PUBLIC SYNTAX: SAW Video at Critical Distance

Critical Distance is pleased to invite you to the opening of our Winter 2019 exhibition, PUBLIC SYNTAX: SAW Video at Critical Distance. We hope you can join us for a reception and tour with exhibition curator Neven Lochhead on Saturday, February 9th starting at 2 pm. Details below; please contact us at info@criticaldistance.ca if you have any questions.

PUBLIC SYNTAX

SAW VIDEO AT CRITICAL DISTANCE
Featuring naakita feldman-kiss, Ivanie Aubin-Malo, Henry Andersen, Mara Eagle, Phil Rose, Molly Teitelbaum, Anna Queen, and the Video in the Public Sphere Working Group

Curated by Neven Lochhead and presented in partnership with SAW Video Media Art Centre, Ottawa

FEBRUARY 7–MARCH 31, 2019
Opening reception: Saturday, February 9th from 2–4 pm

In partnership with SAW Video Media Art Centre (Ottawa), Critical Distance is pleased to present Public Syntax, an exhibition that highlights the distinct time-based practices and approaches of seven artists, as well as those participating in the Video in the Public Sphere Working Group, the majority of whom are either Ottawa-based or connected.

Situated in-gallery at Critical Distance and across multiple public spaces at Artscape Youngplace, the works in the exhibition embody and expand upon the recent and ongoing programming initiatives of SAW Video and their Knot Project Space, launched in early 2018. Responding to CDCC’s mandate to advance curatorial inquiry and encourage collaborative frameworks, exhibition curator Neven Lochhead employs a conversational mode to form ‘syntactical’ relations between these various practices, identifying collective editing processes where the ‘sequence’ becomes a vector on which to group together. In the gallery and public spaces, artists in this exhibition generate affinities not through the question of where will we meet, but rather when will we occur?

Please join us for an opening reception and building-wide tour of the exhibition with curator Neven Lochhead, who will be here from Ottawa on Saturday, February 9th starting at 2 pm.

Refreshments will be served, all are welcome, and admission is free as always. Both Artscape Youngplace and Critical Distance are fully accessible by Ontario standards, with a wheelchair ramp at the 180 Shaw Street doors, an elevator servicing every floor and a fully accessible washroom on every level. The nearby 63 Ossington bus on the TTC is wheelchair accessible. All stairwell installations will be viewable from accessible locations.

Additional Note on Accessibility

For PUBLIC SYNTAX, exhibition curator Neven Lochhead has worked with Critical Distance to integrate a series of creative accessibility accommodations as a part of SAW Video’s and CDCC’s commitment to providing more accessible programming.

For details on the available accommodations, or more info on the artists and upcoming exhibition-related events, please visit our website at https://criticaldistance.ca/program/public-syntax/ or contact us at info@criticaldistance.ca.

Location

Critical Distance
Suite 302 at Artscape Youngplace (take elevator or stairs to 3rd Floor)
180 Shaw Street btw Dundas and Queen
Toronto, M6J 2W5

Public Syntax will engage the gallery at Critical Distance, public spaces throughout Artscape Youngplace, and the billboard on Shaw Street. Gallery hours are Wednesday–Friday, 12–6pm, Saturday–Sunday 11am–5pm, or by appointment through March 31, 2019.

About the Presenting Partners

SAW Video is a not-for-profit, artist-run media art centre that fosters the growth and development of artists through access to equipment, training, mentorship, and programming. Our mission is to support a diverse community of media artists empowered by technology, programming and the exchange of ideas. SAW Video’s core principles are independence of expression, affordable access to all, and paying artists for their work. SAW Video values diversity and actively promotes equity for all artists regardless of race, age, class, gender, sexual orientation, language, or ability.

Critical Distance is a not-for-profit project space, publisher, and professional network devoted to the support and advancement of curatorial practice and inquiry in Toronto, Canada, and beyond. With a focus on critically engaged, collaborative, and cross-disciplinary practices, underrepresented artists and art forms, and community outreach and education in art and exhibition-making, Critical Distance is an open platform for diverse curatorial perspectives, and a forum for the exchange of ideas on curating and exhibition-making as ways to engage and inform audiences from all walks of life.

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