Jordan Hill and Maryam Tavakoli Dastjerdi at the Alternator

Jordan Hill, Horizontal Vertigo, installation view, 2021. Image courtesy of the artist.

The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is pleased to present two new exhibitions: The Missing Distance by Jordan Hill, and بطن The core of my person by Maryam Tavakoli Dastjerdi, on view from September 13 through October 26, 2024.

In the Alternator Main Gallery is Halifax based artist Jordan Hill. Hill is a Coast Salish (T’Sou-ke Nation) new media artist whose practice focuses on the blurred distinction between fact and fiction in modern culture. His work questions how we navigate a spatially manipulated world where truth is incredibly difficult to locate both physically and virtually. He juxtaposes unexpected ideas and seemingly unrelated locales, uncovering the intersections between urban and rural facades in ways that transform how we think about both.

Through his innovative use of technology and virtual imagery, Hill invites viewers to reconsider their relationship with the world around them. His work aims to intervene normalized social and spatial assumptions we make upon being introduced to spaces, and in what ways we allow the artificial to undermine our own intuition.

Maryam Tavakoli Dastjerdi, Vague (detail), charcoal pencil on paper, 2021. Image courtesy of the artist.

In the Alternator Project Gallery is Victoria-based artist Maryam Tavakoli Dastjerdi’s بطن The core of my person.

Tavakoli explores the intricate relationship between memory and identity through her art drawing on the philosophical concept of Tabula Rasa, which likens the mind to a blank slate shaped by experiences. Her practice delves into how identity and memory are interconnected, suggesting that one’s sense of self is both shaped by and inseparable from their memories.

Tavakoli utilizes technical strategies to deconstruct her compositions, and then displace and distort the reality as we know it to convey that memory and identity cannot be defined separately given the complex overlapping nature of the two concepts. Her works seek to explore identity through memories of lived life experiences, personal traumas, and the social/cultural structure of her home country.

Both The Missing Distance and بطن The core of my person will be on view at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art from September 13 to October 26, 2024.

About the Artists

Jordan Hill is a Coast Salish (T’Sou-ke Nation) new media artist originally from Vancouver Island whose work alludes to the blurred line between fact and fiction within contemporary culture. Hill’s work utilizes our relationship with technology and virtual imagery in a way that helps us foster a deeper connection with the world away from it.

Maryam Tavakoli Dastjerdi is a multidisciplinary artist based in Victoria, BC. She received an MFA degree from the University of Victoria in 2023 subsequent to her BFA from the best art university in her home country, Tehran University of Art, Iran. Tavakoli’s practice questions the relationship between identity, memory, and time.

About the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art

The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is a non-profit artist-run centre founded in 1989. We leverage knowledge, expertise, empathy and resources to support creative projects that nurture our community.

The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art respectfully acknowledges its presence on the unceded territory of the syilx (Okanagan) people.

Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art
421 Cawston Avenue, Unit 103
Kelowna, BC V1Y 6Z1
www.alternatorcentre.com
info@alternatorcentre.com
(250) 868-2298

Facebook @AlternatorArt
Instagram @the_alternator

Accessibility:
The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is situated within the Rotary Centre for the Arts, which is fully accessible.