Overlapping Violent Histories

A Curatorial Investigation into Difficult Knowledge

Special Collections Gallery
February 9 – March 9, 2018
Curated by Noor Bhangu

Overlapping Violent Histories: A Curatorial Investigation into Difficult Knowledge is an exercise in encountering traumatic pasts and presents through visual art. Artists have been selected based on their experiences in such histories as Japanese internment in Canada, the residential school system, the Holocaust, and the legacy of settler colonialism. They include Takao Tanabe, Jackson Beardy, Caroline Dukes, and KC Adams.

Although the selected works of the artists are not particularly evocative of their experiences, this exhibition uses their biographies as a starting point to consider the ways in which traumas intersect and open up to each other. Curator Noor Bhangu asks: How can these cross-cultural histories come together to shed light on the difficult history of Canada? And how might this dialogue promote ethical witnessing from those of us that exist outside of these experiences?

With support from Young Canada Works - Building Careers in Heritage

Image: Jackson Beardy, Three Birds, 1975, silkscreen, 19 1/8" x 23 1/4". Gift of Grand Western Canadian Screenshop

Exhibition Essay
Noor Bhangu
Overlapping Violent Histories: A Curatorial Investigation into Difficult Knowledge [pdf]