Lifelines Exhibition
Feb 29, 2024 — Mar 28, 2024
Lifelines, curated by Natalie Wood and Rochelle Ellar presents artwork by the inaugural cohort of the Black Arts Fellowship, including Taymah Armatrading, Natasha “Courage” Bacchus, Sarah Barrable-Tishauer/DJ Me Time, Janine Carrington, Abi Cudjoe, Danilo Deluxo, Elicser Elliot, Haui aka Howard J Davis and Aisha Lesley Bentham.
Lifelines gathers select works that speak individually and collectively to the intentions of the Wildseed Black Arts Fellowship as a lifeline to fellows to explore their arts practices, to engage with the sacredness of creating, to bring together many disciplines for experimentation, and to provoke discussions about the role of activist art and artivism. These works are meant to showcase a process of creation within a time of intense foreboding and rampant anti-Black racism. It was intended that the fellowship space would build ongoing insight and practices for the purpose of healing self and community, of taking up the task of expanding notions and meanings of what art is and who is an artist. These works provide opportunities for discussion about the labour of art, the sacredness of refusals, of rest, of radical care, who art is meant for (practice and engagement with), and the process rather than the product of art making.
The opening reception date will held on February 29, 2024 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM. Admission is free.
Notes for Access: Lifelines runs from February 29, 2024 to March 16, 2024. Lifelines’ opening and closing events will be ASL interpreted, childcare and food will be provided. All further details on program and building accessibility can be found on our website.
We are grateful for the support of Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and Canadian Heritage.
For press inquiries, please contact media@wildseedcentre.com
Location: Wildseed Centre
Pictured: Detail shot of ANCESTRAL SALUTATIONS, 2023 by ABI CUDJOE
Exhibition Virtual Directory
“Lifelines” gathers select works that speak individually and collectively to the intentions of the Wildseed Black Arts Fellowship as a lifeline to fellows to explore their arts practices, to engage with the sacredness of creating, to bring together many disciplines for experimentation, and to provoke discussions about the role of activist art and artivism. These works are meant to showcase a process of creation within a time of intense foreboding and rampant anti-Black racism. It was intended that the fellowship space would build ongoing insight and practices for the purpose of healing self and community, of taking up the task of expanding notions and meanings of what art is and who is an artist. These works provide opportunities for discussion about the labour of art, the sacredness of refusals, of rest, of radical care, who art is meant for (practice and engagement with), and the process rather than the product of art making.
We are grateful for the support of Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and Canadian Heritage.
Exhibition Navigation
Main floor – Gallery & Wet Art Studio
Danilo Deluxo
Elicser Elliott
HAUI aka Howard J Davis
Aisha Lesley Bentham
2nd floor – Co-Working Space
Janine Carrington
DJ Me Time
3rd floor – Presentation Room
Taymah Armatrading
Abi Cudjoe
About The Artwork
At the Center of My Origins, Video Installation.
At the Center of My Origins is a video installation exploring the creation of a personal archive, prompted by the continued degradation of my grandmother’s access to memory. This installation creates an intimate space where the viewer is ushered between lived memories and imagined realities through storytelling.
Spanning my adolescence in Little Jamaica, through young adulthood receiving gender affirming care in that same area, this piece parses the idea of a self portrait. What’s left is an image forged through moments of growth, connection, and cultural knowledge, as the torch is passed down from the matriarch, and we become the custodians of our own memories.
Social Media: @tigh.t
Em and the Cat, Video Installation
20 minutes
“Em and the Cat” is an exuberant animated adventure that pays homage to the experience of being a kid in a post pandemic digital world. Created with ages 4-10 in mind, it tells a story familiar to parents and children forced to embrace screentime as a part of their lifestyle.
Our protagonist, Em, finds themself with the opportunity to watch TV for a whole day and they jump at the chance. Just as their favourite show begins, a mischievous cat arrives sending their plans for a digital day right out the window–literally!
“Em and the Cat” blurs the lines between reality and imagination leaving the viewer with their own answers to absurd questions. Its social messages around Blackness and Gender Fluidity are buried deep within colourful layers of bizarre adventure and subtle nods to Black history scattered throughout the piece allow the viewer to absorb the essence of the artist’s ideals without ever leaving the realm of impossible adventure.
Social Media: @janinecarringtonkids
ANCESTRAL SALUTATIONS, Video Installation
Regalia (as seen in video): acrylic paint, kanekalon hair extensions, cotton/linen
Video: 5 minutes, 55 seconds
While watching ANCESTRAL SALUTATIONS, Abi invites you to consider the following question:
What sounds, words, and movements welcome you to dream, and in that dreaming, who do you become?
In ANCESTRAL SALUTATIONS, Abi adorns regalia they have crafted from kanekalon hair, acrylic paint, cotton and linen. The regalia extends a process of self-discovery catalyzed by hair and movement that leads them to their ancestors and a place of welcome beyond the SOMBRE SALUTATIONS of this world.
The audio track, Fluid, is written and performed by Basit. To discover more of Basit’s music, and to read about Abi’s past work, scan the QR code below.
This project is supported by the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts.
