STANLEY WANY | ESPACES IMPRÉVISIBLES

From November 3, 2023 to January 20, 2024.

"Unpredictable Spaces" draws on the artist’s family history and the rich heritage of his ancestors, their creolization and the resolve which forged and lifted them beyond challenging circumstances. “Creolization,” a term coined by Barbadian poet and academician Edward Kamau Brathwaite, and popularized by the Martinican author and thinker Édouard Glissant, originally refers to a literary process describing the hybridization of different cultures. In his work, Stanley Wany turns to this concept as it pertains to the life journey of his maternal grandfather, Albert Gibbs. Born to a father from Trinidad and Tobago, whose last name is English, and to a Franco-Haitian mother, Gibbs grew up in Haiti in the context of colonial oppression, both historical and contemporary, eventually rising above the dominant forces. Evolving in the Caribbean, Wany’s grandfather’s determination emerges from this place shaped by the encounter between cultures and perspectives, an unpredictable space.

Integrating archival images and found objects to an installation which includes drawing, sculpture and materials grown in former colonial plantations (coffee, sugar cane, indigo and cotton), the exhibition reflects on the concept of creolization which well describes how the artist’s family history has been built. In this way, Wany brings forward the experience of Black communities in the Americas, which are undoubtedly resilient beyond subjugation and actively engaged in various forms of cultural hybridization.

Artist: Stanley Wany, Graduating Master’s student in Visual and Media Arts at UQAM.

- Wednesday, November 22, 2023, from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.: As part of "L’art observe" series, Galerie de l’UQAM invites you to a performative talk by Stanley Wany, who is completing a master’s degree in visual and media arts at UQAM. In a discussion moderated by Michèle Magema, the artist will share his art practice and the research he undertook during his degree.