Mitchell Art Gallery
Anna Binta Diallo
Those mountains of shadows and valleys of light
SITE #14
Mitchell Art Gallery, MacEwan University
(11110 – 104 Avenue NW, Edmonton)
Tuesday – Friday: 12-5pm
ABOUT THE EXHIBIT
Layering ideas of geologic time with histories of mapping, Anna Binta Diallo’s recent bodies of work engage her digital collage practice in poetic reflections on the ways we navigate land, water, and sky. Those mountains of shadows and valleys of light is a meditation on the multitude of strategies we have used over millennia to map and chart paths across the earth, inspired by a collection of discarded paper maps. Diallo’s works on suspended plexiglass and Japanese paper invite us to consider the relationships between colonial histories and the map fragments. Layering their segments amongst fossils and cloud formations, the artist refuses the map’s totalizing and flattening view. This strategy is a reminder of the humbling timescale of the planet and its shifting tectonic plates when compared to human and personal histories of traversing the land.
Curated by Carolyn Jervis, director/curator, MAG
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Anna Binta Diallo: Those mountains of shadows and valleys of light
Artist information: Anna Binta Diallo (b. 1983, Dakar, Senegal; lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba) explores how memory and nostalgia create unexpected narratives around identity. Her work addresses migration, displacement, and the relationship between language, history, and identity. Diallo holds an MFA from Transart Institute (Berlin) and a BFA from the University of Manitoba. Her exhibitions include venues such as MOCA Taipei, SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin), and the African Photography Biennial in Bamako, Mali. She has received multiple grants, awards, and nominations, including the Sobey Prize longlist. Diallo is an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba on Treaty 1 and is represented by Towards Gallery.