Overview
In her practice, artist Maggie Groat investigates decolonial ways of being, alternative archiving, sustainable exhibition practices, and the transformative potential of salvaged materials during times of climate emergency. Implementing a collage-based approach, Groat presents newly commissioned artworks across three sites as part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival—at CONTACT Gallery, on billboards, and outdoors at Harbourfront Centre.
Groat’s three wheat-pasted collages create layered associations to the natural world, probing imperfect symmetries. The work re > formations > re > encounters, with its wavering patterns, elicits the ever-moving waters of nearby Lake Ontario. The images presented here are partly influenced by theorist Edward Lorenz’s concept of “the butterfly effect,’ positing the planet’s deep interconnectedness, in which one small occurrence can have immense repercussions.
East wall: twins, webs, ripples, shifts, sounds, 2022, (found paper)
North wall: re > formations > re > encounters 2023, (found paper)
West wall: portal, 2023, (found paper)
Venue
Panels for large-scale photography exhibitions mounted on the 235 Queens Quay W parking pavillion, Ontario Square.
Wheelchair Accessible
Accessible 24/7
Co-presented by the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival and Harbourfront Centre. Supported by Cindy and Shon Barnett and funded in part by the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
CONTACT inspires through the power of photography, celebrating the creative possibilities it envisions for the past, present, and future with an annual citywide Festival in May.