The Density of Dust
Tuesday - Saturday 12-5 PM
440-401 Richmond St West Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
Street level entrance, ramp, elevator, automatic doors, door width 34”. Gender neutral accessible (32”+) washrooms, stall, no automatic door. No accessible parking on site. To access Bachir/Yerex, use either the stairs or elevator to the 4th floor.
For a map of Bachir/Yerex Presentation Space, click here
Images Festival is committed to providing an accessible festival and continues to work to reduce barriers to participation at our events. This year, we are implementing a COVID-19 policy to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission for all, and to prioritize the participation of people who are disability-identified, immunocompromised, or part of an otherwise vulnerable group.
The following guidelines will be in place: Self-Assessment: We ask that staff and participants screen themselves for COVID-19 before visiting the exhibition.
The Density of Dust is a video installation that uses material collection and close listening to explore a centuries-old industrial building’s history and its surroundings.
This two-channel installation confronts the viewer with both a micro and a macro view of matter that is decidedly sentient: bricks alive with their own memories, seeming to experience their own distant past; dirt and hair posing as galaxies soaring through the heavens. On-screen texts contemplate sediment and decay, listening for the voices of the past. The methodical cleaning of an ancient piece of machinery produces dust and flakes of rust that are then carefully swept up and bagged, hinting at some future cataloguing that will take place, perhaps revealing the multiplicity of layers. But a cautionary “Ghosts deserve their rest” urges us to step back and let the past rest.
As naakita writes:
“History forms foundation. It lends structure to numerous presents and futures, allowing them necessary space to expand and multiply. As these expansions take place, traces of the past remain. With time, they become harder to see, fainter to hear, and often impossible to reach. Using archival research and investigations of the site’s internal landscapes, The Density of Dust aims to reveal some of the many layers of time and experiences the area hosts. In examining the building's traces, the work considers these layers with curiosity, while simultaneously attuning itself to the spectres that inhabit them.”
Please join us on opening night for an artist talk with naakita feldman-kiss.
naakita feldman-kiss (they/them) is a queer, multidisciplinary artist of mixed roots living and working in Tio'Tia:Ke/Mooniyang/Montreal. Their current research uses hauntology to explore the impacts of the colonial project on built and natural environments while imagining the possible futures that can be contained in a haunted place.
Lisa Steele is the co-founder of VTape and works in video, photography, film, and performance, as well as writing and curating on video and media arts. Lisa’s videotapes have been extensively exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including the Venice Biennale, Kunsthalle Basel, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Canada, the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Long Beach Museum. Her videotapes are in many international collections. Lisa is a co-founder of Vtape.
Vtape is a vibrant distribution organization that represents an international collection of contemporary and historical video art, documentaries, and installations. We make this collection accessible to curators and programmers, educators, scholars, and public audiences worldwide. In addition to providing a distribution framework for established and emerging artists, Vtape is committed to sharing video-art preservation and exhibition standards and strives to support hybrid practices in an increasingly complex technical milieu.
naakita feldman-kiss
naakita feldman-kiss (they/them) is a queer, multidisciplinary artist and writer of mixed heritage (settler in so-called “Canada”/ Caribbean/ Eastern European) who lives and works in Tio'Tia:Ke/Mooniyang/Montreal. Their video works are available for distribution through Vtape.
