GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday to Saturday | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM | Free Admission
Ukrainian and Canadian history are intertwined through immigration, settlement, and displacement, with Canada having the largest population of Ukrainian descendants outside Europe. Reflecting on the current war in Ukraine, Canada is experiencing another wave of immigration from Ukrainians dispossessed of their homelands. Labour and Memory — Ukrainian-Canadian Contexts draws together three artists – Ayla Dmyterko, Sonya Iwasiuk, and Darlene Kalynka – whose work addresses individual ties to Ukrainian migration. The exhibition combines mediums of sculpture, installation, printmaking, books, and moving image to layer the past and present of Ukrainian-Canadian realities.
Delving into archival and family records, each artist reflects on the past and how it informs today’s social and personal contexts. Through sustained effort, the Ukrainian diaspora maintained many aspects of their traditions, yet all cultures change through time and circumstance. Raised in Ukrainian farming families on the Prairies, the artists now perform the labour of research and reflection to learn more about themselves and generations past. Each of the artist’s unique perspectives in Labour and Memory demonstrate the complexities of culture.
About the Artists
Ayla Dmyterko utilizes performance, dance, poetry, and moving image to weave together threads of cultural knowledge and folk practices. Her moving image works choreograph snippets of memory into new imaginings of inherited stories.
Sonya Iwasiuk’s art practice includes painting, sculpture, and installation, reflecting her lived experience on prairie landscapes, and historical contexts of Canadian immigration. Working with archival photographs of Ukrainians arriving at Pier 21 in Halifax, Sonya introduces the viewer to the faces of migratory events.
Darlene Kalynka’s practice centers around printmaking and bookmaking to explore themes of labour, sacrifice, and women’s work. Travelling to Western Ukraine to her grandfather’s village, Darlene shares the journey of a return to homeland.
Film still from Rite of Return, Single-channel digital video, Ayla Dmyterko
Gallery Inside/Out Tour and Discussion
Rites of Passage and Return
Guest speaker - Dr. Alla Gadassik, Associate Professor of Media History and Theory at Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Saturday, Oct. 1, 1:00-2:30 PM (limited seating, free of-charge, registration required)
This free presentation takes up “cultural rites,” in distinction from “human rights,” to reflect on cultural identity and belonging in the context of global migration and change. Focusing on work included in the exhibition Labour & Memory, this discussion considers art-making as a cultural practice that inherits and transforms rites to create new cultural belongings and relationships.
Inside/Out is a series of talks and discussions that takes selected ACT Art Gallery exhibitions as the catalyst to explore larger social, cultural and artistic issues. The series welcomes thinkers and writers from a wide variety of disciplines whose work gives broader context to exhibitions in the gallery.
Check out the Fraser Valley Regional Library reading list created for the Labour & Memory exhibition.
