To Build What We Become When We Dream

Katrina Coombs, Oshun’s Glory, 2020. Image courtesy of artist.

To Build What We Become When We Dream
Katrina Coombs, Nnenna Okore, Chason Yeboah

Curated by Sarah-Tai Black

March 4 – May 27, 2023
Cambridge Art Galleries, Queen’s Square

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 4, 2023

French translation below.

To Build What We Become When We Dream brings together Black women artists working across and amongst geocultural multitudes. Taking its name from activist and writer Nikki Giovanni’s poem Word Poem (Perhaps Worth Considering), this exhibition acknowledges Black feminine artistic creation as a radical means for shaping worlds imagined otherwise. Their fibre-based works and techniques explore both abstracted and figurative forms, offering a model of Black women’s aesthetic practices as diasporic devices of communion, repair, and intervention.

The artistic practices shared here refuse the expectation of self-abandonment and the conditions of the world as it is, centering instead an embodied dedication to one’s self and one’s kin as realized through space, form, colour, and tactility. A continuation of the freedom work of those who came before us, the artists offer a reclarification of what abundance and care might look like in an otherwise inhospitable climate. Together, they are a prescient reminder that dreaming is a form of knowledge production and that the practice of liberation is inextricable from envisioning worlds with an unconditional capacity for love.

To Build What We Become When We Dream is a collaboration between McMaster Museum of Art and Cambridge Art Galleries as part of the McMaster Museum of Art’s BIPOC Mentorship program. The program is generously supported by funds from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Office of the Provost, McMaster University.

“Shaping this show has been an act of care that would not have been possible without the generous support of Pamela Edmonds, Cambridge Art Galleries, as well as McMaster Museum of Art’s BIPOC Curatorial Mentorship Program. It’s been a privilege to sit with the artistic practices so generously shared with us here — I am grateful for the much-needed reminder that new worlds remain possible.” – Sarah-Tai Black

To Build What We Become When We Dream présente le travail de femmes artistes noires issues de divers environnements géoculturels. Tirant son titre du poème « Word Poem (Perhaps Worth Considering) » de la poétesse et activiste Nikki Giovanni, cette exposition aborde la création artistique des femmes noires comme un moyen radical de façonner des mondes réinventés. Leurs œuvres réalisées à base de fibres explorent des formes abstraites et figuratives et présentent les pratiques esthétiques des femmes noires comme des formes de communion, de réparation et d’intervention diasporiques.

Les artistes réunies ici rejettent l’attente de l’abandon de soi et les conditions du monde tel qu’il est ; elles se concentrent plutôt sur un engagement incarné envers soi-même et envers ses proches au moyen de l’espace, de la forme, de la couleur et du toucher. Dans le prolongement de ceux et celles qui ont œuvré pour la liberté avant elles, ces artistes jettent un nouvel éclairage sur ce que pourraient être l’abondance et la sollicitude dans un environnement par ailleurs inhospitalier. Leurs œuvres sont un rappel prémonitoire que le rêve est une forme de production du savoir et que la pratique de la libération est indissociable de la capacité d’envisager le monde avec un amour inconditionnel.

To Build What We Become When We Dream est une collaboration entre le McMaster Museum of Art et Cambridge Art Galleries dans le cadre du programme de mentorat PANDC du McMaster Museum of Art. Le programme bénéficie du généreux soutien financier du ministère du Patrimoine canadien et du bureau du recteur de l’Université McMaster.

“L’élaboration de cette exposition a été un acte d’attention qui n’aurait pas été possible sans le soutien généreux de Pamela Edmonds, de Cambridge Art Galleries, ainsi que du programme de mentorat des commissaires d’exposition PANDC du McMaster Museum of Art. Ce fut un privilège de côtoyer les pratiques artistiques si généreusement partagées avec nous ici. Je suis reconnaissante de ce rappel bien nécessaire que d’autres mondes sont toujours possibles.” – Sarah-Tai Black

Cambridge Art Galleries | Idea Exchange
Queen’s Square
1 North Square, Cambridge, Ontario
519.621.0460
ideaexchange.org/cambridge-art-galleries
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Queen’s Square Gallery Hours
Monday to Thursday 9:30 am to 8:30 pm
Friday to Saturday 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
Closed Sundays May 22 thru Sep 4

Admission is free and all are welcome.

Cambridge Art Galleries, Idea Exchange presents contemporary art from two galleries in the City of Cambridge: Queen’s Square and Preston. We serve our regional and broader communities through the delivery of contemporary art programs that foster critical cultural dialogue. Our artistic activities engage, embrace, and empower people of all ages and abilities from diverse backgrounds.

Cambridge Art Galleries is situated on the traditional land of Indigenous peoples dating back countless generations. We recognize that it is part of the Haldimand Tract, the traditional land of the Six Nations of the Grand River and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

Cambridge Art Galleries acknowledge the generous support of the City of Cambridge, Canada Council for the Arts, and Ontario Arts Council.

Media Contact:
Karly Boileau, Assistant Curator
kboileau@ideaexchange.org
519.621.0460 ext. 160