I haven't been a figment of my own imagination

Lili Reynaud-Dewar, The Power Structures, Rituals & Sexuality of the European Shorthand Typists 2 (video still), 2009. Courtesy of the artist and Mary Mary, Glasgow

NOVEMBER 21, 2009 to JANUARY 23, 2010

Vernissage:

Saturday, November 21, 2009 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Artists:

Aleesa Cohene

Luanne Martineau

Lili Reynaud-Dewar

Lucie Stahl

Curators:

Leisure Projects

The SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art presents I haven’t been a figment of my own imagination. For this project, the curators Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley examine the heritage of the 1970s feminist art and the current practice of four artists: Aleesa Cohene, Luanne Martineau, Lili Reynaud-Dewar and Lucie Stahl. Inventing contemporary visual forms that revisit the past, these artists renew and stimulate a dialogue between feminist generations. A brochure produced to accompany the exhibition includes writing by the artists and curators.

Aleesa Cohene (Canada) diverts the Hollywood genre, appropriating excerpts of films from the 1970s and 1980s to compose a video montage that describes the tumultuous emotional overload between two women in love.

Luanne Martineau (Canada) borrows from the textile arts, revisiting the modernist aesthetic to create imposing works that dominate the space and destabilize the spectator with powerful evocations of the body.

Lili Reynaud-Dewar (France) collaborates with performers to create performances and installations that trace and examine where collaborations with several performers are used to tell complex stories that elicit an examination of the issues involved in power and identity.

Lucie Stahl (Germany) creates photo collages in which documents emblematic of the baby-boomer generation are stripped of their context; the resulting element of strangeness acts as a singular reinterpretation of this key era in the evolution of feminism.

Parallel to the exhibition, SBC invites the public to a program of events and film screenings. By creating a forum for discussion and convivial exchanges with artists and art historians who have made a contribution to the second wave of feminism, notably in Montreal, I haven’t been a figment of my own imagination provides a space for reflection on the current issues of feminism in contemporary art.

SALON I: THEN, NOW AND LATER – FEMINIST ART FROM A CURATORIAL PERSPECTIVE CATHERINE MORRIS, Curator at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 6 p.m. In English

SALON FULLY BOOKED

SALON II: THEN - FEMINIST ART, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY

CLARA GUTSCHE, Artist and founding member of La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse

ROSE MARIE ARBOUR, Art Historian

Saturday, December 5, 2009, 2 p.m. Bilingual

SALON FULLY BOOKED

SALON III: WOMEN AND AVANT-GARDE FILMMAKING

Les filles du Roy, film by Anne-Claire Poirier, 56 minutes, 1974

Je tu il elle, film by Chantal Akerman, 90 minutes, 1974

Sunday, January 17, 2010, 2 p.m.

York Amphitheatre, Concordia University

1515 Ste-Catherine W, EV-01.615

SALON IV: THEN AND NOW – FEMINIST ART HISTORY

AMELIA JONES, Art Historian, Critic and Curator

Thursday, January 21, 2010, 6 p.m. In English

SALON FULLY BOOKED ​

R.S.V.P. for Salons I, II and IV. Limited seating.

All the activities are offered free of charge.

The Salons will be held at SBC, with the exception of Salon III.

This series is organized in collaboration with the FOFA Gallery.