October 4 to November 30, 2019
Nadia Myre
Listen, speak and sing
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to present Listen, speak and sing, a solo exhibition by Montreal-based interdisciplinary artist Nadia Myre. This premiere exhibition, curated by Betty Julian, features photographic, video and sound artworks that expand our understanding of the complexities of living as an Indigenous artist and citizen in the twenty-first century. In these new artworks, Nadia Myre presents multiple subjects, objects, and sounds that speak beyond the limited notions of recognition. The artist and curator’s conversations have evolved into this exhibition that explores Indigenous ways of being and creating.
Listen, speak and sing invites viewers to consider the ways in which we recognize and engage with one another. Nadia Myre encourages us to continue the conversations that enable us to challenge the nature of our complicated colonial relationships. The three-channel video Living with Contradiction (2018) presents a round-table dialogue between Indigenous artists, art educators, curators and writers focused on the realities of being and working in the Canadian visual arts sector. The artworks in the exhibition bring attention to the nature of collaboration, as well as the labour and the reality of Indigenous cultural ways of making that are impacting creative practices and community development. Nadia Myre calls upon the viewer to reflect on their experiences and to consider how and when we listen, speak and sing.
An opening reception will be held on Friday, October 4, 2019 from 7 to 9 PM at Prefix, located at 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 124, Toronto. The artist and the curator will be present. A curator’s walk through will be held as part the imagineNATIVE Art Crawl on Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 7 PM at Prefix. The exhibition continues until Saturday, November 30, 2019. The gallery is open to the public from Wednesday to Saturday, 12 to 5 PM, and by appointment. Admission is free.
About the artist
Nadia Myre is an Algonquin member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation and a Montreal-based interdisciplinary artist. As exemplified by seminal works Indian Act (2002) and The Scar Project (2005–2013), Myre emphasizes collaboration, community building and skill sharing in her practice as strategies for Indigenous futurity and cross-cultural understanding. Her use of transcultural objects and artifacts looks at how shifts of form, utility and significance occur as they are shared and/or appropriated between cultures. Her recent exhibitions include Code Switching and Other Work (2018) for Glasgow International, Balancing Acts (2019) at the Textile Museum in Toronto, and Volume 0 (2019), a collateral project at the Venice Biennale.
About the curator
Betty Julian is an off-reserve citizen of Sipekne’katnik First Nation (Indian Brook First Nation) in Nova Scotia. Betty is the Adjunct Curator at Prefix ICA and a curator of contemporary art with a specialization in photography, film and video as art forms. She has an intersectional artistic research practice that is informed by her work as a curator and by her studies in the critical discourses of aesthetics, culture and psychoanalytic thought. Betty is a founding member of the New Initiatives in Film Program for Aboriginal Women and Women of Colour at Studio D, National Film Board. She is also a founding member of the national advisory board of Prefix Photo magazine, and since 2004, a member of the curatorial council for Prefix ICA, where she curated 31 (2005) by Lorna Simpson, the group exhibition Trade Marks (2013), Facing (2016), the first solo exhibition in Canada by Renée Green, and the group exhibition Movers and Shakers (2018).
About Prefix
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is a public art gallery with the distinguishing features of publishing an art magazine and presenting an international lecture series. A registered charitable organization, Prefix fosters the appreciation and understanding of contemporary photographic, media and digital arts through exhibitions, publications, public programmes and related activities.
Acknowledgements
For their support of Listen, speak and sing, Prefix gratefully acknowledges the in-kind support of the Ryerson Image Centre and V-Tape. Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Photo: Nadia Myre, video still from Living with Contradiction, 2018. Courtesy the artist.
