SAVAGE GROWTH: Into the Luminous Grove
PAVED Arts • Saskatoon • January 20 – February 24, 2023
Project Didactic
SAVAGE GROWTH: Into the Luminous Grove is an immersive, multi-sensorial exhibition incorporating sculptural installations, film projections, performance art, and sound designs. This collaborative project between Kyuubi Culture and Negar Tajgardan explores the symbolism of wild fungi and showcases the incredible resilience of these life forms.
Fungi are biologically diverse and can survive in harsh environments where other species struggle to become established. Symbolically speaking, fungi and their associations have been widely used in numerous philosophical, sociological and economic theories. As diasporas and queer artists trying to survive and thrive in an unfamiliar environment, Kyuubi Culture and Negar Tajgardan also require creativity, determination and fungi-like resilience.
All materials used in this project share certain properties: luminosity, transparency and artificiality. The exhibition project juxtaposes organic subject matter to the highly synthetic media used to portray it, in this way elevating mundane considerations of fungi to ethereal and incandescent entities deserving of wonder. The gallery is intentionally darkened, transforming it into a theatrical, immersive environment. The ever-expanding and engulfing darkness provides an excellent stage for showcasing the most subtle changes in colour and light.
SAVAGE GROWTH: Into the Luminous Grove strives to transform the traditional gallery space into a psychedelic maze of mesmerizing beauty, showcasing the unique and under-appreciated charms of unrelenting life forms that overcome harsh environments.
Artists Bios
Qiming Sezava Sun is a Saskatoon-based Asian-Canadian artist and a practicing witch. He received his MFA and High Honours BFA from the University of Saskatchewan. He specializes in oil paintings and sculptural works inspired by nature, symbolism, and Shamanic spirituality. His works have been widely exhibited, many of which are included in the permanent collection of several Canadian institutions and galleries. Sun is the Co-Founder of Kyuubi Culture Artist Collective.
Négar Devine-Tajgardan is a visual artist with a special interest in sculpture, installation art, and photography. Tajgardan’s works are based on her memories of coming to Canada from Iran and broader concepts of immigration and displacement. She completed her MFA degree at the University of Saskatchewan.
Xiao Han is a Saskatoon-based artist and curator originally from Wuhan, China. With photography practice, Han’s projects investigate diaspora identity and community engagement based on decolonial context. Han has curated numerous exhibitions collectively with artists and art institutions in Canada and China as an independent curator.
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