Produced through SAW Video’s JumpStart mentorship program, this exhibition was placed in direct dialogue with a series of events that brought together three young artists exploring intergenerational exchange (understood as the processes of learning, modes of relation and collaborative exercises that occur between generations) in their respective artistic practices.
Wednesdays, Before Piano.
Wednesdays, Before Piano. was a video and sound installation by naakita feldman-kiss, developed over a series of weekends that the artist spent with her grandmother in Ottawa, with support from SAW Video’s JumpStart mentorship program. Through the close proximity and frequency of these visits, familial dialogue evolved into acts of collaborative performance. The work seeks to affirm that through a process of intergenerational exchange, modes of understanding can be nurtured, and ancestral memory continued. Using multiple channels of video projection and audio playback, the installation presented stories, experiences, and histories that are not fixed, but instead placed in constant interaction with one another. Examining the mutable nature of memory, questions are raised through the exhibition about how inherited narratives can serve to develop a sense of self, as well as construct the image of a past for which one was absent. It is through remembering, re-remembering and speech that feldman-kiss renders these histories active and brings pasts into a present tense. Wednesdays, Before Piano. recalls, retraces, and remakes, while finding space for the gaps that occur in the process.
naakita feldman-kiss
naakita feldman-kiss is an artist of mixed roots currently working between Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. Her practice examines intergenerational memory, liminal identities and contemporary applications of oral tradition. feldman-kiss’ aesthetic explorations manifest in transmedia with a focus on text-based, performative, technological and social artworks. In 2016, she completed her BFA in Intermedia at Concordia University in Montreal, where she graduated with distinction.
Related Programming
Discussion: Intergenerational Practice. July 27, 2018. Knot Project Space.
Performance: Où sont les ancêtres?, Ivanie Aubin-Malo. July 26, 2018. Knot Project Space.
Exhibition: Don’t Forget to Call, Nelly Matorina. July 27 – 28, 2018. Knot Project Space.