In the Interstices of Our Palms

The group exhibition In the Interstices of Our Palms explores ways to build, hold, and share community in times of disruption. Navigating the personal and collective challenges of communal efforts, three artists mobilize processes of (re)assembly. Through the use of fragile materials, arrangements or embodied forms, they expose their vulnerability to past and current upheavals that have shaken their communities. This exposure is coupled with resilience, an essential quality for ensuring the sustainability of their endeavors.

Rihab Essayh’s fragmented landscape of suspended organza affirms the persistence of ruins even in our softest conceptions of futurity. Anouk Verviers provides a personal reflection on the erosion of a communal tradition and the present-day significance of its loss. As the colonial and patriarchal implications of her story are revealed, the artist turns these systems into fragile props on the brink of collapse. Reflecting on the resilience of her Sugpiaq lineage, Tanya Lukin Linklater’s embodied practice speaks to the dismantling of Indigenous social structures by colonial forces and the ongoing efforts of Indigenous peoples to restore their languages, families and identities.

The artists create space for hope, insisting on the possibilities for healing and renewal while simultaneously reckoning with ongoing grievances. It is through sustained, careful gestures that the artists ultimately guide us toward reflective modes of collectivity.

This exhibition is produced as part of the requirements for the MVS degree in Curatorial Studies at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto.