SIREN by nichola feldman-kiss opens at Koffler Gallery

Image courtesy of the artist

Bringing societal shifts and traumatic histories to the Koffler Gallery, this monumental multi-disciplinary series investigates the urgent drive of global migration

November 2, 2022 to March 5, 2023
Koffler Gallery, 180 Shaw Street, Unit 104/105, Toronto

Artist nichola feldman-kiss explores global migration and flights from homelands in a multi-disciplinary exhibition on view at the Koffler Gallery in Toronto.

Curated by Karen Alexander (UK) for the Koffler Gallery, nichola feldman-kiss \ SIREN is a monumental multi-disciplinary investigation into global migration and everyday flights from homelands. The exhibition uses immersive video installations, vocal harmonics and photography to address shared conditions of oppression and displacement, alongside the cultural complexities of ocean passages.

The exhibition marks the culmination of four years of detailed research into the often catastrophic nomadic passages made across the water, alongside the artist’s characteristic experimentation with digital technologies. Visitors are taken on a visual and sonic journey through photography, video installations and immersive soundscapes.

Image courtesy of the artist

SIREN makes unorthodox use of imaging technology and sonic harmonies to confront the very significant humanitarian crises at the intersection of conflict and climate. The artist’s 25-year oeuvre is an ongoing critique of the Colonial paradigm – the violent ingestion of land, resources, peoples and cultures.

The multi-layered presentation encompasses Siren III, a new large-scale single-channel video installation and surfacings, and a new installation of video stills commissioned for the entrance of the Koffler Gallery. At the core of SIREN is a reflection on concepts of diaspora, migration and displacement, the paradox of national boundaries and borders within an ecology of elemental flows.

The exhibition opens to the public on November 2, 2022 and continues until March 5, 2023. A public engagement program will accompany the gallery show and will offer a series of focused events to contextualize and help audiences unpack the intertwined layers of urgent concerns and references that underpin the exhibition. Across the run of the show, there will be opportunities for public comment and debate, ranging from lunchtime talks and thematic conversations to live vocal performances and workshops.

Image courtesy of the artist

About nichola feldman-kiss
nichola feldman-kiss creates across disciplines with emphasis on relational, lens and hybrid media technologies presented as social engagement, institution intervention and public installation. feldman-kiss’s process-rich research proposes identity as a fugitive concept while focusing on the body as a contested site of cultural production.

The artist’s 25 year oeuvre is an ongoing critique of the Colonial paradigm (the violent ingestion of land, resources, peoples and cultures). Their artworks and installations lay bare the entanglements of globalized order that insist rights onto some while withholding the same entitlements from others, and ask us to reconsider difficult questions about what it means to be conscious social bodies within the contemporary moment. nichola feldman-kiss art and technology innovations and institution interventions have been hosted by the National Research Council of Canada, the Ottawa Hospital Eye Institute, the Department of National Defence, and the United Nations among others. The artist holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts.

nichola feldman-kiss is a first-generation Canadian of Caribbean parents and a repatriated citizen of Germany and Jamaica living/working between Toronto (Tkaronto) and rural Newfoundland (Ktaqmkuk).

Siren (2018–) is among nichola feldman-kiss’s continuing artworks concerning relative human value, contemporary nomadism and the celebration of arrival.

Siren III has been generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, Partners in Art and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Image courtesy of the artist

About The Koffler
The Koffler Centre of the Arts is a cultural platform that explores critical ideas and concerns of our time through a year-round program of exhibitions, publications, performances, literary events, digital initiatives and arts education programs. We examine complex issues through transformative art experiences that stimulate intercultural dialogue. Through our in-gallery and off-site programs, the Koffler engages thousands of visitors each year. From school children and teens, to newcomers and seniors, we provide vital opportunities for self-expression and community connection, including to those in greatest need.

As a Jewish organization, we value – and aim to foster – social justice and equality while nurturing a passion for learning and understanding. We position Jewish identity in conversation with diverse perspectives and global voices to examine complex issues in a respectful, constructive way. These principles support the Koffler’s engagement with the best contemporary creative minds in producing and presenting art that provides common ground for experiences shaping our shared cultural life and defining our social values.

Visit us online at kofflerarts.org to learn more and follow our programs and future artistic collaborations.

Koffler Gallery
180 Shaw Street, Unit 104/105
kofflerarts.org

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