Release Party for Prefix Photo 23
and
Opening Reception for Black Holes
by Marie-Jeanne Musiol
Thursday, May 5, 2011, 7–10 PM124–401 Richmond Street West
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5V 3A8
Gallery hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 12–5 PM
Admission is free.
Prefix Photo 23: Shadow Plays
Subscribe at www.prefix.ca
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the release of the twenty-third issue of Prefix Photo magazine. On the subject of shadow plays, editor Scott McLeod writes: “Not only do photography’s origins lie in the desire to capture, hold or otherwise “fix” the image produced by the camera obscura, but the photograph itself has been theorized as a trace of the past, a shadow cast from history onto the present moment.” The issue’s themes of the absent subject and the darkness in human history resonate strongly with the art and texts represented within the magazine, as follows:Scholar Celina Jeffery considers Black Holes, a new photographic installation by Québec artist Marie-Jeanne Musiol. The series depicts individual latrines in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, which hundreds of thousands of prisoners were required to use communally. As disturbing as these images necessarily are, they nevertheless share with Musiol’s well-known electromagnetic photographs a peculiar cosmological quality, evoking associations with the infinite cycle of life and death.
Scholar Sheila Petty provides an overview of the groundbreaking work of African-American artist Kara Walker, from her early signature wall-mounted cut-outs to, most recently, her shadow-puppet video installations. Petty illustrates how Walker creates animated spaces of engagement that compel the viewer to question established notions of black and white experience in America.
In a photo-essay centring on Fidel Castro, cultural historian Dot Tuer offers an insightful meditation on some of the influential figures and moments from the Cuban Revolution to the present. At a moment in history when popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa are toppling long-standing authoritarian regimes, a re-consideration of the Cuban Revolution offers the opportunity to reflect on the revolutionary impulse and the differences between the world in 1959 and the world today.
Art critic, cultural historian and novelist John Berger presents an excerpt from his essay Portrait of a Masked Man. The essay recounts his drawing of a portrait of the Mexican Zapatista revolutionary Subcomandante Marcos, along with related ruminations about art, justice and humanity.
Other contributors include Jocelyne Alloucherie, Manon De Pauw, Diane Landry, Leah Modigliani, Sarah Munro, Elena Potter, Amanda Rataj, Regina Silveira and various photographers from the Prensa Latina archives.
On the occasion of the release of the magazine, Prefix is proud to present Black Holes, a world-premiere exhibition by revered Québec artist Marie-Jeanne Musiol, curated by Scott McLeod. The release party for the magazine and the opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Thursday, May 5th, 2011 from 7 to 10 PM at Prefix, located at 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 124, Toronto. The artist, writer and curator will be present. Admission is free. The exhibition continues until July 23rd, 2011.
For additional information on the release party for issue 23, the opening reception for Black Holes and other Prefix events, please visit our Facebook page or www.prefix.ca.
Prefix Photo is published by Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Inc., a registered charitable organization that fosters the appreciation and understanding of contemporary photography, media and digital arts. Prefix Photo is available by subscription and in fine bookstores and newsstands in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Ireland, Turkey, Singapore and China.
For their assistance with the release party held for issue 23 in Toronto, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art gratefully acknowledges its Supporting Sponsor Steam Whistle Brewing, its Official Catering Sponsor à la Carte Kitchen and its official Hotel Sponsor the Sutton Place Hotel.
Prefix Photo is published with the assistance of its staff, volunteers and patrons, as well as the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Media Development Corporation and the Canada Council for the Arts. Prefix Photo also acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for its publishing activities. The Ontario Arts Council is an agency of the Government of Ontario.
For more information, please contact:
Jayne Wilkinson
416.591.0357
info@prefix.ca
www.prefix.ca
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