Social Media: @acudj
Me, Courage “in sign language version”
My artistic statement beautifully captures the metamorphosis of self from invisibility to resilience, drawing inspiration from my inner child Natasha. The symbolism of the glamour gold dress mirrors my journey, where Trailblazer become the eye-opener in navigating unfolds through themes of authenticity, triumph in athleticism, ongoing decolonization, positive force in anger, community inspiration, and the profound journey of self-discovery.
Social Media: @couragebacchus
- Roundabout Rum Shop, 2. Bottom Town, 3. My First Frida, 4. St. Martin basketball court, 5. Long Wall, Paintings
Elicser Elliott is a Toronto-based artist whose creations adorn the cultural landscape here and abroad. As an integral part of downtown Toronto’s street art community for over 2 decades, he has been recognized for his artistry and praised by both street and fine art collectors all over the world.
Through Elliott’s Black Arts fellowship experience, Wildseed has created a foundation of support and opportunity for learning and growth he has never encountered before. Inspired by Octavia E Butler’s Wild Seed, like Anyanwu’s yams for her goats, Elicser feels he and his cohorts have “never eaten so well”.
Elicser’s androgynous characters are squished together helping each other, exchanging thoughts and feelings in a unity of spirit not unlike Anyanwu and her mother. The expansion of self enabled by Wildseed – embracing not one but many identities and energies including ancestral. As we shift upwards, there is a shedding of old skin, turning into something new. Wildseed is an integral source of support for transformations, growth, personal evolution and expansions into new. This body of work represents Future Memories.
Social Media: @elicserelliott
Black Athena, Framed Photography
BLACK ATHENA is the only photo I have of my great-grandmother Mary. This piece of art explores the lines between ancestry, legend, and history. Mary’s story takes place within a region of the world known as the Sargasso Sea.
The Sargasso Sea has no borders. It is a sea within a sea. This piece asks: What are the “seas” inside of us? Are they ancestral memories left behind, like waves? Or are they bottomless like the ocean itself?
Caribbean immigrants often journey to find new freedoms and new homes but end up being indoctrinated on colder islands. As someone of mixed heritage, I am sometimes lost at sea. Where do I belong? I have moved too often to find my roots. This is my great-grandmother’s story—a dream of the Diaspora.
During the Cuban Revolution, Mary fled to Jamaica with her children. Mary’s journey around the Caribbean sheds light upon the generational struggle within my family. Too many African brothers and sisters know the shared trauma and ramifications of slavery, running, and assimilation.
It is said that when a sea turtle gives birth, only one out of a hundred survives the journey to adulthood. When Mary passed away in Jamaica, I believe she was content. I sometimes feel like that lone sea turtle, finding my way back to her. I know I am not my ancestor’s wildest dream. Mary is mine.
Mary’s image is housed in this ornate Baroque frame, a frame that was auctioned off like the many enslaved Black people during the height of slavery. This gesture allows the redistribution of scale and meaning, taking a small, personal, and intimate image and transforming it. Ironically, a frame such as this would have housed Europe’s artworks. For me, Mary’s is a great story that deserves to have light shed upon. To take what is so often peripheral and put it centre stage.
Mary is my closest link to my West African, Caribbean, and Taino/Arawak roots. She is my Black Athena. Mary’s powerful story, my queer aesthetic/sensibility, as well as the end of my residency at Black Lives Matter – Toronto is reflected in this piece.
Social Media: @woweehaui
www.haui.ca
“I’ve always hated purple”, “Peach sixty nine”, “Placelessness”, “The way through”, “Unfurnished”, “Watersnake”, “TERRA”, “29 Boundaries”, Paintings
There are no words that can capture what you see when you are looking at your own
memories. Which in fact, are now vibrations moving through time.
Each piece represents a moment over time.
I used time as the tool to scan and analyze my memories, never desiring to be anywhere
other than where I am.
I was able to create landscapes of my memories, inner diagrams of feelings felt.
Two-dimensional ideograms designed to spread.
And day after day, they move on, to become once again.
But I archive my life, to attempt to frame a feeling, a pain, an anger, me but before.
What you see, was once memories.
Social Media: @dr.bad.academic
The Rave Institute, Video Installation
Social Media: @djmetime
“Krowns”
Goldleaf, Aerosol Paint, Acrylic and Oil on Wood Panel
Danilo Deluxo is an award-winning Multidisciplinary Artist, Designer and Afrofuturist Curator.
He is the creator of Black Future Month (Afrofuturism Exhibitions, Toronto, 2013).
In 2021-2022 Deluxo was the Curator for ArtworxTO (Hub North- Downsview Park). A project that produced the massive 360-foot-long mural “ALLSTYLE” (10,000 sq feet), featuring an all-BIPOC cast of 9 renowned Artists working in collaboration.
After being honoured by the City by having his artwork displayed on the monumental Toronto Sign at City Hall, seen, and photographed by millions, Deluxo brings us a collection entitled “Krowns”.
“Krowns” is a narrative of struggle and success, tragedy and triumph.
A reminder to acknowledge our victories, and a whisper of our promise, perseverance and prosperity.
The title of the collection is based on the famous quote:
“Our crowns have been bought and paid for…
All we have to do is put them on our heads.”
-James Baldwin
Social Media: @danilodeluxo
- Organizer(s)
- Rochelle Ellar
- Fellowship Coordinator
- Rochelle@wildseedcentre.com
For press inquiries, please contact media@wildseedcentre
