We’ll all become stories at the Ottawa Art Gallery

Àdisòkàmagan / Nous connaître un peu nous-mêmes / We’ll all become stories, curated by Rebecca Basciano, Jim Burant, Michelle Gewurtz and Catherine Sinclair for the Ottawa Art Gallery, has a trilingual title in Anishinābe, French, and English that doesn’t exactly translate word for word. Instead, it signals that the artworks on display are culturally distinct. With a deliberate focus on art-making in the Ottawa-Gatineau region, this exhibition encompasses a vast span of people and time – from a copper point made about six thousand years ago to eleven new commissions that debuted at the opening in April. The exhibition runs from April 28 until September 16, 2018.

Barry Pottle, I,U,A (from the Syllabics Series)(detail), 2015, digital photographs 

Ultimately, the exhibition presents a portrait of Ottawa composed of the artists who have roots here, including both well-established names and those who are lesser known. It gives visitors a chance to get reacquainted with old favourites and to make discoveries. Someone who doesn’t live here might be surprised to learn that the city has the largest population of Inuit outside of the Canadian North. This is well reflected with works by artists such as Mattiusi Iyaituk, Henry Kudluk, and Annie Pootoogook. Barry Pottle’s photographs I,U,A isolate the shapes of Inuktitut syllabics found within the concrete angles of the streets and strongly assert an urban Indigenous presence. Àdisòkàmagan / Nous connaître un peu nous-mêmes / We’ll all become stories contains not only a wealth of stories but also different ways to tell them. 

The complete text of my review of the exhibition was published here on the June 6 Akimblog. It is my latest Akimblog post, since Akimbo resumed publishing reviews from its Ontario regional correspondents in the spring of 2018.