The Learning Zone

Last year OCAD U Dorothy H. Hoover library retired the Picture Files from their collection. Picture clippings sourced from magazines, newspapers, calendars and other ephemeral materials, collected and organized by subject headings. Hundreds of black & white and colour images, filed in large manila folders with subject names manually labeled.

This was a treasured resource that countless art & design students sifted through for inspiration, long before electronic databases that now store and facilitate access to a myriad of images in countless subject tagged categories.

The latest exhibition at the Learning Zone, called The Ex-Files asks the question Where do images ultimately end up? In this exhibition, the picture file no longer serves as reference material, but is repurposed as subject material.

The Ex-Files curated by Emily Waknine, presents a collection of forty-five sets of duplicate images titled Duplicates (The Same but Different) which incorporates her practice of duplication for the purpose of study.

All these Cats are Dead, incorporate selected images from the library’s picture file subject category “1980’s Cat Photographs” retains the patina of 1980’s magazine ink reproduction technology, reinforcing the notion of capacity for recollection that is gradually aging, fading.

Come to the Learning Zone to see The Ex-Files on display for the summer.