Xpace Cultural Centre is accepting submissions for artwork and writing from emerging artists, designers and writers for a group exhibition tentatively titled, “the way you look tonight” curated by Philip Leonard Ocampo. The exhibition will run from January 15th – February 13th, 2021.
From the Civil Rights movement of the 1970s, to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, nostalgia has the capacity to eclipse the complicated, often painful realities of the historic events that had transpired during these times; the lens of retrospect can sometimes only preserve that which is amiable or enjoyable about these time periods. If the word nostalgia derives from the Greek word nostos (‘return home’) and algos (‘pain’), “the way you look tonight” seeks to embody the term’s etymological origins through exploring nostalgia as a complex method of both remembering and forgetting. In questioning the ways in which historic decades are preserved and romanticized within the collective consciousness and popular culture, this exhibition asks:
- What histories are obscured and erased in treasuring that which is glamorous, entertaining and marketable about the past? Inversely, how are historic experiences of struggle sensationalized and commodified when seen through a retrospective lens?
- How is the recalling of previous decades a matter of generational experience (or lack thereof)?
- How do we frame the histories that we’re ancestrally connected to, but never lived?
- How can we consider the iconography of various time periods outside of the North American canon of popular culture?
- How are members of marginalized communities affected by the way that history is documented, archived and remembered?
- How might these contemporary times be remembered, forgotten or obscured in the future?
As this exhibition will manifest in part as an online project, this call is interested in works that utilize text, poetry, illustration, drawing / painting, animation, video, archival materials and/or other ways of making that use of digital platforms advantageously in addition to sculpture, installation, etc.
This exhibition will prioritize artists that are Indigenous, Black, people of color, women, 2SLGBTQ+, people with disabilities, and members of other marginalized communities.
DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 20TH, 2020 at 11:59pm
SUBMIT ONLINE: https://tinyurl.com/y6xkadtq