Location
Maureen Bradley
Dana Claxton
Allyson Mitchell
b. h. Yael
Curated by Janice Hladki
McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University
January 28 - March 27, 2010
PUBLIC RECEPTION: Thursday January 28, 6 - 8 pm
ARTISTS’ THINK TANK: Friday January 29, 1:30 - 2:20 pm
with exhibition curator Janice Hladki and artists Maureen Bradley, Allyson Mitchell, and b.h.Yael
Fierce on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com:80/pages/Hamilton-ON/Fierce-Womens-Hot-Blooded-F...
The McMaster Museum of Art is proud to present Fierce: Women’s Hot-Blooded Film/Video, a group exhibition of video and experimental film works by Maureen Bradley, Dana Claxton, Allyson Mitchell, and b. h. Yael: women at the forefront of Canadian-based, media production and installation.
Multiple themes thread through the exhibition’s two installations and fifteen moving image works, which were produced between 1994 and 2008. Janice Hladki, former multi-disciplinary artist (e.g., The Clichettes), exhibition curator and Associate Professor in Theatre & Film Studies at McMaster University’s School of the Arts, writes, “In their interrogation and theorization of social and cultural relations of power, territories of land and body, and spectator responsibility, these works may be understood as hot-headed: intellectually tempestuous and thoughtfully simmering.”
This exhibition addresses how Canadian-based women artists are contributing to contemporary moving image culture, particularly in terms of producing the thinking image. Focusing on artists with histories and bases in different Canadian locations, Fierce provides a rich account of video art and experimental film in the Canadian context and contributes to the impact of Canadian-based work within transnational spheres. Mobilizing narrative, documentary, autobiographical, video essay, video poem, animation, and experimental forms, the artists explore urgent concerns: indigenous culture, peace and social justice, species and environmental health, the global and the local, history and memory, and multiple embodiments. The exhibition considers how critically conscious art generates responsible and ethical spectatorship.
Fierce will travel to the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa July 2 - August 28, 2011. It is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and a publication is forthcoming including essays by Julia Bryan-Wilson, Richard Fung, Janice Hladki, Lisa Steele, Jeremy Todd, and Patricia R. Zimmermann.
Image above: Maureen Bradley, Birthday Suit Management: a 21C Homage to Lisa Steele, 2001, detail of video still
Admission is Free
Museum hours: Tue/Wed/Fri 11am-5pm, Thu 11-7, Sat 12-5
McMaster Museum of Art
Alvin A. Lee Building
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, ON L8S 4L6
Tel. 905.525.9140 ext.23241
museum@mcmaster.ca
www.mcmaster.ca/museum
