The AGO X RBC Emerging Artists Exchange is a new initiative providing three emerging artists with a paid six-week digital mentorship to pursue a research project. With the support of mentors from across the gallery, each artist furthers their work with the aim of presenting their findings to the various teams at the AGO.
Bianca Weeko Martin, Rattan Chair (from the White House project), 2020
“I want to use beautiful images and words to recenter the marginal, and make the arcane inclusive. I work with analog and digital media with equal enthusiasm, hoping to reveal the possibilities of technology in art and participatory space.”
Bianca is interested in studying Canadian artwork in the AGO Collection, particularly paintings and drawings depicting interior spaces, to continue her research project of seeking counter-narratives of history and to contribute to an expanded understanding of Canadian history.
Bianca’s project The White House is a counter-narrative to a history told through monuments. It focuses on the personal, domestic scale of the home as an alternative to the obscure, public-facing architectural landscape of post-colonial Manila. The project began with the reconstruction of an ancestral house in Baliuag, Philippines, in the form of an interactive website and drawing series, piecing together archival family photographs, oral accounts and personal memories. The project’s second phase, being staged with the AGO X RBC Exchange Program, will extend the drawings, webpages and text through a study of images of interior domestic spaces in the AGO Collection.
Bianca Weeko Martin is an architectural researcher, published author and practitioner of the arts and the internet. Her federally funded thesis research focused on alternative narratives of architectural history and representation, with key interests of family, memory, domestic space and urban life. She was born in Jakarta and raised in Toronto.
Krystle Silverfox, Ets'edegél' (spear game), 2020
“I am inspired by the land and through my experiences as an Urban Indigenous woman living as an uninvited guest on unceded Coast Salish territories.”
Krystle will conduct research on contemporary and traditional Indigenous art and the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art, learning more about museum practices involved in displaying and installation art.
Krystle Silverfox is a member of Selkirk First Nation (Wolf Clan), and an interdisciplinary visual artist. She currently lives and works on the unceded territory of the Qayqayt First Nation (New Westminster, BC). Silverfox holds both a B.F.A. in Visual Art (2015), and a B.A. in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice from the University of British Columbia (2013); also an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Simon Fraser University (2019). Her artistic practice explores different materials, methodologies and symbols to create conceptual works. Krystle Silverfox is inspired by Indigenous feminism, trans-nationalism, decolonialism, activism and lived experience.
Alessandra Pozzuoli, Nonni as a young woman, 2019. Cyanotype on paper, 9" x 12"
“Inspired by the material languages of generations of Italian immigrant women, my practice views cleaning as both a foundational act of labour and a way of communicating care, protection and ownership, with both destructive and restorative potential.”
Alessandra’s proposed project will explore past and current cleaning practices at the AGO. How are objects and artworks “cleaned”? How are they touched and not touched, and by whom? Does putting objects inside display cases sterilize them? How are galleries cared for as public spaces? Where is dust, dirt and debris allowed to live? Interviews will be conducted with staff in Conservation, Collections, Visitor Experience, and with Gallery Monitors and Custodians about the role of cleaning, touch, their bodies, and object maintenance in their work. Research will also be done on artwork restoration practices, building maintenance, exhibition design and accessibility.
Alessandra Pozzuoli is an emerging interdisciplinary artist. Using painting, textiles and printmaking, her work explores how sacred meaning is constructed and maintained through gesture, objects and the sharing of stories. Her practice highlights women’s labour and the role of women as caretakers and keepers of cultural knowledge in the context of devotion, family and death.
