Blue background with white outline of women wrapped around by two snakes.

Alberta Whittle. Her blood spoke in Creole, in Gaelic, in Twi and in Yoruba, 2022. Acrylic, Florida Water, Bay Rum on cotton, Overall: 200 x 200 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Purchase, with funds from the Friends of Global Africa & the Diaspora, 2022. © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy of the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery. Photo: Adam Reich Photography. 2022/7089.

Her Blood Spoke: Joscelyn Gardner, Kara Springer, Alberta Whittle

April 15 - October 29, 2023

Located on Level 1 in gallery 140 and 141

Admission is always FREE for AGO Members, AGO Annual Pass Holders & Visitors 25 and under. Learn more.

EXHIBITION OVERVIEW

Her Blood Spoke: Joscelyn Gardner, Kara Springer, Alberta Whittle presents 16 artworks by three artists of Barbadian descent, reflecting on contemporary and historical experiences with Black maternal health and bodily autonomy. As access to reproductive healthcare remains precarious globally, this installation offers a consideration of the ways in which Black women's bodies have long been sites of conflict.

Featuring lithographs, photographs, painting and video, the artworks on view, use archival sleuthing, autobiography and conceptual storytelling to situate women's labour in conversation with themes of bodily agency, resistance, and ancestral care. Her Blood Spoke emerges from an awareness of the historical systems of racial and gendered violence that continue to shape our contemporary moment.