The Art Museum at the University of Toronto is proud to present “Otherworld,” the first major institutional solo exhibition in Canada by acclaimed artist Camille Turner, from September 4, 2024 to March 22, 2025 at the University of Toronto Art Centre. The exhibition showcases a compelling body of recent works, including new commissions that uncover Canada’s role in the transatlantic slave trade and its lasting repercussions. The museum’s new extended viewing period aligns with an aim to nurture deeper year-round engagement with visitors.
“Camille Turner’s work challenges us to rethink our understanding of history and to use our imagination to envision worlds otherwise. “Otherworld” is a call to contemplate, to grieve, and to dream new futures into being. The exhibition dates, which now reflect the academic calendar, will also encourage deeper contemplation through enhanced programming. Visitors will be able to foster a more profound, ongoing connection with the work through multiple visits.”
— Barbara Fischer, curator and Art Museum executive director
The exhibition title “Otherworld“ comes from the artist’s afronautic research methodology, which focuses on journeys by water and space that bring together Afrofuturism, critical storytelling, and Black radical imagination in order to provide an embodied approach to addressing historical gaps, absences, fissures, and silences. Turner’s methodology as an artist immerses audiences in a non-linear journey that transcends space-time boundaries. Her work makes visible the erasure of Black experience and offers a space to dream of more equitable futures.
The Art Museum commissioned two new films, Maria and Fly, named after ships built in Newfoundland and deployed in the 18th-century slave trade, symbolizing a haunting connection between Canada’s maritime history and the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade. The exhibition also features two new installations of images and artifacts titled Portals and Pods for Dreaming, which are nested among older works produced by the artist and her collaborators. Whereas Portals looks at the haunted spaces where the ghostly residue of colonial violence still lingers, Pods for Dreaming offers a peaceful space of respite for visitors to relax. Public programming will include activating the Afronautic Research Lab (2016–present), a counter archive that offers visitors a chance to participate in the ongoing research of Black history.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, and currently living and working between Los Angeles and Costa Rica, Turner is widely recognized for her transformative examination of Black history in the Canadian national narrative. The artist works in performance, photography, installation, digital and sonic media, often in collaboration with others.
“Otherworld” continues the Art Museum’s long-standing engagement with artists who create counter-histories through their work. Recent solo exhibitions at the museum include Deanna Bowen’s God of Gods: A Canadian Play, Kent Monkman’s Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience, and Alanis Obomsawin’s The Children Have to Hear Another Story. These exhibitions all challenged dominant narratives and offered new perspectives on history and identity.
at Art Museum, Toronto
until March 22, 2025