100 years then and hereafter

 100 years then and hereafter is an exhibition of new works by artist Hiba Abdallah. Inspired by her excavation of Clarington’s historic archives, Abdallah looks back 100 years into the municipality’s documented history, finding diary entries, political documents, and newspaper headlines with uncanny similarities to the present moment. With her findings as the grounds for the exhibition, she examines social and political cycles, while exploring ways to disrupt the archival process when looking to the future.

The exhibition brings together text works based on archival headlines and tools that have been altered from their historic context to offer different imagined purposes. In collaboration with filmmaker Alyssa Bistonath, Abdallah proposes alternative archival practices, and invites community members to contribute to future historical records adding to a more complex narrative of our times.

100 years then and hereafter invites us to think about the ways in which history is recorded, repeated, and remembered. The exhibition looks at the past, present, and future from a critical standpoint through Abdallah's thoughtful exploration of Clarington’s documented history.

Biographies
Hiba Abdallah is an artist and cultural organizer who frequently works with others. Her practice explores the structural legacies and futures of cities by researching the intersections of collaboration, communication, and disagreement as productive frameworks for re-imagining public agency. She lives and works in Toronto.

Sandy Saad-Smith is a curator and writer. Much of her work considers the ways in which artists disrupt and subvert hierarchical systems and narratives. Her curatorial practice aims to create more accessible and meaningful ways of engaging with art and asking questions. Sandy has over a decade of experience working in museums and galleries and is a former Curator of Exhibitions and Education at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. Sandy holds a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto and is currently the Curator at the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto, Scarborough.

Exhibition Programming:
Burial of Messages to the Future

Friday, August 13, 6 pm - 7 pm

Since it’s opening in March 2021, the exhibition, 100 years then and hereafter, has been collecting messages to the future from numerous participants who left notes of concern, encouragement, and personal accounts. Inspired by Hiba Abdallah’s excavation of Clarington’s historic archives, the project has accumulated an alternative archive created by community members to serve as a future historical record.

On August 13, 2021 a public burial will take place on the grounds of the VAC in a performance led by Hiba Abdallah and Alyssa Bistonath. Messages to the Future will be read, placed in time capsules and buried to be retrieved and opened a century later. Members of the public are invited to this outdoor performance following stage 3 Ontario COVID-19 protocols. Viewers will stand six feet apart or stand within family clusters.

Exhibition Programming: Digging into Archives 

Thursday, April 22, 6 pm - 8 pm EDT / GMT-4

Join us on Zoom for an intimate discussion with artist, Hiba Abdallah, and archivist, Tamara Rayan. Moderated by curator, Sandy Saad-Smith the discussion will touch on some of the most compelling issues around the nature and meaning of the archive. Looking at the archive as a conceptual and physical space in which memories are preserved and history decided, the talk will explore questions around the ways in which we create, store, and circulate information.

Guest Archivist: Tamara Rayan
Tamara Rayan is a Palestinian settler, ARL/SAA Mosaic Fellow, and recent University of Toronto Masters of Information Studies graduate specializing in archives and records management. Anti-racist action and BIPOC representation within the archive has always been at the forefront of her archival work. She is the former co-chair for the UofT iSchool's Diversity Working Group and is a current Steering Committee Member of the Society of American Archivists - Archivists and Archives of Color Section. Her research interests are focused on the ways in which minority and marginalized groups document and preserve their cultural heritage in the face of social pressure, colonialism, assimilation, and political oppression.