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UPCOMING EXHIBITION

Soheila Esfahani, Heidi McKenzie, Zinnia Naqvi

Across Latitudes examines the intricate realities of moving between cultures and across generations in the process of forging identities and locating our place in the world. The distinct art practices of Soheila Esfahani, Heidi McKenzie, and Zinnia Naqvi all draw from experiences of diaspora to explore the complex terrain of cultural migration and commodification. Emphasizing the artifice of national icons and tourist souvenirs, their work considers the uncomfortable impact of such commodities on the process of shaping personal identity, and aims to unravel the stereotypes they perpetuate. By holding these objects up for examination, and by integrating a diverse range of culturally significant insertions of personal identity, such as traditional motifs, family and archival photographs, and mementos from childhood, these three artists engage in creative acts of revisiting, reworking, and reclaiming to offer new interpretations and meanings. The artists in Across Latitudes look to their personal paths of migration—with roots in Iran, the Caribbean, and Pakistan—to counter the limitations of myth-making and to foreground the multi-dimensionality of intercultural experience.

—Shannon Anderson, Curator

COMMISION PROJECT

Celebrating Canada’s Diversity: Transcendence and Tranquility

Transcendence and Tranquility is a limited mintage coin as part of the Royal Canadian Mint’s Celebrating Canada’s Diversity Collection designed by Canadian artist Soheila Esfahani featuring a turquoise gemstone surrounded by engraved patterns that celebrate the cultural heritage of Iranian Canadians, from today to those of Ancient Persia and beyond. While a paisley motif surrounds the gemstone centrepiece, a repeating maple leaf (symbolizing Canadian identity) and lotus flower (inspired by the reliefs of Persepolis) form a continuous circular pattern that also incorporates a Shah Abbasi floral motif and Eslimi patterns from traditional carpet designs. (Text adopted from Canadian Mint’s website).

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