Image credit: Heartbreak (2016) by Nadine Valcin
OCAD U students spotlight Black Canadian media artists in screening series
The brilliant curatorial work of two current OCAD U students is being showcased online by Vtape, Canada’s premiere video art distribution centre, from January to March 2022.
Presented in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Black Canadian Diaspora (CSBCD), this free and virtual screening series presents two dynamic video art programs curated by Criticism and Curatorial Practice undergraduates Temple Marucci-Campbell and Fabiyino Germain-Bajowa.
The screening series is the second phase of a collaboration that began between the two centres in 2017, when activist and artist Elisha Lim researched the archives of A Space Gallery and Vtape to compile data on Black Canadian video production and presentation activities from the 1980s onwards.
“The main function of the Centre is to collect, digitize and catalogue the works of Black Canadian cultural producers since 1987 to the present,” explained Dr. Fatona during a virtual talk featuring curator Fabiyino Germain-Bajowa and four artists featured in her curatorial project.
“The main focus is to go into artist-run centres...and other public galleries to dig deeply to find the works that were produced over the period mentioned,” she continued.
Both curated screening programs include a combination of historical and contemporary video works by Black Canadian media artists, extending the Centre for the Study of. Black Canadian Diaspora’s commitment to making visible those works that have been historically erased from the archives of Canadian art.
“I wanted to find works by Black diasporic filmmakers that engaged with remembrance, while also looking to the future,” notes Temple Marucci-Campbell about her research process.
Germain-Bajowa's program, the second in the series, is currently underway. One title from the program will be presented each Wednesday at 7 p.m. until March 23, 2022.
A writer, curator and interdisciplinary artist, Fabiyino Germain-Bajowa is Nigerian-Canadian and centres Afro-diasporic experience in her research, to build an understanding of the ways archives of physical and immaterial knowledge are constructed in Black communities.
This ethos manifests in Germain-Bajowa's program, titled, Tell The Body, which brings together six video works that explore the role language and the senses play in the construction of knowledge.
Germain-Bajowa's curated program proceeds that of Temple Marucci-Campbell's which wrapped up earlier this month. Titled, To Remember and Repair the program can still be viewed via Vtape’s website. The series of works explore the impacts of trauma on human legacy, especially the lives of Black diasporic people.
“Through the curation of this program, I was questioning how I remembered my grandmother — one of the only connections I have to Guyana— and how I access the culture she revealed to me as a child,” Marucci-Campbell explains.
Collectively, the video works ask, “what is the relationship between ruptured histories and remembering?” as well as, “how can such legacies be nurtured?”. Marucci-Campbell's research practice focuses on the intersection of art and food, where food acts as a transmitter of sensory knowledge. It is through her research that Marucci-Campbell connects with her ancestral history and explores alternative ways of remembering.
The two emerging curators received mentorship from Dr. Andrea Fatona, founder of the CSBCD and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Art at OCAD University. Vtape Artistic Director and pioneering video artist, Lisa Steele also supported Marucci-Campbell and Germain-Bajowa as they navigated the extensive media art holdings of Vtape and Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC), in order to assemble this groundbreaking screening series.
Tune into Vtape’s website each Wednesday at 7 p.m. to view Tell The Body, curated by Germain-Bajowa. The program will culminate on March 23, 2022 with a live conversation between the curator and featured artists, moderated by Dr. Andrea Fatona.