Julia Rose Sutherland and Aylan Couchie, in parallel, 2023. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Julia Rose Sutherland, Enma’latl “Take Home”, 2019. Handmade felt and porcupine quill bonnet. Courtesy the artist. Installation view: in parallel, The Power Plant, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Pejvak (Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson), A Passage, 2019. 2k video, 17:00. Courtesy the artist. Installation view: in parallel, The Power Plant, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

About the Artists

Anique Jordan

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

Aylan Couchie

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.

Joi T. Arcand

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.

Julia Rose Sutherland

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.

Rouzbeh Akhbari

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.

Simon Fuh

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.