Inaugural Honouring Black Presence at Concordia art installation opens May 27

Artist and alumnus Charles Campbell, BFA 92, is the first-ever artist selected to create an installation for the Honouring Black Presence at Concordia public art program. His proposal was among 21 submissions received in response to the first Canada-wide call for Black artists with a connection to Concordia or Montreal’s Black communities.

His installation, Those that pass through, remain, return, will be unveiled on May 27 at the Bishop Street entrance to the Henry F. Hall Building, where it will remain on display for three years.

A first-of-its-kind installation

The vernissage (art opening), which coincides with Concordia’s 50th anniversary celebrations, will feature a conversation with the artist at the Concordia Theatre. A fireside chat will be moderated by Dominique Fontaine, a curator and cultural strategist. Concordia students, faculty, staff, alumni and the public are welcome to attend.

Sandra Margolian, public art lead at Concordia, says she is excited to see Campbell’s visually powerful and intimate work come to life.

"It has been a great pleasure to collaborate with Charles and various departments across the university to install this impactful work at Concordia. I am eager to see how audiences will engage with this first-of-its-kind temporary artwork, which was developed through the co-creation of the program with the President’s Task Force on Anti-Black racism," Margolian says.

The Honouring Black Presence public art program aims to celebrate the histories, presence and futures of Black Concordians through ephemeral public artworks. It is one of many concrete actions outlined in the Final Report of the President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism.

The significance of Black breath

Born in Jamaica, Campbell is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and curator based on lək̓ʷəŋən (Esquimalt and Songhees Nations) traditional territories in Victoria, BC. He uses sculpture, painting, sonic installations and performance to animate the future imaginaries possible in the wake of slavery and colonization.

Those that pass through, remain, return builds on the notion of breath as a conveyor of experience and memory. Campbell used sound recordings featuring the breath of Black individuals with a relationship to Concordia and Montreal to create seven “Breath Portraits.” Audio spectrograms turn the recordings into towering, colourful images.

The pieces will transform the windows and doors of the Hall Building’s Bishop Street entrance into columns of colour. But Campbell notes that the installation’s auditory component brings the significance of Black breath into focus.

“It’s the sound of breath in various registers, some quiet and subtle, some more emotional and louder,” he explains. “I'm really using breath to kind of excavate the memories that are held deep inside of us. They're memories of our own experience or even ancestral memories.”

‘A welcoming space’

The artwork adds to the ongoing discourse around addressing anti-Black racism at Concordia and beyond. The installation centres Black presence at the university’s downtown campus, marking it in the Hall Building — the site of Canada’s largest student protest against anti-Black racism.

“This installation creates a welcoming space for Black individuals in the Concordia environment. It counters this notion of erasure that’s always present, that our history is always being scrubbed out,” Campbell says. “It marks our presence, and I hope, makes a space where we feel that we are acknowledged, registered and welcomed.”

Campbell collaborated with Concordia’s Black Student Centre, NouLa, in creating the upcoming installation. He shares that the centre has been very supportive of the project.

“NouLa has been helping in connecting Black students to the project, to working on the recording process and linking me with some of the Black faculty and students. It’s always important for me to connect with the community.”

One outcome is a workshop Campbell gave in March in tandem with NouLa and the Black Perspectives Office, “Breath as archive, breath as song.” Open to all Concordia community members, it offered an opportunity to learn about the artist’s process and artistic experience. Participants were invited to use their breath as a way to travel through time, discover latent memories, and think about relationships to their ancestors.

To create the breath portraits for Those that pass through, remain, return, Campbell led one-on-one guided meditations, inviting participants to connect with their ancestors. The participants’ breaths — recorded in pauses between the prompts offered by Campbell — are captured in the portraits.

He says this meditative practice is at the heart of his work.

“People come back with stories of their aunties and their grandparents, or their great grandparents, or of a storied individual they don’t really know. It’s a very different experience for everybody. It’s an intimate and involved experience, and I think for the participants as well.

“I’m hoping that the presence and the feel of that experience, or of that person, is translated in the portraits.”
 

Attend the vernissage and talk with Charles Campbell on May 27. Learn more about the Honouring Black Presence at Concordia public art program.