Curatorial Tour: Labour, with Ingrid Jones

A program of:
Labour

Saturday, September 14, 2024
2pm–4pm
Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, 7 Hart House Circle

Please join curator Ingrid Jones for an exploration and discussion of the themes and artists featured in Labour, which includes text, film, and immersive installations by Natalie Asumeng, La Tanya S. Autry, Tony Cokes, Chantal Gibson, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Kosisochukwu Nnebe, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and Martine Syms.

Inspired by Claudia Rankine’s work on microaggressions in Citizen: An American Lyric and themes of perceptibility, Labour seeks to unveil the invisible labor of the colonized. The exhibition challenges societal racial biases through the lenses of Blackness and Indigeneity, exploring how this unseen labour might be unburdened and shifted onto the dominant. The evocative works examine white supremacy’s manifestation in institutional power paradigms and its corrosive effects on Black and Indigenous people and people of colour. In so doing, this exhibition operationalizes and reveals unseen labour while activating alternative teachings from Black and Indigenous perspectives. By reimagining how the colonized perceive, engage with, and ultimately challenge the forces that shape our world, Labour becomes a powerful site of defiance.

This event is free and all are welcome. No registration required.

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About the Curator

Ingrid Jones is an independent curator, creative director, and multidisciplinary artist whose practice critically examines marginalization and refusal, particularly the erasure of Black scholarship, the commodification of Blackness, and the unseen labor of BIPOC artists and cultural workers. Her notable exhibitions include Liberation in Four Movements (2024), Nostalgia Interrupted (2022), Wild Rose (2018), IDENTITY (2018), and Poor But Sexy: The Outtakes (2010). Jones has developed lectures and masterclasses for Sheridan College and Toronto Metropolitan University, focusing on photography, art direction, and the interplay between art movements and sociopolitical events. She has received the Reesa Greenberg Curatorial Studies Award for research excellence and was nominated in 2023 for Exhibition of the Year over 20K by Galeries Ontario Galleries. Her collaborative work and writing have appeared in Globe Style, Computer Arts Projects UK, Vice Berlin, Waddington’s, and Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education.