Exploring emotional journey of immigration
Ryerson new media show juxtaposes historical photos and modern Canadian works
What does it mean to leave your homeland and everything you know and care about and move to a new country as a refugee?
That’s one of the themes being explored in a new media exhibition being mounted on the Ryerson Image Centre’s New Media Wall.
The show, which will open May 1 and run until June 2, and then again from June 19 to Aug. 25, examines immigration and migration issues past and present, said curator Gaelle Morel.
“Canada is a country of immigrants; a country that needs immigration; a country that is defined by this subject,” she said. “When you think Canada, you think immigration.”
In curating the show, Morel was “trying to address the idea of immigration in a broad sense. I, myself, am an immigrant. I consider myself a happy immigrant . . . But you have different ways of immigrating. So the idea was to address all the different aspects of immigration.”
In doing that, Morel hopes the exhibition will reach and engage as many people in the GTA as possible, especially since the region is the most diverse in the country.
“You have a little bit of everything, of every side of the spectrum,” she said of the exhibition. “So you can relate to at least one piece, even if you’re not an immigrant yourself, or first generation. You’ll be able to find some- thing that will engage you.”
Designed as a continuous loop, the show will be projected on digital screens. It will include black-and-white photos depicting the migration of British citizens to Canada in the1950s.
Juxtaposed with those images will be eight pieces by Canadian artists, including photographs and video by Ruth Kaplan of refugees awaiting entrance to Canada; a video of men and women of the South Asian diaspora dancing in London, England, by Meera Margaret Singh, and a video/photography/sound project exploring migration between Canada and Pakistan, by Andrew Suri.
For Kaplan, a Canadian photographer, the project was a natural extension of her ongoing work and interest in immigration and refugees. Her images and video depict the loneliness, tenuousness and precarious nature of being a refugee. “It’s a worldwide situation, the adjustment and difficulties people have,” Kaplan said.
Seeking to capture that feeling, she photographed and videotaped refugees awaiting immigration to Canada who were living in the Niagara Falls border area in shelters and motels. Her stark images include two suitcases full of the objects one collects while waiting to be accepted into a new homeland, and a warm jacket hanging in an almost empty closet. With those images she wanted to depict the transience — emotional and physical — experienced by a refugee.
“I was interested in the idea where you’re in limbo,” Kaplan said. “Where your life is no longer here or there. Time is stretched out. You have no money. You can’t go anywhere. Your past is known and your future is unknown.”