Participating artists: Daniel Boyd, Vija Celmins, David Horvitz, Bouchra Khalili, Judy Radul, Thomas Ruff, Carrie Mae Weems, Urban Subjects (Sabine Bitter, Jeff Derksen, and Helmut Weber), Paul Wong.

Star Witnesses assembles works by a constellation of artists whose insightful observations of the cosmos bring new understandings of exploratory and migratory movements on Planet Earth. The artists involved deftly combine found and newly produced images showing planets, moons, constellations in distant galaxies, and the light of our closest star – the Sun – to address earthly concerns.

The title alludes to the artists’ precise visions – honed at the technical limits of photography – and to how encounters with their artworks may transform audiences into ‘star witnesses’ in turn. Certain works in the exhibition evolve in close dialogue with scientific imaging, while others go beyond or deviate from the focus of telescopic cameras, the logic of astronomy, and the path of satellites. Together, they attest to the fact that there is no universal way of gazing at the universe.

Each work offers the image of the cosmos as material evidence for a distinctive perspective, worldview, or imaginary.  They give substance to vital histories, which struggle to see the proverbial light of day: one woman’s survival in an internment camp; one man’s narrow escape from a racist mob; underexposed connections between a war in West Asia and peace in a mid-sized German town; an artist’s moment of grace on top of a moonlit mountain, far from home.

Questions of POV are paramount: much depends on where on Earth we – the humans, the stardust – were born and where we have travelled, migrated, settled recently, or remained for generations, if not millennia. Dark matter abounds. And this too is evidence awaiting fresh interpretations.

Events

Opening Celebration on Thursday, June 26 at 7:00pm

Learn More

Radio-Canada: Paul Wong et le bois noir

CBC: The Polygon Gallery presents Star Witnesses

Curated by Monika Szewczyk, Audain Chief Curator

Generously supported by:
Jeffrey Boone and David Wong
Brigitte and Henning Freybe
Coleen and Howard Nemtin
Michael and Inna O’Brian Family Foundation
Paula Palyga and David Demers
Andy Sylvester
Terrence and Lisa Turner
Bruno Wall

Community Partner:
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre

Banner image: Thomas Ruff, Stern 17h 14m/-25° (Detail), 1990. © Thomas Ruff/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG. Bild-Kunst, Germany.