VISUAL ART AND OTHER ENCOUNTERS
WUK
Jessica Kirk, as part of In Transit
“In the 1960s, my grandmother was one among many Trinidad and Tobagan women to arrive in Montreal through Canada’s West Indian Domestic Scheme Program. While many Afro-Caribbean women migrated to this country through initiatives like these, we know that Canada’s linkage to Black movement is purely conditional. On these lands, there are documented histories of forcing displacement, restricting entry, and encouraging movement by way of labour exploitation, each of which suit its political ambitions at different points in time.
While movement can engender a senseof rootlessness, lateral care work creates foundations that renew some semblance of place. Still, there’s something to be said about gendered assumptions of care being taken up by some of our city’s most vulnerable. Therein lies the reality oflabour performed by so many Black women – often extractive and simultaneously invisibilized.”
Even amid these layered relations, Black women are often at the forefront of cultivating spaces of belonging. But when care work is presumed, the plot of her undoing begins (Hartman, 2019). Through a collaged photo essay, Wuk seeks to use historic archives and contemporary expressions to story imagined futures rooted in honour and connective care.
The Chorus photography installation can be viewed May 6th – 31st at Dentonia Park.
How can we live? An artist talk and community dialogue with Jessica Kirk happens from 12 – 2pm as part of In Transit at Dentonia Park.
JESSICA KIRK
Jessica Kirk (she/her) is a cultural worker, artist and organizer based in Toronto. She holds an MA in Social Justice Education from University of Toronto, and her thesis was on the tensions of and possibilities for critical creative practice across Black geographies. Jess is co-founder of Way Past Kennedy Road, a grassroots multidisciplinary art collective supporting artists living at the margins. She is also Executive Director of Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism and Black Lives Matter Canada, both of which serve as fertile ground for resourcing Black liberation efforts in the city and across Turtle Island.