Blackity

Blackity delineates the trajectory of contemporary Black Canadian art as witnessed by Artexte’s collection between the 1970s and the 2010s. The exhibition gathers some key moments and people to consider the thematic, aesthetic or conceptual threads linking them. By placing these documents in relation to one another, curator Joana Joachim begins to trace a temporal cartography of Black Canadian art history. The exhibition is presented both on site and online. The digital space is conceptualized as a companion to the physical exhibition offering a glimpse into the Black Canadian art milieu beyond the borders of Artexte’s collection.

The vertical bands seen throughout the exhibition are a visualization of data pulled from e-Artexte. The upward motion of the disconnected stripes emphasize the fragmentary nature of this history echoing the trends around documenting Black Canadian art practices. Thinner bands represent a small number of documents during a certain time period in the collection whereas thicker ones represent an abundance of information. The digital exhibition includes audio clips from the curator as well as short notes and expanded annotations nodding to various projects, documents and videos from outside the Artexte collection.