Fedora Romita, To Whom It May Concern: Doug Jarvis, 2008, video still. Image courtesy of the Artist
Exhibitions
Fedora Romita
To Whom It May Concern in Five Rooms
Etherington House
4 October - 30 November
Through third-party readings of love letters trolled from the internet, Fedora Romita mines the connections between exhibitionism and voyeurism in cyberspace. This series of video works under the title To Whom It May Concern elaborates on a range of experiences of love and romance. The installations are presented in the Art Centre's historic Etherington House.
A former domestic space and the historic epicenter of the Art Centre, Etherington House now serves as a museum and communal space for visitors, students and staff. This history, amplified by the grandeur of the setting, resonates with a central tenet of Romita's works: the dissolution of public and private boundaries. Reading love letters for the first time, random participants vocalize varying sentiments of love-at times in the same letter. Encountering the videos for the first time the viewers ally themselves with the participants amid the discomfort and humour created by these airings of intimate feelings. The exhibition, curated by Matthew Hills, continues the Art Centre's exploration of the potential of Etherington House as a context for contemporary art.
Fedora Romita's diverse practice encompasses video, performance and drawing. Her work engages ideas of self and identity in relation to forms of documentation, expression and quantification. In recent years she has participated in Nuit Blanche, Toronto, and in the Future of Idea Art residency at The Banff Centre. She has exhibited at YYZ (Toronto), Western Front (Vancouver), Toronto Free Gallery and most recently at Xpace in the group exhibition Term Project.
On Saturday, 18 October at 6-8 pm, the Art Centre hosted a reception for the exhibition in Etherington House.
Matthew Hills, Curator