June 8 – August 15, 2015
Meera Margaret Singh is a Toronto-based artist who questions cultural, physical, geographical, and emotional ideas of displacement and suspension. In both projects planned during her residency, Singh is exploring and questioning notions of the ‘simulated’ and the ‘real’ as performed through the body.
Singh challenged us to consider the history of figurative art – specifically representations of women in historic works – through two photographs of female body builders in domestic settings, which are presented among the AGO’s collection of paintings from the 1800s that show women in diverse roles.
Informed by her ongoing research in India, Singh also hosted a series of free participatory laughter yoga workshops as part of her residency. These events encourage visitors to laugh out loud in the museum, and to counter the idea that the museum is exclusively a place of contemplation and reverence. These workshops will provide the context for a new video work.