Libby Leshgold Gallery


Vessel(s) through which

descendent held hostage by stories interrupted
who pledged to incomplete testimonies

dynastic disposition, undetected
through landscape, undefined

hoist the flag of our losses;
insurmountable as time.

 

The Libby Leshgold Gallery is pleased to announce the presentation of Vessel(s) through which by Vancouver-based artist Dana Qaddah. This new work will be presented in the southwest corner of the Libby Leshgold Gallery, and is the inaugural work in our new exhibition space Glass Corner at Libby Leshgold Gallery.

 

Vessel(s) through which, is a textile work overlaid with a graphic pattern sampled from Islamic geometric designs located on a box of cookies from Dana’s relatives in Syria. Qaddah has subverted the precision embedded within the artform and rendered it asymmetrical. In doing so, the pattern is interrupted, such as personal lineage might be through the distancing from one’s origins by generational displacement.

 

By creating a work that resembles a large flag, Qaddah reflects on their own fraught relationship to the idea of nationalism that seeks to bridge together citizens through economic and political placements, rather than through cultural perception. Presented in this form, the flag serves as a call to solidarity across the experience of intergenerational loss, while forefronting the value of science and technology in fostering an individual’s relationship to lineage.

 

Dana Qaddah (b. 1996, Beirut, Lebanon) is a third generation expatriate, artist and organizer based on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish people: the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam nations. Qaddah’s interdisciplinary practice draws upon the condition of generational displacement, being abstracted from the destruction of one’s own sense of self, place, and home.

 

Qaddah completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2019. In 2018, Qaddah participated in Plug In ICA’s Summer Institute II: BUSH gallery. The following year, Qaddah was invited to be the writer in residence at Access Gallery’s PLOT space, and is currently one of the artists in residence at the Media Arts Committee’s sound art program. Qaddah’s upcoming shows include a group exhibition at Unit 17.

 

Image courtesy of the artist.

 


 

 

 


Canada Council for the Arts



artwork

Photo by Mike Love


artwork

Photo by Mike Love


artwork

Photo by Mike Love