{"id":24800,"date":"2019-09-27T15:43:23","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T19:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24800"},"modified":"2019-09-27T15:43:33","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T19:43:33","slug":"light-grows-the-tree-showcases-emerging-black-creators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/light-grows-the-tree-showcases-emerging-black-creators\/","title":{"rendered":"Light Grows the Tree showcases emerging Black creators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Systemic racism can be found in many places and forms,\nincluding violence and exclusion \u2013 all to the detriment of everyone in society,\nbut Black creators \u2013 artists, sculptors, photographers, and more \u2013 see the\nopportunity to make sense of their history and begin a renewed conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the vision of Liz Ikiriko, whose curated\nexhibition Light Grows the Tree, showcasing Black artists, writers, curators\nand collectors in the Greater Toronto Area, is on now through November 23 at\nthe Aurora Cultural Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shining a light on more than 40 artists, Light Grows the\nTree made its debut in 2017 in The Ethnic Aisle, an online space dedicated to\nproviding a forum for marginalized Canadian makers. This early showcase soon\nmorphed into Light Grows the Tree, a travelling exhibition aimed at \u201cproviding\nmore opportunities to create relationships between disparate communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaking visible the very real, talented, emerging to\nwell-established Black artists working today functions as a point of\nrecognition for an eager viewer who may not have had this beacon of hope\npresented to them previously,\u201d says Ms. Ikiriko in her curator\u2019s statement.\n\u201cPlanting the seeds and providing the light is a way of supporting generations\nof creators to guide us forward. In an age such as the one we are living in,\nour acts of care are not simply enjoyable, they are crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The portraits that form Light Grows the Tree were taken\nby four photographers \u2013 Ikiriko, Yannick Anton, Ebti Nabag, and Dainesha\nNugent-Palache — over two months, and \u201cthese portraits do the work of making\nthe Black arts community visible,\u201d says Yaniya Lee in an introduction to the\nshow. \u201cThe Black diaspora has always struggled with the problem of history and\narchive. It\u2019s the reason Black arts in Canada continue to exist as a rumour.\nParallel to the ways in which our histories in the nation have been rewritten\nand erased, Black arts in Canada have become an absented presence. This is the\nfirst chapter in a project that seeks to recognize a community whose endeavours\nhave been rendered palimpsestic by consistent disregard from historicized\nCanadian art history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe stakes of Black culture in Canada are high. Systemic\nracism in the form of violence and exclusion tears at the fabric of our many\ncommunities. Through visual arts, we create new worlds and make sense of our\nhistories, we are emboldened to confront the prerogatives of a multiculturalism\nthat eclipses our integral place in the nation. There is such rich nuance to\nblackness here: it is no single thing. Our endeavours are held in the memories\nof several generations of folks who have shaped the Black arts scene through\ntheir various contributions. Going into the future, we need to know of each\nother\u2019s existence. Just as a tree needs light to grow, this community requires\nattention to focus and develop. In this first chapter, Light Grows the Tree\nbegins the process of acknowledging those who have been the life force of Black\narts in Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora Cultural Centre began looking at this first\nchapter after learning more at the Old Town Hall gallery in Newmarket. Aurora\nCultural Centre curator Clare Bolton then made it her mission to bring the\nworks here to Aurora. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was important for me to bring this exhibition to the\nAurora Cultural Centre for several reasons,\u201d said Ms. Bolton at this month\u2019s\ngallery opening. \u201cWe are showcasing to the community of Aurora the works of\nfour exceptional photographers. Therefore, in addition to the subject matter\nhighlighting emerging to well-established Black artists is the actual quality\nof the photography in this exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is my hope this exhibition will continue to travel\nand initiate new relationships with artists and different communities. At the\nAurora Cultural Centre, we intend to invite artists back and have already\nspoken with Liz Ikiriko about creating a future exhibition at the Centre.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the opening Ms. Ikiriko stated that in her experience\ncurating this exhibition she uncovered many \u201cgaps and separations between so\nmany people, including between artists who have decades of work under their\nbelts and younger generations who are just coming up, and the collection is\nintended to foster these lasting connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been great coming back to this work after two\nyears because I think because of the pace of our lives these days [where I feel\nlike I] can\u2019t keep up with news media, with what is happening everywhere else\nin the world, it is usually terrifying and devastating, and I think it is\nreally important to actually reflect on what\u2019s happening, what\u2019s happened and\npay attention to the people we are and how we\u2019re always becoming more and more\nand more,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHanging this show was a really phenomenal thing because\nI hadn\u2019t looked at the work in two years and there have been so many incredible\nachievements with this group of people who are in this exhibition. also is\nimportant for me to acknowledge that our achievements as Black folk especially\nin Canada and Ontario, those achievements are not solely felt, they are felt by\nthe greater community and that is why this is such a wonderful thing to see\nhere. [It is also great] to connect Aurora because I grew up in Saskatchewan\nand I didn\u2019t see references to Black artists in my community. I don\u2019t know if\nit is a clich\u00e9, but the idea of \u2018if you can\u2019t see it you can\u2019t be it\u2019 is so\ntrue. To be able to have young folk come in and see all these different\nartists, whether they are sculptors, photographers, painters, all these paths\nthat are now opening up, I think it is just wonderful to see it happening here\nin Aurora.\u201d <\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Systemic racism can be found in many places and forms, including violence and exclusion \u2013 all to the detriment of everyone in society, but Black creators \u2013 artists, sculptors, photographers, and more \u2013 see the opportunity to make sense of their history and begin a renewed conversation. This is the vision of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-09-26-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6s0","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 10:49:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}