CURRENT
EXHIBITION!
DIS | PLACE
Annik Gaudet & Emma FitzGerald
Reception September 13, 5-7pm
Show Runs August 23 to September 15
ABOUT To displace is the forcing of something or someone out of its usual or original place. Both the process of displacement and its aftermath concern Annik Gaudet and Emma FitzGerald in their joint exhibition. Gaudet’s artwork examines Acadian identity, current and past, and how it has been shaped throughout generations by diaspora. Through a dreamy narrative video set in a fabled forest, she performs as a fictional character where traditional Acadian food preparation, language, and ancient customs are layered with modern technologies. This video work is augmented with sculpture and rug hooking. FitzGerald comes to her concerns about refugees around the world by way of her own experience of birth in Southern Africa during Apartheid, where she was able to cross borders with ease, while the original inhabitants of that place could not. Repetition of text creates a landscape that reflects on the struggles of those who are forced from their homes, regardless of the immense challenges they face on that journey.
ABOUT ANNIK GAUDET
Annik Gaudet (she/her/elle) is a French Acadian artist originally from New-Brunswick, currently practising in Halifax/Kjipuktuk. Influenced by her traditional Acadian upbringing, her artwork presents its own version of Acadian folklore and mythologies steeped in traditional language. Combining video, performance, drawing, sculpture and installation, she explores the Acadian diaspora in a timeless space that exists between histories and identities. Gaudet mixes familiar traditions such as rug hooking and storytelling with experimental digital media in order to present important cultural signifiers that symbolize the Acadian identity. Presented through the lens of her own personal and cultural experiences, the work is layered with playful and universal qualities that allows any viewer the opportunity to connect with its content.
Annik holds a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design University. Her work has been shown in artist-run centres, galleries, festivals and screenings such as Acadia Art Gallery, Nocturne Art at Night Festival, and the National Arts Centre. She has been a recipient of the Arts NS Creation Grant and has participated in multiple residencies across Canada.
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annikgaudet.com | @annikgaudet
ABOUT EMMA FITZGERALD
Emma FitzGerald (she/her) was born to Irish parents in 1982. Her passport says she was born in Lesotho, a small mountainous country in Southern Africa, when in fact she was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, just over the border from where her parents in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. As it was during South Africa’s apartheid when citizens of that country faced travel sanctions, her documents were altered at the hospital where her parents worked, to allow her safe and easy passage back to Ireland, and eventual immigration to Canada. From these early beginnings there emerged a keen interest in people and places, and how and who gets to call a place home/move in the world.
Emma trained as an artist at the University of British Columbia and L’Ecole Nationale Supérieurs des Beaux Arts, in Paris, and as an architect at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is known for her whimsical house portraits, which led to her first book, Hand Drawn Halifax.
Much of the work in this exhibit was completed in Spring 2024 during a residency at Pavia gallery & cafe in Herring Cove.
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emmafitzgerald.ca | @emmafitz_art
