Traversal: The Objects we Carry

2020
Patricio Dávila, Immony Mèn, Emily Fitzpatrick in collaboration with Trinity Square Video


For the inaugural opening of the Traversal Residency Program, mixed-media artist Lorena Salomé will continue her research into investigations surrounding involuntary and autonomous human movement and migration. Within our amassed globalized context, people are on the move both internationally and locally – newcomers moving to countries, tenants getting renovicted, communities being displaced through gentrification, immigrants going back to their homelands, people moving across provinces for better employment. As a point of reflection, Salomé has moved around a lot throughout her life, and always brings with her a collection of things. These objects are usually associated with a memory, a reference to a person, or a particular place and time.

As a thematic gesture of shared collecting, during the residency Salomé will encourage visitors to bring treasured objects that hold emotional value and a movement story to be part of an accumulative installation. In tandem, she will being wearing a motion capture suit to track her movements throughout the space as she interacts with visitors and the installation. The fundamental objective of The Objects That We Carry is to create a rendezvous for stories of migration and memories of times and places, and to imagine a digital means of generating an aesthetic of movement.

Lorena Salomé is a Toronto- based artist with a background in science, film and a BFA from OCAD University. She incorporates various technologies in her work using everyday objects and dismantled electronics to make sound sculptures and robots. From the early video works to the kinetic installations there is always a point in common, the use of found and repurposed objects. Her work has been exhibited and published locally and internationally since 2003. Salomé has taught electronics and video in several institutions, such as OCAD University, University of Windsor, ArtexArte Gallery (Argentina) and rural schools in Argentina.

Traversal is a series of artist residencies dedicated on providing Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC) artists and designers with a research opportunity that is situated within both an academic setting and (Canadian) artist-run center.Traversal Residency is co-presented by the Public Visualization Lab and Trinity Square Video, and is supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada