Marina Dempster & Meera Sethi: In Visible

Adornment can be wielded as a means of protection or immunity against visible and invisible harm- like a talisman, power heels, or an indigo stole dyed with plants made from ancient ancestral processes. Donning on an article imbued with powerful energy or styling an expression of who we are, can be ways of connecting to our personal and collective histories, signals of reclamation, and acts of social resistance. In these ways, objects that we wear can have powerful transformative qualities within ourselves, what we may believe about belonging, and act as visual interruptions to dominant culture in public spaces.

Through the artist’s paintings series Upping The Aunty and Begum, Meera Sethi asks “how do we think about what we wear and its relationship to social power?”

Marina Dempster’s “yarn painted” shoes invite a pensive self- reflection through her slow craft practice like a mirror that becomes a “…powerful portal into empowered perspectives, awareness and shifts in consciousness”.

This paired exhibition attempts to honour and celebrate connections between personal healing and political transformation through objects of what we wear; and invites reflection on the seemingly invisible dominant cultures ever present in public spaces and institutions, and how it informs who becomes invisible and visible within them.

Images courtesy of the Art Gallery of Burlington, Ontario, Canada.