Arrivals and Departures 

YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Toronto. April 1 to July 15, 2023

Arrivals and Departures was an installation that spanned the three exhibition spaces of YYZ Artists’ Outlet. In her role as artist- curator, Heather Nicol invited five contributing artists to respond to a curatorial prompt to create a new work to be displayed, transformed and re-interpreted within a context of overlap - with each other, and with her audio score and sculptural elements. Layers of connective tissue across the works bled into each other, and across the spaces. This curatorial experiment fostered new forms of collaboration, creating an opportunity for artists and audiences to contemplate boundaries, creative authorship, and exchange. 

The contributing artists examined transitional moments of arrivals in the South Gallery and Window Space, while Nicol explored departures in the North. The exhibit centred themes of dislocation and relocation, proposing that each day is a flow of movements and discoveries, entrances and exits. Through photography, sculpture, film, and sound art, the artists variously considered life as a series of ever evolving arrivals and departures, right up until our unknowable final exit. 

Videos:  Feras Azzam (Syria/Toronto), Janet Biggs (New York), Sigrun Drapatz (Berlin), Gerardo Montiel Klint (Mexico).

Photo: Simone Haeckel (Berlin).

Curation, sculpture, audio score featuring Eve Egoyan on Augmented Piano: Heather Nicol