Otherwise Disregarded
Story by Katherine Fawcett | Images by Joern Rohde
Jin-me Yoon, Kiriko Watanabe
T hings that would be tossed away. That which doesn’t matter. The easily ignored.
Otherwise Disregarded – Capture Photography Festival, the current show in the upper gallery of the Audain Art Museum (AAM), speaks volumes about the subjects and the artists; if it weren’t for the artistic process, these ideas and images would be commonly overlooked. Co-organized by the AAM and Capture Photography Festival, it is curated by Kiriko Watanabe, the AAM’s Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Curator, and Emily Lee Wall, the festival’s executive director and chief curator.
A featured exhibition for the 2024 festival, the show includes four artists finding their voice, seeking identity, challenging norms and confronting loss through ground-breaking art and installations.
Adad Hannah created a spell-binding, three-channel video installation, What Fools These Mortals Be (2022), in which he collaborates with 14 formerly incarcerated women to recreate Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. “Hannah’s video project engaged the women in an exuberant artistic process, providing hands-on experience and an opportunity to create community in a supportive environment,” Watanabe said,
A multidisciplinary artist and Two-Spirit person of Indigenous descent, Jake Kimble uses the camera to explore his identity, connect with his deepest emotions, recall past events, and discover and embrace his true self. “In his Grow-Up (2022) series, he achieves this effect by presenting childhood photographs, with his distinctive phrases [incorporated] into the images,” said Watanabe.
The multidisciplinary artist Michelle Sound, of Cree and Métis lineage, uses photography, photo manipulation and the addition of Indigenous art practices like beadwork, stitching, and caribou hair tufting to highlight issues such as loss of language, culture, ancestral land, and racist policies. “In her Holding It Together (2022) series, Sound incorporates photographs from her childhood to explore feelings of isolation from her own family and a connection with the land that is inseparable from her identity,” Watanabe said.
Photographer Jin-me Yoon delves into concepts of isolation, environmental degradation, and the search to reclaim cultural traditions from her perspective as a Korean immigrant to Canada. In her Long Time So Long (2022) series, “Yoon delves into the significance of the environment within the broader context of historical land usage,” said Watanabe.
Otherwise Disregarded - Capture Photography Festival runs until Sept. 9.