Erika DeFreitas: an object, a gesture, a scene (II) Digital Artist Book
Erika DeFreitas, an object, a gesture, a scene (II), installed in the main galleries of the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
The digital artist book for An object, a gesture, a scene (II) has been composed to mimic the in-person experience of DeFreitas’ artworks in their viewing order. In addition to this digital publication, the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington has recently launched an exhibition catalogue featuring an essay on DeFreitas’ exhibition written by Curator Sandy Saad Smith.
About the exhibition
An object, a gesture, a scene (II) is an exhibition in which Erika DeFreitas invites us to enter a space that operates between past, present, and future tenses, absence and presence, obscurity and revelation. In this space there is dichotomy and tension that elicit curiosity and reflection while opening up pathways to new what-ifs. In her play with detail, time, and narrative, DeFreitas recreates, reckons with, and reveals systems of visual and intellectual strategies.
Erika DeFreitas’s recent works at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington are created through acts of scoring, fragmenting, rearranging, and redacting to reimagine the possibilities that arise through unknown elements. DeFreitas intuitively works across multiple disciplines and invites us to a staging of works void of didactic narratives. An object, a gesture, a scene (II) is an exhibition in which the unusual positioning between absence and presence gives way to a merging of space and time and new interpretations found in uncertainty and ambiguity. The works shown at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington will include a series of works on paper, video, and photography.
Artist biography
Erika DeFreitas is a Scarborough-based artist whose practice includes the use of performance, photography, video, installation, textiles, works on paper, and writing. Placing an emphasis on process, gesture, the body, documentation, and paranormal phenomena, she works through attempts to understand concepts of loss, post-memory, inheritance, and objecthood.
DeFreitas’ work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including at Project Row Houses and the Museum of African American Culture, Houston; Fort Worth Contemporary Arts; Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita; Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery; Platform Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts, Winnipeg; and Gallery 44, Toronto. A recipient of the Toronto Friends of Visual Arts’ 2016 Finalist Artist Prize, the 2016 John Hartman Award, and long-listed for the 2017 Sobey Art Award, she has also been awarded several grants from the Canada Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council. DeFreitas holds a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto.
Resources
Further reading: VAC website
Artist website: Erika DeFreitas
