Please join exhibiting artist Ariel René Jackson and invited guest panelists, artist and curator Liz Ikiriko and dance artist and scholar Michael J. Love, for an online panel discussion around Jackson’s work.
Ariel René Jackson’s The future is a constant wake is presented as part of Tending Land, a program marking the 40th anniversary of the Digital Arts Resource Centre (DARC), and bringing together several artists from around the world, whose works relate narratives about the ways in which land may be perceived, connected with, and cared for. The program honours the fact that questions concerning land and sovereignty are of particular significance in Canada, where traditional territories have been expropriated by the settler-colonial state, and historic treaties around Indigenous Peoples’ land rights were often reneged upon. The exhibition also draws links to the centrality of land in the struggles of many communities around the world, especially the global majority who have experienced colonialism in various guises, and who continue to endure its troubling aftermath today.
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Ariel René Jackson (b. 1991) is a Black anti-disciplinary artist (a term coined by Kearra Amaya Gopee) whose practice considers land and landscape as sites of internal representation. Themes of transformation are embedded in their interest and application of repurposed imagery and objects, video, sound and performance. Jackson’s work is heavily influenced by their Afro-Creole Louisiana heritage and Black American cultural language. Jackson is an alum of University of Texas at Austin (’19), Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (’19), Royal College of Art Exchange Program (’18), and The Cooper Union (’13). Their work has been shown in the United States at various galleries and institutions such as the Dallas Contemporary (’21); Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Seattle (’21); Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans (’18); Depaul Art Museum, Chicago (’18); Rhode Island School of Design Museum (’17); and Studio Museum in Harlem (’16).
Liz Ikiriko is a Tkaronto/Toronto-based, Nigerian Canadian artist and curator. Her role as an educator, maker, and mother informs her practice, which focuses on African and diasporic narratives. Prioritizing collaborative engagement, she supports and creates embodied experiences to facilitate moments of vulnerability and care for her communities. Ikiriko holds an MFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practice from OCAD University (2019). Her writing has been published in Aperture, Public Journal, MICE Magazine, C Magazine, Blackflash, and Akimbo. Ikiriko’s most recent curatorial projects include: Is Love a Synonym for Abolition? (Gallery 44, 2021), The Break, The Wake, The Hold, The Breath (Circuit Gallery/Prefix ICA, 2019), An Archive But Not An Atlas (Critical Distance Centre for Curators, 2019), and ___a lineage of transgression___ (ArtSpace Peterborough, 2020). She currently is the co-curator of the 13th edition of Bamako Encounters Photography Biennale in Mali, West Africa(2022) and is the Curator of Collections and Contemporary Engagement at the Art Gallery of York University.
Michael J. Love (he/him/his) is an interdisciplinary tap dance artist, scholar, and educator. He is a 2021-2023 Princeton University Arts Fellow and Lecturer at Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts. His work has been presented by Fusebox Festival, ARCOS Dance, and Ground Floor Theatre and published in Choreographic Practices. He has collaborated with film-based artist Ariel René Jackson on several videos and performances—the pair’s “We are the [Hackers], Baby, [Hackers] are we” was the 2021 Tito’s Prize exhibition at Big Medium in Austin, TX. Love holds an MFA in performance as public practice from UT Austin. dancermlove.com
