Between Witness and Fabulation: Joseph Tisiga and Merray Gerges in conversation
Momus Talks presents artist Joseph Tisiga and critic Merray Gerges in conversation.
Joseph Tisiga’s work is informed by global histories of colonial violence and witnessing the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous peoples. He begins with fact, then cocoons it with fiction. Doubles dance, surfaces deceive. He cloaks archeological and totemic forms in connotations and allusions, creating a pictorial and psychic plane in which mythologies morph.
The worlds he creates provoke these questions: What is fabulation’s role in the face of colonial violence? Could fabulation become a tool in the production of a new political reality? And could it liberate marginalized artists from the moral imperative to bear witness?
This conversation will be situated within Tisaga’s current solo exhibition “It was God the whole time,” on view at Bradley Ertaskiran in Montreal. Gerges and Tisiga have been in ongoing dialogue for over a decade, since meeting at Nova Scotia College of Art & Design.
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Merray Gerges is an Egyptian essayist, editor, and writing teacher based in New York. Since her MFA in narrative nonfiction at New York University, she has been working on a series of longform essays about family inheritance through self and body. She is Associate Editor at Momus.
Joseph Tisiga is a multidisciplinary artist based in Montreal and a member of the Kaska Dena First Nation. He maintains a multidisciplinary practice that is rooted in painting and drawing, but also draws from performance, photography, sculpture, and installation. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at Musée d’art de Joliette; Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University; Audain Art Museum (Whistler); and Bradley Ertaskiran (Montreal). Tisiga is the recipient of The Yukon Art Prize (2021), the Sobey Art Award (2020), and the REVEAL Indigenous Art Award (2017).
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To RSVP, please click here (spaces limited).
This event is hosted by Bradley Ertaskiran and is part of Momus Talks.
When: March 2, 2024
Time: 2 to 3pm
Where: Bradley Ertaskiran, 3550 Rue Saint-Antoine O., Montreal
Accessibility: The bunker is only accessible by stairs; chairs will be provided, alongside standing room.