Ghostly Makers and Tending Otherworlds: New Acquisitions

July 14 - September 24, 2023

Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC, Canada

The below statement is available on the Burnaby Art Gallery's collections website on the exhibition, available here.

"This exhibition looks to generate discussion surrounding the prevalence of diasporic, displaced and disrupted hauntings in craft and textile practices. Drawing from Avery Gordon’s definition of haunting as 'an animated state in which repressed or unresolved social violence is making itself known,' Ghostly Makers utilizes haunting as an alternative lens that materializes and uplifts narratives of resistance. Including the artists Samar Hejazi, Jacqueline Morrisseau-Addison, Keysha Rivera, Arezu Salamzadeh, and Lan 'Florence' Yee, each work critically examines contemporary constructions of visibility while re-imagining ways for thinking about identity and the commemoration of time. 

In a time defined by our widespread access to information—individuals are today, more than ever, filling in and interrogating the gaps that western historical documentation leaves behind. Through highlighting these haunting narratives that oppressive structures have sought to suppress, Ghostly Makers does not attempt to seek resolutions to or contain these discourses, but rather, looks to unravel violent and colonial legacies while weaving threads of resistance into narratives of absence, time and memory."