The Learning Zone

by students in Materials and the Anthropocene

Visit the exhibition at https://ocad.libguides.com/the_essentialists

Created during the summer lockdown due to COVID-19, The Essentialists: material proofs in extraordinary times is an online exhibition querying materials, memory and values that shape and define our human-nature relationship. Working across various media — from foraged leaves to digital video — students create new visions of life, loss and survival in the Anthropocene.

The Essentialists explores, earnestly, and with a wink, how seismic change brings the material world back into focus. Individually and collectively, artists show what it means to live at new distances from, and, gain new proximity to, people, places, routines, purposes, things and belief. Like a seed that has sprouted into the concepts of “normal” and “natural” — just as materials in this exhibition — have been transformed.    –Penelope Smart, curator

Artists:

Minkyung An, Tina Fong Fiona Chan, Andy Chitty, Jessica Darzinskas, Anam Hasan Feerasta, Kristy Fung, Yujia Guo, Wesley Huang, Bisma Iqbal, Arashjot Kaur, Andria Keen, Abby Kettner, Julia Kota, Ronald Lam, Jennie Lau, Eileen Li, Griffin McAllister, Sydney Millet, Farzaneh Moallf, Cassie Pellerin, Eric Pon, Mashal Pouya, Sasha Shevchenko, Hio Lam Kylie Sio, Wei Sun, Janna Tjanetis, Hannah Warry-Smith, Yicheng Wu,Yixin Zhang, Daniel Zhou

Tutorial Lead/Curator: Penelope Smart

Curatorial Assistants: Farzaneh Moallef and Hio Lam Kylie Sio

Undergraduate Research Assistant: Angie Ma

Web Designer: Heather Evelyn

A special thank you to Dr. Pam Patterson for her guidance, dedication and vision which shaped Materials and The Anthropocene and our online exhibition.

Alea Drain, OCADU technical assistance (Toronto)
Pamela Dodds, artist (Toronto)
Daniel Payne, OCADU librarian (Toronto)
Joanna Black, professor and researcher (Winnipeg)
Becky Forsythe, curator and collections specialist (Iceland)
OCADU Writing and Learning Centre
OCADU Learning Zone

Thank you Abby Kettner for originally brainstorming “The Essentialists” in our Feedback Loops.