Memory Keepers

Memory Keepers matchbox 2015 Inventory of Memory

Memory Keepers: a repository, an archive, and a call to remember. In Pierre Nora’s Realms of Memory, he states that “Lieux de memoire arise out of a sense that there is no such thing as spontaneous memory, hence that we must create archives’ (62).

The theme of Memory Keepers asked artists to consider what we attempt to keep and that we allow to be lost.

Exhibition Date:

June 18th - Aug 31th 2015

Concordia Webster Library Artrum 2nd floor

curated by Inventory of Memory organized by Melinda Reinhart,

Oct. 2015 Complexe Desjardins

organized by Lise Tardif

Visual Arts & Reference Librarian, Concordia University

Susan Rochester I’ve spent my life hating mushrooms: their flavors, shapes, and textures disgusted me. During an artist’s residency in Nova Scotia, I was humbled to learn my prejudice was misplaced. Through the eyes of a mycologist, I learned the world of fungi is a fascinating, beautiful, astonishing place.

In my art I explore boundaries in the natural world, between the wild and the tame, the animal and human, the living and the dead. Mushrooms and fungi inhabit these boundaries in compelling ways, and my practice has expanded to include an exploration of these things I so often avoided or overlooked. susanrochester.com instagram.com/susanrochester

(paper mâché and digital print)

Shelly Low ‘President’s Choice: Memories of…’

In this match box project, I look at how memory becomes commodity. At Loblaws, the ‘President’s Choice’ product line offers a brand of condiments called ‘Memories of…’ (India, Szechwan, Thailand, etc.). These products offer memories of faraway exotic places; not our memories, but presumably the ‘President’s. What kind of memory is sellable? I’m interested in the kind of imagery that objectifies ethnicity and that is used to construct a romantic or nostalgic memory of place. I am intrigued by the role they play in preserving a cultural memory that may or may not be a part of anyone’s actual experience. What are the cultural myths and iconic symbols that we hold on to and perpetuate? What are we trying not to forget, or more accurately, unable to forget? low.martin@sympatico.ca

paper-cut layered

Jenny Lin ‘Push This Into That’ This piece is a game of enacting or imagining. Exercise the potential of remembered and anticipated pain, pleasure and passiveness! Play alone or with others with this set of 20 flash cards and shiny gold thumbtacks. Draw a card and push this into that! (drawings + printing) Jenny Lin is a multidisciplinary visual artist. In her recent practice, she has created alternative readings of mainstream narratives, particularly reframing the ambigious and fragmented tropes in storytelling as sites for transgressive actions and identities. jenny-lin.ca instagram.com/grumplingzinho

drawings + printing

Lise Tardif ‘Memory safebox’ Memory is a subject really important for me since my mother got an Alzheimer disease diagnostic, as my grandmother 30 years ago. It is heartbreaking to see her memories disappearing, getting confused or fading away. It is worrying for me to know that I could have this disease too. In a little matchbox, transformed into a safety box, will be stored the confused memories of my mother, my grandmother and mine, one life-lottery-ticket, a small prevention guide, a knitted or embroidered forget-me-not, a few forget-me-not seeds in a small bag to be sown and a checklist. facebook.com/pg/Lise.Tardif.Fibres.Arts

crochet+embroidery

Gary Cherkas The theme for this project is in memorial of a close Japanese friend who died last April 2014 from cancer. My friend was from Japan and died in Japan. She was a very strong believer in Nichiren Buddhism and fought strongly to the very end. In Buddihism it is customary to place food and drink at th alter in one’s home, this is why there is a small pouch of rice in my matchboxes. My matchboxes are to honor the caring and compassionate person that was Toshie Sakai. garlaz@yahoo.com

handbuilt wooden box +Japanese prints + rice

Natalie Draz ‘All You Can Do Is Dream’ This is a matchbox that contains a fragment of a memory and a piece of the sky.

Open the box; play the game; choose your constellations.

Natalie Draz is a printmaker and bookmaker investigationg potential parallels between drawing, human anatomy and architecture. Specializing in kinetic bookworks, Natalie plays with the boundaries of the body. nataliedraz.com instagram.com/nataliedraz

watercolor drawing +paper sculpture

Hea Kim ‘The Old Sweet’ This is an emulated version of the train snack that I usually had whenever my family visited to my grandparent’s place when I was little. Despite of long (eight) hours train journey, I was excited to have the special snack in a unique travel experience.

I fell in love with the old ink washed painting box design that holds small size of peanut breads inside. It was a sort of a seductive Turkish delight and a magic gift for me. Since the snack has been disappeared, I wanted to recreate what I remember and return to my innocence.

At first glance, Kim’s work can appear child-like and playful, but they are inherently bizarrely sophisticated because of the labor involved and the concepts explored. For her, art is a creative arena where mythological, spiritual, and illusionary mindscapes mingle into dream worlds. heakim.weebly.com instagram.com/hea_creative

ceramic peanuts and fiber

Soraya Etemad Over the last few years I have been interested in the detailed exploration on the subject of my family history and loss within my work. I am trying to illustrate this by creating a series of narratives of home and displacement. This series of monotype prints and objects addresses the recent loss of my family matriarch back home in Yugoslavia. These matchboxes reflect on my life there, as well as the nostalgia for a golden age in my childhood. I hope to capture this feeling of memory and real or perceived realities within a loose narrative. facebook.com/soraya.etemad

eggs with gold leaf + paper embossing

Concordia Webster Library Artrum 2nd floor

Installation view

a Very Special “Thank you�

Melinda Reinhart,

Visual Arts & Reference Librarian, Concordia University

June 18th - Aug 31th 2015 Concordia Webster Library Artrum 2nd floor

Oct. 2015 Complexe Desjardins

’ you k n a ‘Th ardif e g T u a h o Lise t

Inventory of Memory Natalie Draz, Hea R. Kim (co-founder & co-curator) instagram.com/inventoryofmemory catalogue design (illustration & layout)

by Jon P. instagram.com/jon_p_art

Inventory of Memory