Capturing the Space of Surveillance

Saturday, August 8, 2015 at 12pm

Department of Unusual Certainties + Scott Sørli

InterAccess
9 Ossington Avenue
Toronto, ON  M6J 2Y8

In an era of dwindling privacy, investigating the spatial and social infrastructures of surveillance has become a central concern for artists, designers and researchers alike. This session brings together theDepartment of Unusual Certainties (Christopher Pandolfini and Simon Rabyniuk), and Scott Sørli, to discuss the subversive and artistic potential of technologies of control.

Department of Unusual Certainties (DoUC) operates under a self-imposed public mandate with the aim to create projects that are for a public good. DoUC exposes and experiments with the multiplicity of systems that govern society, creating results in a way where citizens and non-citizens alike can engage with, reflect on, or react to the information and experiences present in the project. Ultimately DoUC attempts to tell stories. From 2011 to 2012 DoUC were the Innovators in Residence at the Design Exchange, Canada’s national design museum, and in 2012 were a strategic partner of the Migrating Landscapes Organizers, curators of the Canadian pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. DoUC is Christopher Pandolfi and Simon Rabyniuk.

Scott Sørli’s trans-disciplinary practice concerns itself with moments when form and matter engage the economic and political forces that produce the city. He is co-founder of convenience, a window gallery that provides an opening for art that engages, experiments, and takes risks with the architectural, urban, and civic realm. He is also chair of Toronto’s peace subcommittee of the Nathan Phillips Square Community Advisory Committee. Scott has taught architecture at several institutions, including this past summer in Jakarta, Indonesia; a travelling exhibition on the work of the Inundation research studio followed in the fall of 2014.

Brunch, coffee, and tea will be served!

General Admission $15
Student Admission $10
Series Pass $35
Student Series Pass $25
(Students must show valid student ID)

ART IN THE AGE OF SURVEILLANCE a Round Table Discussion

Thursday, July 23, 2015 7PM-9PM
Sur Gallery, 39 Queens Quay East, Suite 100
Wheel Chair Accessible/Limited Seating/Please arrive early to secure seating
Suggested Donation $5

Sur Gallery
100-39 Queens Quay East, Toronto ON M5E 0A5
(Located on the first floor on the east wing of Pier 27, East of Yonge Street)
www.surgallery.ca

GRAHAM HUDSON, BARBARA JACKMAN, FRANCISCO-FERNANDO GRANADOS and JAYNE WILKINSON
Moderated by Tamara Toledo

State surveillance in Canada is on the rise. New laws and technologies have redefined the relationship between “public” and “private” spaces. Art can be a critical response to the process and impact of surveillance; it turns the modalities and technologies of surveillance inward, deepening our understanding of how surveillance affects relationships between the collective and the individual, the watcher and the watched, the object and the subject.

This round table discussion explores the ways in which art and artists relate to expanding state surveillance. Drawing on historical, migrant, international, and diverse cultural perspectives we explore how surveillance and art are intertwined in the context of politics, law and resistance.

GRAHAM HUDSON is an Associate Professor and the Undergraduate Program Director for the Department of Criminology at Ryerson University. His doctoral studies focused on the impact of international and comparative human rights on the Canadian security certificate regime.

BARBARA JACKMAN is one of Canada’s most respected immigration and refugee lawyers. Her lifetime focus is on cases involving admissibility and deportation proceedings, particularly cases involving criminality, national security elements, or the risk to human rights, life, liberty or personal security.

FRANCISCO-FERNANDO GRANADOS is a Toronto-based artist working in performance and multidisciplinary critical practices. He teaches courses in contemporary art theory and practice at OCADU and University of Toronto Scarborough.

JAYNE WILKINSON is a Toronto-based writer and arts administrator whose research interests focus on contemporary photographic practices and the politics of visibility and obscurity in the surveillance state.

TAMARA TOLEDO is a graduate of OCAD University and holds an MFA from York University. She is presently the Director/Curator of Sur Gallery and curated the exhibition and educational programming for Sportsmanship Under Surveillance.

About Exhibition
Sur Gallery’s current exhibition, Sportsmanship Under Surveillance, exposes the impact governments have when using questionable surveillance tactics in the name of national security. Artists JOTA CASTRO (Peru/Belgium) and MINERVA CUEVAS (Mexico) create alternative modes of identification, while JUAN ORTIZ-APUY (Costa Rica/Canada) and MARCOS RAMIREZ ERRE (Mexico) expose relationships between hemispheres in public spaces. Finally, REGINA SILVEIRA (Brazil) creates a visual paradox, casting shadows and leaving imprints on the site of surveillance. Each artist offers an insight on how to adapt, control, rebel and live in an age of overwhelming surveillance. Curated by Tamara Toledo

June 27 to August 8, 2015
Gallery Hours: Wed-Fri 12-5, Sat 11-6
For more information on the exhibition and upcoming exhibitions and events please contact us at:
www.surgallery.ca
info@surgallery.ca

About Sur Gallery
Sur Gallery is a signature project of LACAP- Latin American Canadian Art Projects and is Toronto’s first gallery dedicated to the exhibition and critical engagement of contemporary Latin American art. Sur Gallery is a legacy project of the Pan Am Path.

About LACAP
Toronto-based, not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to the implementation of art projects, which promote Latin American art in Canada with an emphasis on artistic excellence, critically engaged artistic practices, and hemispheric networks of exchange.

LACAP acknowledges the financial support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council, the Friends of the Pan Am Path and the Business for the Arts. LACAP also gratefully acknowledges the support of its volunteers; its corporate sponsors: Underline Studio, See Through Web, Carranza LLP, Anthony Provenzano Architects, GreenRack and Tenet.