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WARC Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Rita Kamacho, curated by Cheryl Rondeau.
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Back to Exhibitions |
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WARC Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Rita Kamacho, curated by Cheryl Rondeau.
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Upon entering WARC Gallery, one is greeted by an array of flags, of varying shapes, sizes and colours. These real flags are complimented by a video projection of an animated flag that, reminiscent of the actual ones in the gallery, changes in design and colour every fifteen or so seconds. Juxtaposed to the flags is video documentation of the Bridal Veil Falls, the smallest waterfall that makes up the Niagara Falls, yet significant in its location. It essentially sits on the border between two countries as it is sandwiched between the American and Canadian waterfalls. All of these references to countries and borders surround a sewing machine conspicuously integrated into the installation. It is in fact the sewing machine that Toronto-based performance artist, Rita Kamacho, used to create the flags. Kamacho’s project is an examination on the origin and meaning of symbols and how symbols have been used in the past and continue to persist in the present, to represent actual places and people. Throughout the world flags are used to represent countries and organizations. They can stand for a diversity of groups and be used as tools of communication in sports, at sea in maritime transportation, or to stand out or mark the limits of a territory. As such, the symbols employed become associated with specific ideologies that then come to identify those affiliated with that group. For Kamacho, it is just this association that she is interested in exposing - the process by which seemingly arbitrary symbols become infused with meaning - and how such meaning is both created and constructed. In exposing the construct, Kamacho invites us to reconsider symbols and their meanings as malleable and mutable. Kamacho takes as her starting point the design principles of vexilollogy (the scholarly study of flags) and deliberately undermines them by allowing the material she uses to influence her designs, creating an organic flow between ideas and material. Notably, the materials employed by the artist are essentially everyday objects that can easily, and cheaply, be acquired. Neither one dominates the other in order to fit a preconceived concept. During the opening performance which takes place at the same time as Toronto’s “fourth annual sunset to sunrise celebration of contemporary art”, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, the artist will be found ensconced at her machine sewing flags to offer as a gift to gallery visitors. Reminiscent of her guerrilla-style performance practice, Kamacho will take her flags to the ‘street’, as it were, by inviting those present to join her in an intervention, parading their new flags within the gallery and through the hallways of 401 Richmond Street, a cultural landmark building where the gallery is located. The march will celebrate, amongst an unsuspecting audience, the diversity of meanings and causes these flags will now symbolize, breaking down borders and ideologies in favour of grassroots and collective driven expression and creativity. Her performance within the gallery space further democratizes the experience by showing the audience her process of creating flags. Essentially anyone can do it, and, by extension each flag becomes a new symbol that each individual can imbue with his or her own meaning and ideas. The parade thus becomes the perfect dénouement, celebrating the power of the individual and the possibilities of intervention with authority, identity and change. Cheryl Rondeau Bios: Rita Kamacho moved from Mexico to Canada in 2001. She creates performance based projects to research processes and relations that define some of the paradoxes of our society associated with ideas of borders and boundaries between disciplines, places and spaces. Her projects have been supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council. Cheryl Rondeau is a visual artist who works with both still and moving imagery to transform moments of transition and quotidien into the monumental with the intent of exposing influences and mechanics that mediate representation and identity. Her practice can mimic investigative scientific method, embrace the thievery of appropriation or inhabit the role of storyteller - in all cases, she collects, isolates and extracts specific gestures and moments constructing an intermix of the real and fabricated. Her visual arrangements are rhythmic compilations of repetition and mimicry creating images of ambivalence and agency. Born in St. Catharines (Canada), Rondeau studied photography and video at the Ontario College of Art (Toronto) and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social/Cultural Anthropology from the University of Toronto. Her work has been included in exhibitions and festivals internationally including Festival international du film sur l’art (Montreal, Québec) Mediawave International Festival of Visual Arts (Gyor, Hungary), Scope Art Fair (New York City), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy) and Museum of Modern Art (Bogota, Colombia).
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