Ouroboros, 2023
group exhibition with Ellen Bleiwas, Emily DiCarlo, Gunilla Josephson, Adrienne Trent, Marian Wihak
St. Anne’s Anglican Church, Toronto, Canada
September 22 - October 14, 2018

exhibition booklet
exhibition floorplan
exhibition review by Terence Dick, Akimbo Blog

“Known as the oldest allegorical symbol in alchemy, the ouroboros represented the concept of eternity and endless return. The symbol of a snake eating its own tail in a closed circle has been found in varied contexts and geographies. The artists in the exhibition Ouroboros at St. Anne’s Anglican Church pose an inquiry into the cyclical themes of connectedness and continuity through each artwork. Toronto artists Ellen Bleiwas, Emily DiCarlo, Gunilla Josephson, Adrienne Trent and Marian Wihak share a network of overlapping relationships. The arc of time, space, and history, and the connective impacts and resonances activated are shared drivers of their practices. Each one shares a world view that includes the evanescent, the ephemeral and the past with the subsequent talismans, relics, and vestiges of these histories used as markers and reminders of a larger realm of consciousness.”

Emily DiCarlo, Same Time, Always Behind: Toronto/Eindhoven (I), 2015

‘Planet Earth moves around the sun in a 24 hour cycle. A sunset has already happened before – somewhere else and earlier, and will happen again – later. Emily DiCarlo collaborates with artists at least one time zone away to witness and document a sunset “together.” Here, DiCarlo partners with Dutch artist Hanneke Wetzer to capture sunsets in Toronto and Eindhoven, Holland. The congregation and visitors view the “individual” experiences of the same sunset – six hours apart – together. DiCarlo refers to her work as “romantic conceptualism,” stemming from a desire to bring poetic elements through framing and gesture to the art movement, which is generally considered analytical and sometimes cold. The video recordings result in a post-constructed “compounding of time” with viewers experiencing two sunsets at once, six hours apart. In Eindhoven, Wetzer’s sun is a golden stretch across the sky, turning to rose and a rise of purple cloud that is the low, flat horizon of Holland. On the corner of Bloor and Bathurst, DiCarlo focuses on the sun setting in the west beyond the beloved landmark discount store Honest Ed’s, in its last days before demolition. Pedestrians wait for the lights to change to cross. A blushing glow lingers in the west. The bright, midway signage of the store lends a carnivalesque presence to that corner. “There is no place on earth like this, any place.”’ - excerpt from curatorial text by Jennifer Rudder

Photo Credits: Ken Woroner