(Dis)Connect

At the beginning of the twenty-first Century, communication and other technologies ensure that we are more connected to each other than at any other time in human history. Yet, many have argued, we are paradoxically more disconnected from our shared humanity than ever before. This condition is the focus of artists whose work is collected here offering insights from a number of different perspectives. Montreal-based duo, Doyon-Rivest (comprised of Mathieu Doyon and Simon Rivest), plays with tropes of communication in a broad range of media. Their recent photographic, installation and video work considers social networks, and the perils and rewards of connecting to a greater whole. Normally independent artists, Diyan Achjadi and Brendan Lee Satish Tang, have collaborated to produce Residue: Tracing the Lore, a series of photographs that explore the transmission of traditions through generations and the enduring legacies that remain with us. In his paintings, Dutch-Canadian, Jeroen Witvliet, explores connections to place, the self and others as a way of investigating different forms of belonging. He draws on the idea of the wanderer from the Bosch paintings he encountered during his youth, as a symbol of transience.In his Day / Night / Day series, Witvliet juxtaposes images of close interpersonal connection with spectacle and the throngs of people to which the self is sometimes lost. Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan have sought to dismantle boundaries and bridge prejudice with warmth and humour over a practice spanning thirty years. Consideration Liberation Army, originally a web-based project but reprised here as an installation, calls for thoughtful acts and respectful deeds where civility is often lacking. Dealing with diverse concerns during fraught times these artists examine various points of disconnection within their photographs, paintings, video and installation-based work. Doing so they embody the human impulse to connect with others and remind us of what it is to be human at a time when it seems too easily forgotten.