Winter 2020
The Power Plant
NAEEM MOHAIEMEN – What we found after you left
Current Chapter: Two Meetings and a Funeral (2017)
“The film presented this season is Two Meetings and a Funeral (2017), which probes a pivot of power in the 1970s between the Non-Aligned Movement (the anti-imperialist forum for states not allied to the United States or the Soviet Union) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (an alliance of Muslim-majority countries). Images of triumphalist transnational architecture and documentary footage from political congresses come together in a narrative woven by Algerian publisher Samia Zennadi and Indian historian Vijay Prashad that uncovers a history of the Cold War period from the perspective of Socialist states that were wary of the Soviet Union and Islamic republics.” – thepowerplant.org
Two Meetings and a Funeral (2017), Three-channel digital video installation, color, sound85 min., Co-commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation and Ford Foundation Just FilmsAdditional support by Arts Council England, Bengal Foundation, Bangladesh, and Tensta Konsthall (https://www.shobak.org/two-meetings-and-a-funeral)
RASHID JOHNSON – Anxious Audience
“Johnson’s work harnesses the rich symbolism and histories of varied materials that have personal meaning and at times are signifiers of greater African-American cultural identity. Black soap, made from the ashes of burned plant matter and commonly used in West Africa, is mixed with wax and applied as pigment onto the white tiled surface — for Johnson, a way of complicating associations of cleanliness and healing. The rigidly uniform support equally evokes the tiles of subway stations as well as rational grids of minimalist art, and through Johnson’s frenetically incised portraits a vivid impression of human presence emerges.” – thepowerplant.org
NAUFUS RAMIREZ-FIGUERO – Asymmetries
“The exhibition will encompass works from the past decade that reveal the range of Ramírez-Figueroa’s preoccupations, from conspiracy theories to bird song and Guatemala’s architectural history. It will also include a newly commissioned work, which takes as its starting point the cacaxte, a ladder-like tool for carrying objects on one’s back common among indigenous populations of Latin America. In this new work, Ramírez-Figueroa reinvents the object to consider its associations with colonial oppression alongside its mythical significance.” – thepowerplant.org
DAWIT L. PETROS – Spazio Disponibile
“Spazio Disponibile – Italian for ‘Available Space’ – scrutinizes historical gaps in European memory, particularly that of modern Italy. Alluding to vacant advertising sections that appeared in Rivista Coloniale, a widely circulated early 20th century magazine and the official organ of the Italian colonial project, the title is also a reference to the colonial gaze that viewed the lands of Africa as ‘available’ space to occupy and exploit.” – thepowerplant.org
thepowerplant.org 
thepowerplant.org 
MOCA Toronto
CARLOS BUNGA – A Sudden Beginning
“Inspired by the simplicity of the museum’s architecture and the rhythm of its columns, Bunga will both stress and challenge the structure’s physicality. His formidable installations and nomadic sensibility will deepen his long-standing inquiry into some of the most poignant subjects of our time: stability, certainty and permanence. Incorporated into the exhibition are several new sculptures made from locally sourced furniture — side tables, writing desks, gilded frames and cabinets — that are reworked into painterly cityscapes. ” – moca.ca
SHELAGH KEELEY – An Embodied Haptic Space
“In the visceral, site-specific installations she has been producing for over 40 years, Keeley balances the speed and rigidity of digital photography with the slowness and freedom of drawing in an expanded field. At the root of this installation are photographic traces of the MOCA building pre-renovation. Through her new wall drawing, one space in time is transferred into the present, as traces of labour are interwoven and transformed by a gestural response to the site. Keeley’s multimedia practice explores our built environment and the human body, detailing the ways in which they resonate as traces of social history.” – moca.ca
MEGAN ROONEY – Hush Sky Murmure Hole
“Having spent her teenage years in Markham, Ontario, Rooney’s experiences of suburban North America inform her choice of materials, colour palette and subject matter. Her work explores notions of traditional femininity through the lenses of domestic space, the political haven of the garden, consumption-based societies and the mythological. At the same time, Rooney probes how our bodies are informed by and respond to the environments, systems and inanimate objects that surround us.” – moca.ca
* SERIES OF PERFORMANCES COMING UP! *
Presented as part of the exhibition.
Friday, March 27 at 7 pm (Chapter I)
Saturday, March 28 at 2 pm (Chapter II)
Sunday, March 29 at 2 pm (Chapter III)
Choreography: Temitope Ajose-Cutting
Sound: Paolo Thorsen-Nagel
Performers: Temitope Ajose-Cutting, Leah Marojevic, Megan Rooney, Moira Rooney
Direction, Text and Costumes: Megan Rooney
SARAH SZE – Images in Debris
“Simultaneously a sculptural installation and functional projection tool, Images in Debris lends equal weight to images and objects, exploring the edges between the two and bringing both into dialogue with the surrounding architecture. At its centre is an L-shaped desk, inspired by the artist’s own studio desk, which, acting like a projector at the centre of a planetarium, casts images onto an intricate structure extending from the desktop and across the gallery walls.” – moca.ca
moca.ca
DORNITH DOHERTY – Archiving Eden: Exchange
“Archiving Eden: Exchange presents x-ray images of 5,000 seeds — the smallest number required to preserve a single plant species. Housed within a vault-like structure, the installation by artist Dornith Doherty comes to life during seed exchange events, where visitors are invited to remove an image from the vault’s walls and replace it with a transparent envelope containing a single Canadian seed. Over time, the installation will change both physically and visually: from representational to actual, dark to light.” – moca.ca
