Centre A is pleased to announce // Liminal Futures //, curated by Diane Hau Yu Wong, featuring artists Rah Eleh, Diasporic Futurisms, Adrienne Matheuszik, Skawennati, and Audie Murray.
June 24 – August 19, 2023
Curated by Diane Hau Yu Wong
For more information about the exhibition, the artists, and the curator, click HERE.
// Liminal Futures // intends to examine the potentiality of liminality as a portal to a better future and include works by Rah Eleh, Diasporic Futurisms (Vanessa Godden and Adrienne Matheuszik), Skawennati, and Audie Murray. In mainstream post-apocalyptic visions of the future, the focus is predominantly on global catastrophes that lead to human extinction. These stories usually explicitly centre figures of whiteness as their protagonists and the survivors of the apocalypse who can save the world. In these narratives, strategies and methods to preserve the future of humanity are more concerned with protecting the future of global structures rooted in a set of social, political, and economic structures derived from Eurocentric systems of imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism. This can be seen in the structural absence of BIPOC bodies in mainstream science fiction, or the tokenization of these characters as a source of difference and otherness within a post-apocalyptic future that stemmed from racial contamination and racial paranoia. At the same time, these stories completely neglect to address the disproportionate effect of the eco-crisis on marginalized communities worldwide.
Instead, // Liminal Futures // centre diverse knowledge and pluralistic forms of agency that undermine the current hegemonic notion of ‘humanity’. In contrast to an apocalyptic future, they embrace nonlinear temporalities and forms of liminality to put forth multiple futures. It can create alternatives to apocalypse visions to open up the possibility for the emergence of a new pluralistic world beyond the apocalypse of colonial domination. The exhibition will address the speculative possibilities of liminal futurisms to create generative solidarities and forms of collective power. It takes into consideration the multiplicity of lived experiences and embraces knowledge from different communities that exist in the world. Post-colonial theorist Homi Bhabha, in particular, has referred to liminality as a transitory, in-between state or space characterized by ambiguity, hybridity, and potential for subversion and change in his 1994 text, “Location of Culture.” Liminality identifies an environment in which cultural transformation can take place, creating sites and opportunities for major societal changes.
At the same time, the exhibition draws on multiple cosmologies that embrace alternative temporalities in which the ‘past’, ‘present’, and ‘future’ are interwoven, where multiple intersections of time exist to imagine the possibilities of a sustainable future for all that embody mutually enhancing relations and collective wisdom. It puts forth alternative methods of examining nonlinear and equitable futures that are parallel to our own, from which we can collapse into our world to encourage steps towards making these futures our reality. The exhibition proposes a set of strategies and knowledge for hybrid beings to embrace radical temporality and liminality beyond the imagination of colonial futures. In doing so, strive away from the imposition of differences amongst marginalized communities to imagine and build collective futures through solidarity and mutually enhancing relationships for future generations.
Opening Night: June 24, 2023, 5 – 7 PM
Gallery Hours: Weds – Sat, 12 – 6 PM*
Location: 205 – 268 Keefer St., Vancouver, BC, V6A 1X5
*Subject to change as per COVID-19-related protocols. Face masks or face coverings are optional during your visit.
Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or info@centrea.org.
Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.