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The Hero Project
Sandra Brewster
Grace Channer
Camille Turner
January 15 - February 12, 2005
 Camille Turner |
 Grace Channer |
 Sandra Brewster |
| Hero: a) A mythical or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability, b) An illustrious warrior c) An object of extreme admiration and devotion. In The Hero Project, Sandra Brewster, Grace Channer and Camille Turner have created interactive media art works that explore the notion of whether 21st century black Canadians still need well defined heroes. In their pieces, they pose the questions: Is there still a need for Heroes amongst Black Canadians? What do they look like and what roles do they play? In conversation with the artists, they expressed that they felt they had to portray black women as heroes resisting racism, sexism and erasure. They then proceeded to engage the theme from three different perspectives, so that while Brewster searched for the heroes within her community, Turner re-invented herself as her own hero, and Channer created animated heroes liberated in a fantasy universe. In her short video documentary Listen, Brewster chronicles the intimate heroic moments and events of the 1950's - 80's when a generation of Caribbean people uprooted and immigrated to Canada. Listen shows admiration for the men and women who decided to risk familial and cultural disconnections, to embrace new experiences only to be faced with the need to resist a more virulent kind of racism in Canada. The documentary tells their stories, rich with colloquialisms and humour, saying plenty about their ability to survive and prosper. Grace Channer's Bat'hari "Biguum" co-opts some of the tools and techniques used by mainstream media in the creation of their pre-packaged stereotypes. She uses these advertising tools to manufacture her own animated hero, one more relevant to the experiences of Black Canadians. The animated hero -- a warrior -- lives on a fictitious island called Bat'hari ("Bat'hari" is a South African phrase meaning 'women from whom generations come'). Her installation parodies typical movie advertisements, complete with an eight-foot cutout cardboard figure of a super-sized hero, Biguum (a contraction of the phrase Big Woman). Camille Turner's installation includes a video that must be viewed while seated or surrounding a throne. The video shows a fictitious Miss Canadiana being crowned and beginning her world tour. Turner's work explores the nature of identity and integration without black erasure, or the 'fetishization' that often comes with multicultural policies and displays of diversity. Her heroic persona, Miss Canadiana challenges the "common sense" notion of what and who owns the true "Canadian" identity. Like filmmaker Cheryl Dunye whose seminal work The Watermelon Woman explored Black female erasure, Turner and the other two featured artists attempt to counteract Black absence and erasure by inventing or documenting histories that feed the souls and the psyches of their communities. These three artists have effectively engaged in a visual dialogue of the role of hero in the black Canadian community, from familial and community heroes that share historical moments, animated super heroes that trumpet the strengths of black women, to invented heroes that challenge perceptions of Canadian identity by resisting the act of erasure. Natalie Wood |
Bio Sandra Brewster Toronto based artist Sandra Brewster's portraits depict emotions and demeanors, visual representations of issues concerning contemporary society and the human condition. Exhibitions include: Through My Eyes, Through My Spirit, Spadina Historic House and Gardens, with Natalie Wood and Jacqueline Ward; Thupelo, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; Last Stop, St. Norbert's Arts Centre, St. Norbert, Manitoba; and Cool Pose at Zsa Zsa. A Bachelor of Fine Arts Graduate from York University, Sandra presently lives and works in Toronto. http://www.sandrabrewster.com Grace Channer |