Ann Beam and Carl Beam: Spaces for Reading
Jan 15 – Apr 18, 2019
  SFU Gallery

Spaces for Reading brings together works by Ann Beam and Carl Beam, two artists that question the construction of history and knowledge through systems of classification and representation with post-colonial, feminist and ecological lenses. The works are from two series held in the SFU Art Collection and demonstrate the ways in which these artists informed one another: in their shared life together, through artistic methodologies and with subjects that critique structures of power and ideas of progress while underpinning notions of time and space.

Within the exhibition, the gallery will host a reading room with texts selected in response to Ann Beam and Carl Beam’s work by poet Mackenzie Ground and by artist Sandra Semchuk in collaboration with writer Richard Hill. Like the works that surround it, the space for reading is anachronistic, challenging a linear historical perspective and dominant research methods. Reading lists will be available to take away.

Richard Hill is Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Studies at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. His column Close Readings, featuring extended reviews of contemporary Indigenous art, ran in Fuse and C Magazine. He also has an irregular column at canadianart.ca. He is currently on the editorial board of the journal Third Text.

https://www.sfu.ca/galleries/sfu-gallery/SFU-gallery.html

Cover image: Carl Beam, Untitled [Sperm Whales], 1998 (detail)