Ambiguous Becoming: Artists’ Moving Image from Canada, Exhibition, Cooper Gallery, DJCAD

Exhibition dates: 24 January – 22 February 2020
Venue: Cooper Gallery, DJCAD, Dundee, UK

Co-curated by Sophia Y. Hao Maude Johnson, Ambiguous Becoming: Artist’s Moving Image from Canada was a collaboration between Cooper Gallery University of Dundee and MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image in Montréal, Canada.

Bringing together a broad spectrum of artists and collaborations from Canada, including artist duo Chloë Lum and Yannick Desranleau, artist collaborative group Jérôme Havre, Cauleen Smith, and Camille Turner, and Victoria Sin, the exhibition and associate public events draws out and delineates the rich scope of aesthetic, critical, and philosophical positions underscoring the politics of the performative body. Recognising the implicit struggles against colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalism waged on and within the body, the exhibition actively asserts the necessity of claiming ownership of the body throughout its performative and discursive iterations.

Indicating and referencing the multitude of cultures, psychologies, identities, and genders at stake in the artists’ works, the exhibition addresses the dynamics of power and its resistant double, the unrestrained agency of becoming. Underscored by this ambition Ambiguous Becoming offers a portrayal of bodies in the moment of their resistance to the twin horrors of objectification and unfettered consumption.

Four public engagement events were presented during the exhibition.