Exhibition
As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic
Dawit L. Petros, Hadenbes, 2005, from As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021). Courtesy the artist/Bradley Ertaskiran.
Samuel Fosso, ‘70s Lifestyle, 1975–78, from As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021). © Samuel Fosso, courtesy JM.PATRAS/PARIS
Jamel Shabazz, Best Friends, Brooklyn, New York, 1981, from As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021). Courtesy Jamel Shabazz
Xaviera Simmons, Denver, 2008, from As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021). Courtesy the artist and David Castillo
Dawit L. Petros, Sign, 2003, from As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021). Courtesy the artist/Bradley Ertaskiran
Image: Xaviera Simmons, Denver, 2008, from As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021). Courtesy of the artist and David Castillo.
Open to all participants who self-identify as Black. Register for free on Eventbrite.
Against the backdrop of the works in the Power section of As We Rise, this workshop invited participants to explore the intersections of art, identity, and embodied liberation. Guided by Renee Babin, attendants will flow through a series of yoga poses inspired by the dynamic energy and resilience captured in the photographs. As bodies move in harmony with the art that surrounds them, participants will tap into a profound sense of empowerment and agency, reclaiming the physical and spiritual space of the gallery as a sanctuary for healing and self-expression. This session offers a supportive space for Black participants to explore their bodies, minds, and spirits.
Details…
Image: Xaviera Simmons, Denver, 2008, from As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021). Courtesy of the artist and David Castillo.
Open to all participants who self-identify as Black. Register for free on Eventbrite.
SOULFUL JOURNALLING
Held within the contemplative ambiance of the Identity section of As We Rise, this journaling workshop offers a sacred space for Black participants to honour their voices, stories, and dreams. Inspired by the myriad expressions of Black identity depicted in the exhibition, participants will engage in reflective writing exercises that invite them to explore their own narratives of individuality and transformation. Guided by Renee Babin, this session celebrates the many ways that storytelling allows us to reclaim agency, foster connection, and envision pathways to personal and collective wellness. This session encourages participants to reclaim their narratives, celebrate their strengths, and envision their futures with clarity and purpose.
MINDFUL MEDITATIONS
Nestled within the evocative imagery of photographs from the Community themed section of As We Rise, this workshop offers a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the present. Surrounded by the stories and experience of Black communities across continents, participants will engage in guided meditations that resonate with the themes of strength, perseverance, and celebration depicted in the photographs. Through this fusion of art and mindfulness, attendees will discover how the act of witnessing and reflecting upon visual narratives can serve as a powerful catalyst for inner healing and wellness.
Virtual Exhibition Tour: English | French
Organized by Aperture
Curated by Elliott Ramsey
The ethos of community is at the heart of the collection from which this exhibition is drawn. Established by Dr. Kenneth Montague, the Wedge Collection is Canada’s largest privately owned collection committed to championing Black artists. The title As We Rise is borrowed from a phrase that Dr. Montague’s father would often invoke: “Lifting as we rise.” By this, he emphasized the importance of parlaying one’s personal success into communal good. He believed in investing back in the Black community to which he and his family belonged. As an ethic, “lifting as we rise” suggests an expanded sense of family, one that reaches beyond close relatives. As an exhibition, As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic embraces this expansive sensibility, centering the familial alongside the familiar.
Familiarity resides not just in the exhibition collectively, but in the photographs unto themselves. Black subjects are depicted by Black photographers, presented as they wish to be seen. Largely, these subjects are aware of the camera, and yet they never seem rigid or unnatural. The gaze is mutual and consensual. But the imagery produced is far from uniform. It is as varied, surprising, and heterogeneous as the Black Atlantic itself. Like a family album, it is idiosyncratic.
The concepts of community, identity, and power intersect and merge, discernable in many of the photographs not as features to be singled out but rather as a recognizable essence; a recognition of the complex strength, beauty, vulnerability, and irreducibility of Black life.
As Liz Ikiriko writes: “The pictures here forefront the experience of Black life, in all its myriad forms: a marker of the histories and spaces (real and ephemeral) that transcend geographic boundaries... The collection extends out to a global diaspora and proclaims, ‘We are home.’”
The Wedge Collection was started in 1997 in Toronto by Dr. Kenneth Montague to acquire and exhibit art that explores Black identity. Montague also founded Wedge Curatorial Projects, a nonprofit arts organization that supports emerging Black artists.
Exhibition Talk & LP/Book Signing
3 February, 2024, 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Join art collector, curator and founder and director of Wedge Curatorial Projects Dr. Kenneth Montague and As We Rise curator Elliott Ramsey of the Polygon Gallery for a presentation about the works that inspired the exhibition As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic.
Dr. Montague will discuss the driving forces behind his establishment of one of Canada's largest private art collections exploring African disaporic and contemporary Black visual culture. Elliott Ramsey will discuss the development of the exhibition and its tour throughout Canada and the US.
Following the talk, Dr. Montague will be signing copies of the publication, As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic as well as the accompanying vinyl record, As We Rise: Sounds from the Black Atlantic. As We Rise catalogues and LPs will be available for purchase through Dalhousie Art Galelry and the King's Co-op Bookstore (6350 Coburg Rd, Halifax, NS) throughout the exhibition run.
As We Rise features work by:
Raphael Albert, Henry Clay Anderson, Tayo Yannick Anton, Liz Johnson Artur, James Barnor, Dawoud Bey, Arielle Bobb-Willis, Deanna Bowen, Jody Brand, Kwame Brathwaite, Sandra Brewster, Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Vanley Burke, Mohamed Camara, Kennedi Carter, Jorian Charlton, June Clark, Michèle Pearson Clarke, Renee Cox, Erika DeFreitas, Jabulani Dhlamini, Stan Douglas, Louis Draper, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Samuel Fosso, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Courtney D. Garvin, Jérôme Havre, Barkley L. Hendricks, Leslie Hewitt, Ayana V. Jackson, Rashid Johnson, Aaron Jones, Anique Jordan, Seydou Keïta, Lebohang Kganye, Luther Konadu, Deana Lawson, Zun Lee, Oumar Ly, João Mendes, Jalani Morgan, Dennis Morris, Aïda Muluneh, Eustáquio Neves, Jamal Nxedlana, Lakin Ogunbanwo, J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere, Bidemi Oloyede, Horace Ové, Gordon Parks, Dawit L. Petros, Charlie Phillips, Afonso Pimenta, Ruddy Roye, Athi-Patra Ruga, Abdourahmane Sakaly, Jamel Shabazz, Abdo Shanan, Malick Sidibé, Xaviera Simmons, Ming Smith, Paul Anthony Smith, Sanlé Sory, Eve Tagny, Texas Isaiah, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, James Van Der Zee, Nontsikelelo Veleko, Ruby Washington, Ricky Weaver, Carrie Mae Weems, Kehinde Wiley.
DAG gratefully acknowledges the funding contribution from the Museums Assistance Program with the Department of Canadian Heritage.
