Ghosts in the Gallery (2023)
Joni Cheung & Luke Johnson, with members of the public
Joni Cheung & Luke Johnson, with members of the public
installation of Ghosts in the Gallery at The New Gallery, Calgary/Mohkinstsis, Alberta. Photo by Danny Luong.
As Latitude 53, Edmonton's oldest operating artist-run centre, approached their 50th Anniversary in October 2023, they thought about the last 50 years and tried imagining “What will the next 50 years look like?” To consider this question, the gallery brought together artists, writers, curators, community members and youth to explore some of the emergent issues that affect our current society.
Joni Cheung and Luke Johnson were paired based on their shared interest in the people, places, objects, and narratives which haunt us. Using archival material associated with Latitude 53’s past, Cheung and Johnson led a series of interactive workshops to make contact with the ghosts in the gallery, and to investigate the ways in which the histories they represent continue to ripple into the present. From the entries of anonymous Google reviews to the partial statements left behind by now-retired artists, participants helped sort out what we might learn from the traces left behind by those who came before us.
These creative workshops took place in hybrid spaces across Canada:
Joni Cheung and Luke Johnson were paired based on their shared interest in the people, places, objects, and narratives which haunt us. Using archival material associated with Latitude 53’s past, Cheung and Johnson led a series of interactive workshops to make contact with the ghosts in the gallery, and to investigate the ways in which the histories they represent continue to ripple into the present. From the entries of anonymous Google reviews to the partial statements left behind by now-retired artists, participants helped sort out what we might learn from the traces left behind by those who came before us.
These creative workshops took place in hybrid spaces across Canada:
- In Calgary/Mohkinstsis, Alberta, Cheung and Johnson led a drawing workshop at The New Gallery (TNG), the oldest operating artist-run centre in Calgary. Participants recounted pivotal artistic experiences from their pasts, ranging from recognizing the true identity of a mislabelled piece of Métis beadwork to an encounter with a pink-lit fountain whose water was imbued with estrogen. As each participant described their memory, the others attempted to draw what they imagined this experience to look like. Drawings were installed in the windows of The New Gallery's archive during the fall of 2023.
- In Hamilton, Ontarion, Cheung and Johnson worked with Hamilton Artists Inc. and the Hamilton Zine Club to host a zine-making workshop responding to questions of what defines Hamilton as home to participants.
- In Montréal/Moon’yaang/Tio’tià:ke, Quebec, Cheung and Johnson worked with members of Ada X to host a tarot card workshop where participants created personalized cards to read the future of the artist-run centre.
- In Edmonton/amiskwaciwâskahikan, Alberta, Cheung and Johnson led a final workshop at Latitude 53 in their latest location, just around the block from where the gallery had been founded fifty years prior by Sylvain Voyer, Harry Savage, and Mary Porter. Participants had a chance to view to work created at previous workshops, and respond to each other's memories of their first experiences at Latitude 53 through drawings.
Drawings created as part of the first "Ghosts in the Gallery" workshop at The New Gallery. Photo by Ashna Jacob.
Latitude 53's "The Next 50 Years" project included six lead artists, Breanna Barrington, Merlin Uwalaka, Luke Johnson, Joni Cheung, Blaine Campbell and Mohamed Somani. They hosted events both in person and online for discussion, creation, research, and experimentation, with invited guest artists and lecturers. The community was invited to join as members of these working groups to consider questions of futurity. Documentation of each project was compiled into a catalogue, The Next 50 Years, and an archive of works created by the public as part of Cheung and Johnson's workshops was published as Ghosts in the Gallery, both available from Latitude 53: https://latitude-53.square.site/shop/catalogues/4
