AXENÉO7 held their first vernissage/exhibition of 2019.
Featuring are Ottawa’s Kosisochukwu Nnebe & Guillermo Trejo.
I want you to know that I am hiding something from you / since what I might be is uncontainable by Kosisochukwu Nnebe.
Concerned with phenomenology, perception and the racialized body, Kosisochukwu Nnebe’s work considers how we perceive each other; to what extent can we really know each other, or even ourselves; and how race is inscribed in the act of perceiving another body.
In this new work Nnebe explores the opposing notions of invisibility and what she describes as “hyper-visibility” or excess. She draws on the writing of Martinique philosopher, writer and poet Édouard Glissant, whose concept of “opacity” offers an alternative to the familiar terrain of identity, visibility and representation. Nnebe’s work considers opacity — a lack of transparency and a way of not giving yourself away completely — as a way to claim agency. Nnebe believes that Glissant’s politics of refusal offer a kind of “refuge”; in withholding a part of herself she refuses to be fully seen, fixed, or racialized in a particular way.
How Thick is a Border? by Guillermo Trejo.
In How Thick is a Border? (2019) a new installation at AXENÉO7, Mexican-Canadian artist Guillermo Trejo has fabricated his own wall, made from plywood and painted black. His construction not only references the border between Mexico and the USA, but speaks to borders and barriers globally. This installation questions the seemingly arbitrary and often violent ways in which we create, maintain and police borders.
The exhibition runs until February 23, 2019.
The gallery is located on 80 rue Hanson, Gatineau, Quebec.
