in parallel

Ella Gonzales, Micah Lexier, Matt Nish-Lapidus, Erdem Taşdelen, Sami Tsang, and Shaheer Zazai

Past Exhibition

Jun 23 – Sep 04 2023

Erdem Taşdelen, A Moving Target, 2021–22. Computer-generated montage sequence with 100 silent UHD videos, approx. 1:40:00. Courtesy the artist.

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
Ella Gonzales, Micah Lexier, Matt Nish-Lapidus, Erdem Taşdelen, Sami Tsang, and Shaheer Zazai
June 23–September 4, 2023

in parallel is a two-part group exhibition that presents 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 highlights the intimate connections between land and body, while expressing each artist’s desire for changes that can lead to an intercommunal future.

Opening on June 23, the summer exhibition showcases works by Ella Gonzales, Micah Lexier, Matt Nish-Lapidus, Erdem Taşdelen, Sami Tsang, and Shaheer Zazai, and will feature painting, textile, video, ceramics, sculpture, and an interactive scavenger hunt around The Power Plant’s building.

in parallel (Winter 2023)
Rouzbeh Akhbari, Joi T. Arcand, Aylan Couchie, Simon Fuh, Anique Jordan, and Julia Rose Sutherland
February 3–May 14, 2023

In the first part of the two-part exhibition, 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.

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.

in parallel with works by Matt Nish-Lapidus, Erdem Taşdelen, Sami Tsang, and Shaheer Zazai. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

in parallel with works by Erdem Taşdelen and Shaheer Zazai. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

in parallel with works by Matt Nish-Lapidus. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

in parallel with works by Ella Gonzales, Micah Lexier, Erdem Taşdelen, Sami Tsang, and Shaheer Zazai. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Micah Lexier, Scavenger Hunt (The Power Plant), 2023. Five metal letters, map, statement, custom-minted coins. Courtesy the artist and Birch Contemporary, Toronto. Installation view: in parallel, The Power Plant, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

in parallel with works by Erdem Taşdelen, Sami Tsang, and Shaheer Zazai. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

in parallel with works by Shaheer Zazai. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

in parallel with works by Ella Gonzales, Erdem Taşdelen, and Sami Tsang. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

in parallel with works by Sami Tsang. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

in parallel with works by Ella Gonzales and Erdem Taşdelen. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

in parallel with works by Ella Gonzales. Installation view: The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Erdem Taşdelen, A Moving Target, 2021-2022. Computer-generated montage sequence with 100 silent UHD videos, approx. 100min. Courtesy the artist. Installation view: in parallel, The Power Plant, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

Micah Lexier, Scavenger Hunt (The Power Plant) (detail), 2023. Five metal letters, map, statement, custom-minted coins. Courtesy the artist and Birch Contemporary, Toronto. Installation view: in parallel, The Power Plant, 2023. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

About the Artists

Ella Gonzales

Ella Gonzales is a Filipina-Canadian artist working between painting and Computer-Aided Design programs, as led by her interest in space making. Her painting on piña silk, a fabric made from the leaves of a pineapple plant that is native to the Philippines, is inspired by the concept of displacement that immigrant communities experience.

Erdem Taşdelen

Erdem Taşdelen is a Turkish-Canadian artist who currently lives and works in Tkaronto/Toronto. Through the use of diverse materials and media, he constructs semi-fictional narratives that incorporate unique historical figures, events and texts to implicate contemporary sociopolitical realities.

Matt Nish-Lapidus

Matt Nish-Lapidus is a Canadian artist, writer, musician, and designer whose research interest lies in exploring how new, meaningful relationships with computer hardware and software can be re-envisioned. Bearing in mind recent conversations around data mining and privacy invasion, Nish-Lapidus’s projects unite poetry, code, and language to incite and catalyze a reconsideration of computation as material and computer culture.

Micah Lexier

Micah Lexier is a Toronto-based artist whose activities include making, collecting, and organizing. He has a deep interest in measurement, increment, found imagery and display structures. Lexier’s projects range in scale from limited edition multiples to massive public sculptures.

Sami Tsang

Sami Tsang is a Chinese-Canadian artist working primarily as a ceramicist. Her sculptures stem from her own narratives as well as the stories she gathers around domestic encounters. Using clay, resin, rice paper and ball point pen, Tsang channels these stories into her art-making to reveal shared, raw, emotional experiences.

Shaheer Zazai

Shaheer Zazai is an Afghan-Canadian artist with a current studio practice both in painting and digital media. Zazai received a BFA from OCAD University in 2011 and was artist in residence at OCAD University as part of the Digital Painting Atelier in 2015. Zazai’s practice focuses on exploring and attempting to investigate the development of cultural identity in the present geopolitical climate and diaspora. The digital works revolve around Microsoft Word and imagery reminiscent of traditional Afghan carpets. Through mimicking carpet-making methods, Zazai creates his own designs in Microsoft Word, where every knot of a carpet is translated into a typed character. While the digital is a process based exploration, the paintings have been an internal investigation into vulnerability and fear.