Private Thoughts/ Public Moments
Rachel Kalpana James, Tagore and Mrs E. (detail), 2000, mixed media installation.
13 September- 10 December 2000
Art Gallery of Ontario
Exhibition on view in the Canadian Historical Galleries Included with pay-what-you-can admission
Opening reception: Wednesday, 13 September, 6-8pm. Remarks 6:45pm
Discussion panel with participating artists and artist/curator Sutapa Biswas: Thursday, 14 September 14, 6:30-8:00pm
Henry White Kinnear Education Theatre
Moderator: Karen Tisch
- Germain Koh, "Private Thoughts / Public Moments." Fuse. Volume 23, Number 4. 2001 <http://rachelkalpanajames.com/press_fusetagore.html>
- Leela Viswanathan, "Private Thoughts / Public Moments." Kala. Winter 2001. <http://rachelkalpanajames.com/press_kalatagore.html>
Private Thoughts/Public Moments is collaboration between the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), the South Asian Visual Arts Collective (SAVAC) and UK-based artist Sutapa Biswas. The exhibition brings together site-specific works by artists from SAVAC that engage and interact with different aspects of the Art Gallery of Ontario''s permanent collection. Through workshops with Sutapa Biswas, the participating artists have produced interventions that explore features of the display of Canadian Historical art at the AGO.
The Canadian Historical galleries at the Art Gallery of Ontario chart the identity of what it means to be Canadian through selected visual and textual representations, relaying a history of Canada from the days of the early pioneers, through the colonial period, to the first half of the 1900s. The interventions developed by the artists for these galleries raise provocative questions about established Canadian narratives.
Project Background
Private Thoughts/Public Moments stems from collaborations between the AGO and the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI). In 1998 a sub-committee from the two organizations met to develop programming initiatives for the AGO, one of which was the initiation of the Artist-in-Residence program. This program was designed to establish a mentoring relationship between a recognized international artist and local emerging artists, and to explore issues of social identity and accessibility in the context of the museum. Sutapa Biswas was selected as the artist-in-residence and was invited to Toronto in April 2000 to work with members of SAVAC toward the development of workshops and a public presentation. As curator of Private Thoughts/Public Moments, Biswas selected the artists for the exhibition from proposals submitted in response to the work she initiated during her visit in April. An untitled video installation by Biswas was exhibited at the AGO in the spring of this year.
