Jan. 12 - Feb. 23, 2018
The UNB Art Centre welcomes back Sylvia D. Hamilton with her exhibition Excavation: Memory Work which opens Jan. 12 at 5 p.m. The artist will be present for a walking tour of the exhibit. This exhibition runs until Feb. 23 in recognition of Black History Month.
Sylvia D. Hamilton is an award winning Nova Scotian filmmaker, writer and artist raised in Beechville, Nova Scotia.
Her films include Black Mother Black Daughter, Speak It: From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia, Portia White: Think On Me and The Little Black School House, among others. Her writing has appeared in a variety of Canadian journals and anthologies. Her poetry collection, And I Alone Escaped to Tell You was short-listed for a 2015 League of Canadian Poets Award. Since its first exhibition at the Dalhousie Art Gallery, her multi-media installation titled Excavation, has been mounted in three locations in Nova Scotia and Ontario.
Her body of work—film, writing and installations— has brought the history, contributions and life experiences of African Canadians into the mainstream of Canadian arts. This work stands in opposition to the erasure of Black Canadians from traditional representations of Canada. She draws on archival sources and collective oral stories to create a counter-memory. Hamilton holds the Roger's Chair in Communications at the University of King's College in Halifax.
Excavation: Memory Work, is an adaptive multi-media installation in which the artist presents ideas of place, memory and history through selections of text and objects relative to the space in which it is displayed. Here at the UNB Art Centre, Sylvia D. Hamilton mines the collection of Kings Landing and the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick for artifacts and photographs to tell the story of Black settlement in the region. Based on decades of research and reflection, this powerful and thought-provoking display will challenge our ideas and assumptions about what we know about our collective past.
During the month of February the UNB Art Centre and the Departments of History & English at UNB will be presenting a series of films, lectures and events marking Black History Month. All events are free, details below:
| Wed., Feb. 7, 7 p.m. Postponed to Feb. 22, 7 p.m. | Lecture | UNB Art Centre, Memorial Hall, East Gallery | Mary Louise McCarthy - A Black Woman's Narrative of Death, Graveyards and Segregation in New Brunswick |
| Thurs., Feb. 8, 12 p.m. | Film | UNB Art Centre, Memorial Hall, East Gallery | Black Soul/Âme Noire, 9 minutes Sisters in the Struggle, 49 minutes |
| Fri., Feb. 9, 12 p.m. | Film | UNB Art Centre, Memorial Hall, East Gallery | Speakers for the Dead, 49 minutes |
| Mon., Feb. 12, 12 p.m. | Film | UNB Art Centre, Memorial Hall, East Gallery | The Road Taken, 52 minutes |
| Tues., Feb. 13, 12 p.m. | Film | UNB Art Centre, Memorial Hall, East Gallery | Journey to Justice, 47 minutes |
| Wed., Feb. 14, 7 p.m. | Lecture | UNB Art Centre, Memorial Hall, Auditorium | Robyn Maynard, Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present Presented with assistance from the Dept. of History and English |
| Tues., Feb. 20, 12 p.m. | Poetry Reading | UNB Art Centre, Memorial Hall, East Gallery | Dr. Afua Cooper Presented by the Dept. of History and Gender & Woman's Studies |
| Tues., Feb. 20, 7 p.m. | Lecture | The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick | Dr. Afua Cooper, Slavery and the Construction of Black People as Property: The Legacy Presented by the Dept. of History and Gender & Woman's Studies |
Marie Maltais, Director
(506) 453-4623
ARTCNTR@unb.ca
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