Bromeliad penguin (Abba), 2011, hand-painted stone lithograph on frosted mylar, 36" x 24"In Bleeding & Breeding, Joscelyn Gardner exhibits a body of work completed between 2009 and 2011, which centers on Creole women’s secret use of exotic tropical plants as natural abortifacients on 18th century Caribbean plantations. Creole Portraits III, a suite of thirteen lithographic portraits ‘named’ for otherwise anonymous slave women and for the botanical specimens believed to have been used by them to induce abortion, reveals intricately braided Afro-centric hairstyles viewed from behind entwined within the horrific iron slave collars which were used to punish female slaves accused of this heinous act. In the video installation, “behind closed doors…”, the voices of women from the period are overheard giving their painful testimonies of sexual exploitation on colonial Caribbean plantations. Through probing colonial material culture found in Caribbean archives, as well as, more recently, historical fiction, Gardner continues to question the depravity of the plantation system from a postcolonial feminist perspective. She leaves the viewer to ponder the wider implications of a colonial discourse that supported the violent subordination of enslaved peoples as a ‘natural' right of white (male) privilege.
Born in Barbados, and recognized as a leading Caribbean artist, Gardner moved to Canada in 2000. Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions in Spain, the USA, Canada, and the Caribbean. She is a recent recipient of the Biennial Grand Prize at the 7th International Contemporary Printmaking Biennial in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec (2011), and has exhibited in international biennials across Europe and Latin America since 1994, including two Sao Paulo Biennials. Recent group exhibitions have included Utropicos at the XXXI Biennial de Pontevedra in Spain; Global Caribbean which originated at Art Basel in Miami, and travelled to museums in France and Puerto Rico; Infinite Island at the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Canadian Impressions in Washington, DC; and Stains on my Chintz at the Harrington Art Center in Kolkata, India. Gardner currently teaches in the School of Contemporary Media at Fanshawe College, London, Ontario, and works as an artist between Canada and the Caribbean. She has an MFA from the University of Western Ontario and BFA (Printmaking) & BA (Film) from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.
Born in Barbados, and recognized as a leading Caribbean artist, Gardner moved to Canada in 2000. Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions in Spain, the USA, Canada, and the Caribbean. She is a recent recipient of the Biennial Grand Prize at the 7th International Contemporary Printmaking Biennial in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec (2011), and has exhibited in international biennials across Europe and Latin America since 1994, including two Sao Paulo Biennials. Recent group exhibitions have included Utropicos at the XXXI Biennial de Pontevedra in Spain; Global Caribbean which originated at Art Basel in Miami, and travelled to museums in France and Puerto Rico; Infinite Island at the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Canadian Impressions in Washington, DC; and Stains on my Chintz at the Harrington Art Center in Kolkata, India. Gardner currently teaches in the School of Contemporary Media at Fanshawe College, London, Ontario, and works as an artist between Canada and the Caribbean. She has an MFA from the University of Western Ontario and BFA (Printmaking) & BA (Film) from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.
Public Collections in which Gardner’s work can be found include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Puerto Rico, the Barbados National Gallery, US Embassies Collection, Museo TEOR/éTica in Costa Rica, and Fondacion Clemente in Dominican Republic.
A catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition with an Introduction by Curator, Olexander Wlasenko, and essays by Janice Cheddie (U of Greenwich, UK), Allison Donnell (U of Reading, UK), and Jennifer Law (Vice-Chair, Open Studio, Toronto). Gardner’s work can be viewed at www.joscelyngardner.com
This exhibition is being generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
Contact:
Olexander Wlasenko, Curator
Station Gallery
1450 Henry Street
Whitby, Ontario, L1N 0A8
T 905 668 4185
W www.whitbystationgallery.com
Monday – Friday 10 am – 4.30 pm
Thursdays 10 am – 9 pm
Saturday & Sunday noon – 4 pm
