Awards
These are installation shots of 3 drawings and 5 sculptures curated for Jennifer Lorraine Fraser' MFA Thesis exhibition 'Awards' from March 4-10, 2016 at the the OCAD University Graduate Gallery in Toronto, Ontario. Her opening reception Liberty Party took place on International Women's Day and included artist talks and burlesque performances. Fraser's descriptions of the exhibition is as follows:
"The purpose of Awards is to create a woman’s space.
A space for contemplation, research and response to the history of the Female Refuges Act, and the subsequent unethical incarceration of women in Toronto during the inter-war period.
Awards is a co-construction of research, contemplation and contemporaneous artistic response to the history of women incarcerated in Toronto during the interwar period due to lifestyle choices and their subsequent forced labour within asylums. The exhibition visualizes how absent histories can be made present through juxtaposing representations of early twentieth century women, chronicled through various media sources, with theory that analyses the systemic oppression of women within asylums and prisons, and with contemporary responses by women artists. Each piece stands alone representing its own story, but together the pieces weave an anti-narrative, punctuating certain social practices that suppressed the lives of women for nearly one hundred years. The show demonstrates that the lives of women are dynamic and fragmentary, and that there is no single narrative that can be positioned to accommodate the full beauty of a life lived."
"Included, are 8 artists, all of which have been chosen to respond to the research I have conducted. The artists are: Ana Cop, Anna Copa Cabanna, Britta Fluevlog, Gillian Dykeman, Jamey Braden, Kristina Guison, Paddy Jane, and Rene Vandenbrink. Awards, is a co-construction of research, contemplation and response to the history of women being unethically incarcerated; their subsequent forced labour within asylums, and their lifestyle choices which led to their incarceration."
