2022 Festival ← Core Exhibition

Group Exhibition Only Reliable Narrators

May 12–Jun 9,  2022
the plumb
Artists
  • Zahra Komeylian
  • Jenna Bliss
  • Jennifer Laiwint
  • Erdem Taşdelen
  • Andrew Davis
Zahra Komeylian, Raw Silk and Uncut Wood, (detail) (catalog image of Ana Mendieta’s Creek (1974), bubble wrap, glassine, acetate print), from the series Water over marsh, 2022. Courtesy of the artist
Zahra Komeylian, Raw Silk and Uncut Wood, (detail) (catalog image of Ana Mendieta’s Creek (1974), bubble wrap, glassine, acetate print), from the series Water over marsh, 2022. Courtesy of the artist

The group exhibition Only Reliable Narrators contemplates the critical ways that narratives and stories work to structure collective ideas of truth, history, power, science, self, and hope. In the artists’ works, fictitious personae, imaginary archetypes, and speculative histories guide audiences towards familiar, affective truths, while factual records and normative myths break down under the demands of their presumed authority. The works employ a range of experimental narrative strategies, alternately playing with the line between fact and fiction, and interrogating the norms governing the distinction at its base.

Curated by Miles Rufelds

Presented by the plumb

Zahra Komeylian is an artist and educator based in Tkaronto. Her practice is grounded in contemplative processes, sometimes resulting in contiguous works of performance art, installation, text, and drawing. Komeylian holds an MA in Psychology from Columbia University (2017), and is currently a Master’s of Teaching Candidate at OISE, University of Toronto. Komeylian is a recipient of the Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Fellowship for emerging artists; and has exhibited her work both locally and internationally.

Jenna Bliss (b. 1984 in Yonkers, NY, USA) lives and works in New York, NY.

Jennifer Laiwint (she/her) is a Tkaronto-based interdisciplinary artist and D.J. who works across the disciplines of video, text, photography, and performance. Laiwint’s practice takes a research- and process-oriented approach to exploring the links between self-improvement culture, loneliness, and social performance. She has developed work at the Banff Centre, NARS Foundation, Toronto Dance Theatre, The DOC Institute, and Duplex. She has presented in galleries and festivals including Xpace, the Art Gallery of Mississauga, SummerWorks and Western Front. Jennifer is a board member at Pleasure Dome and is currently an MFA candidate in the department of Film at York University, Toronto.

Erdem Taşdelen is a Turkish-Canadian artist who currently lives and works in Tkaronto/Toronto. His projects often draw from unique historical figures, events, and texts in order to build semi-fictional narratives that explore frameworks of political entanglement through a range of media, including installations, video, sound, and printed matter. Taşdelen’s work has been shown in numerous exhibitions internationally, and reviewed in publications including Artforum, Flash Art, ArtAsiaPacific, Canadian Art and C Magazine. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Delfina Foundation, London; Rupert, Vilnius; and KulturKontakt Austria, Vienna. In 2019, he was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award.

Andrew Davis is a Canadian artist living in Toronto, a graduate of Ryerson University with a degree in Film studies. Davis’ film, good hair, pretty hair, curly hair (1991), was selected for the 1991 Toronto International Film Festival. A fan said, “It was the Black Film of the Year.” In 2012 Davis wrote and produced Lions In Winter, an adaptation of a short story made into an animated short film. Davis has written two award-winning screenplays, I Live in the City, awarded best short screenplay 2018, and Cyclopes Plaza, awarded best writer, North America, 2021.

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