Agnes Etherington Art Centre

In Where Were You in ’92, Pamila Matharu looks back to Toronto’s 1992 youth-led uprising on Yonge Street that gave rise to Fresh Arts, tracing lines of connection across history and geography, drawing in those who inherit its legacy and holding up those who mobilized its centrifugal forces. Matharu returns not only to this pivotal moment but also to her mentor, Winsom Winsom. Throughout her career as a multi-media artist, activist, and art educator, Winsom influenced the emergence of several Canadian artists and impacted the communities in which she lived including Kingston, ON. She worked with the Mayor’s office on issues of racism and attracted many Black activists to Kingston. Shown alongside Agnes’s recent acquisition of Winsom’s The Masks We Wear, Where Were You in ’92 welcomes Winsom back to Kingston!

Exhibition Celebration and first day of An Institute for Curatorial Inquiry
15 August, 7–9 pm

PAMILA MATHARU: WHERE WERE YOU IN ’92?
30 July–4 December 2022

Through experimentation with sound, image, found texts and acts of counter-archiving of personal and political experiences, Where Were You in ’92? brings forth the embodied archives of the ground-breaking legacy of Fresh Arts, a Black artist-led program that was born out of the fury of impassioned youth. Pamila Matharu, one of the mentees of Fresh Arts, returns not only to this pivotal moment but also to her mentor, Winsom Winsom, who’s more than decade long activist history in Kingston, ON is under-recognized. This research project begins with the basic premise that archives are manifested in living bodies, in repeated stories, in unfinished conversations, sparked by events of the past that persist into the present, and, importantly, in the healing practices of intergenerational connectivity. Interested in forms of feminist genealogies that cite what came before and using the archive as a forum for recognition, resilience and radical love, Matharu looks back to Toronto’s 1992 youth-led uprising on Yonge Street that gave rise to Fresh Arts.

Curated by Emelie Chhangur, Nasrin Himada and Charlotte Gagnier

A series of public and education programming is presented as an integral component of this exhibition. Online registration required, check the website for details.

CONVERSATION WITH WINSOM WINSOM AND ANDREA FATONA
In-Person, 17 September, 1:30–3 pm
Join Winsom Winsom for a conversation about her work with curator Andrea Fatona. This program is free and all are welcome.

LEARNING TO UNLEARN
HOW TO RELEARN: EVERYTHING IS RELEVANT
In-Person, 15–16 October, 1:30–4:30 pm
Artists and educators Pamila Matharu and Adrienne Purbhoo along with Roots and Wings lead this workshop for youth of colour in Kingston.

BETTER DAYS: ART IS LOVE, LOVE IS ART
Online, November, stay tuned for details!
This conversation brings together past co-founders, guest artists and cultural workers of Fresh Arts.

Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

WINSOM WINSOM: THE MASKS WE WEAR
30 July–4 December 2022

The Masks We Wear is an installation made by Ashanti Maroon artist Winsom Winsom. She has a remarkable career as a multi-media artist with a background working in varied media: textiles, painting, video, installation and puppetry.

The installation includes Me Myself & I, a self-portrait of Winsom wearing a mask. In her notes for the I Rise exhibition (AGO, 2018), Winsom writes, “The covering mask that we wear, no one sees the real us due to all the hurts, oppression, disadvantage, that we experience in a lifetime, from generation to generation. The mask can change but to rid ourselves of it fully we need healing from the elements.”

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, she immigrated to Canada in the 1970s and lived in the Kingston, Ontario area from 1974 to 1989. As the co-founder of Kingston’s Black Women’s Collective she worked with the Mayor’s office on issues of racism and attracted many Black activists to Kingston, including Angela Davis, Odetta, Dr Mavis Burke and Lincoln Alexander. Entwined with her career as artist and activist, Winsom has a longstanding history as an art educator. She influenced the emergence of several Canadian artists, such as Pamila Matharu and d’bi.young anitafrika.

Continuing Exhibitions
To 4 December 2022

TRANSFORMATIONS

COLLECTION COUNT + CARE

FUGITIVE RITUALS

LAND PROTECTORS

THE FABRICS OF REPRESENTATION

Agnes Etherington Art Centre
Situated on traditional Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Territory, Agnes is a curatorially-driven and research-intensive professional art centre that proudly serves a dual mandate as a leading, internationally recognized public art gallery and as an active pedagogical resource at Queen’s University. By commissioning, researching, collecting and preserving works of art and by exhibiting and interpreting visual culture through an intersectional lens, Agnes creates opportunities for participation and exchange across communities, cultures, histories and geographies.

Agnes is committed to anti-racism. We work to eradicate institutional biases and develop accountable programs that support and centre the artistic expression and lived experience of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour. Agnes promotes 2SLGBTQIAP+ positive spaces. Free. Everyone welcome.

36 University Avenue
Kingston, ON K7L 3N6
agnes.queensu.ca
Facebook: @aeartcentre
Twitter: @aeartcentre
Instagram: @aeartcentre

Agnes is an accessible venue, details can be found here.

AGNES THANKS Queen’s University, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario, the City of Kingston Arts Fund, Kingston Arts Council, and through generous contributions by foundations, corporate partners, donors and members.

Images:
1. Mounted Metro police officers and others on foot confront a crowd downtown on May 4, 1992, to quell vandalism and looting. Photo: John Mahler, The Toronto Star, 4 May 1992.
2. Winsom Winsom, The Masks We Wear, 2018, papier maché masks, slave ring, self-portrait (oil on canvas), painted seeds, red paint, wooden snakes, red satin. Purchase, Chancellor Richardson Memorial Fund, 2022. Image courtesy of the artist
3. Installation view of Transformations, a site-specific commission. Photo: Tim Forbes

For further information, contact Kate Yüksel, Communications Coordinator at kate.yuksel@queensu.ca.