Reconfigurations

Mina Markovic

Opening Reception:​ Thursday July 5th, 2018 7 - 9 pm
Exhibition Run:​ Thursday, July 5th - Sunday, July 28th, 2018

Reconfigurations combines two bodies of work - Ruptured Veneers (2016) and The Interchange (2017) - to bridge a generational gap between three women; my great-grandmother, my mother, and myself. Gesture, as a re-occurring motif, serves to visually unite the two works of two separate mediums. These gestural repetitions, which connect the three of us through time, culminate in a new period in which we may exist together, as we never have before. Where Ruptured Veneers is rooted in the past, functioning as an investigation of a relationship never physically present but always felt, The Interchange is very much entrenched in the present; as a visual manifestation of an ongoing reflection and reaction to a trying situation.

Ruptured Veneers is a series of photographs which explore absence in relation to memory and the photographic image. The series works in three parts:

- as a fragmented recreation of my first and oldest memory of my great-grandmother - who is long deceased;

- as the photographic document that proves her presence and absence in my life;

- and as the unification of presence and absence via the superimposition of my memories and photographic documents.

The Interchange uses filmic interpretations to investigate the relationship between parent and child when the roles of supporter and reliant are reversed. Approximately three years ago, my mother sustained a severe shoulder injury that altered the landscape of our lives. During this difficult time, we collectively became aware of my mother's vulnerability, and of the impermanence of the human body. The injury prompted a reversal in our roles as mother (supporter) and child (reliant). Suddenly we were both grappling with questions of how to assume our new roles. Using the moving image to understand our roles, my mother and I took turns adopting the same visual interpretations of supporter and reliant for the camera.

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Mina Markovic is a Toronto based photographer and image maker fascinated with questions of identity and memory; often creating works which examine how the two are shaped by heritage, location, history, and the present. Most recently, she has begun to utilize fragmentation in relation to the still and moving image in order to further investigate personal histories. Her work has been exhibited in a number of shows and publications in Toronto, most notably Flash Forward (Emerging Artists Incubator program, 2013), HumanitasXV at the Gladstone Hotel (2016) and Ruptured Veneers at Akasha Art Projects (2018).