School of Interactive Arts & Technology

Installations, Exhibitions

Chantal Gibson artwork on display at two university galleries

March 03, 2025
Appliqué: The Work is Labour / The Labour is Rest (an ekphrastic haptic poetry installation) by Chantal Gibson.

Artwork by artist and SIAT University Lecturer Chantal Gibson is currently on display at two Canadian university galleries.

Gibson's work "Applique: The Work is Labour / The Labour is Rest" will be displayed at the Labour exhibit at University of Toronto until March 22, 2025 and Souvenir I will be at the Dalhousie Art Gallery until April 27, 2025.

Learn more about the artworks and exhibitions:

Souvenir I

On display at the Down Home: Portraits of Resistance exhibition at the Dalhousie Art Gallery until April 27, 2025

Down Home is an exhibition that brings together nine contemporary artists of African Nova Scotian and African Canadian descent, whose portraits and mixed media works explore different aspects of self, family, and community. These artists delve into the distinct experiences of Black communities in the Maritimes and across Canada, drawing from rich traditions of oral history, textile arts, and faith to reveal the intricate layers that shape Black life across generations. The exhibition fosters an intimate and layered exploration of both personal and collective narratives, offering diverse perspectives on Black identity, resilience, and creativity. 

Souvenir features a collection of 2000 unique souvenir spoons from countries around the world hanging in rows and spray painted matte black, calling up a history of Black bodies displayed and displaced. 

While the spoons look alike at first glance, their identities erased, the unique details, emblems and engravings on the handles and bowls emerge upon closer look, evoking a contrast between the individual identity and a shared experience of Blackness.

Learn more

Applique: The Work is Labour / The Labour is Rest (an ekphrastic haptic poetry installation)

On display at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery University of Toronto Museums until March 22, 2025

Artists: 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 scholarship on microaggressions in Citizen: An American Lyric and themes of perceptibility, Labour seeks to unveil the invisible labour of the colonized. The exhibition challenges societal racial biases through the lens of Blackness and Indigeneity, exploring, among other concerns, how unseen labour might be unburdened and shifted onto the dominant. The evocative works of Natalie Asumeng, La Tanya S. Autry, Tony Cokes, Chantal Gibson, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Kosisochukwu Nnebe, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Martine Syms 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. Labour asks, what are the motivations for our inclusion in institutional spaces? Who has the right to tell our stories? What is our right to rage in the face of microaggressions and discriminatory acts? And how can we employ much-needed rest as a form of resistance? Featuring an electrifying mix of audio, video, textual, and immersive works, Labour creates a powerful sensory experience that disrupts conventional narratives. By reimagining how the colonized perceive, engage with, and ultimately challenge the forces that shape our world, Labour becomes a powerful site of defiance.

Images by C. Gibson: Epigraph: Still Life with Black Girl, Theory, White Folks and Fruit (2024) and Swatch Book with Self-Regulation and Pinking Shears (2024). 

Learn more

Learn more about Chantal Gibson's artwork at her webpage.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
SMS
Email
Copy
School of Interactive Arts & Technology
Search
close