chair / Émilie (Jacob) von Garan, University of Toronto
From its first appearance, surrealism established itself as an international movement in respect of which no group could claim to exercise a higher ascendancy than others did. While its origins, the French art movement was decidedly an international phenomenon, evidenced by Surrealist art emerging from places as disparate as Mexico and North America. "What is Surrealism in Canada?" specifically explores the topic of surrealism in and of Canada, on which there exists little research. The papers in this panel explore specific examples of how surrealism uniquely took place in Canada, how Canadian artists responded to surrealism, as well as the influence of surrealism on the history of Canadian artists.
Émilie (Jacob) von Garan is a Toronto based critical writer and researcher exploring the intersection of gender, technologies and architecture in film and moving image art. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Concordia University and holds a Masters of Arts from OCAD University. Currently, Émilie is pursuing her PhD in Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto. Her interests include continental philosophy, horror theory, art criticism, and the ways in which art and horror share aesthetic, structural, and conceptual strategies.
E.7.1 Dr. Grace Pailthorpe and the Seeds of Surrealism in Western Canada
Melissa Berry, University of Victoria
The legacy of Surrealism is labyrinthine in scope and, in its early stages, as it navigated societies effected by global wars and strife, it evolved. Impactful moments of this movement were not always loud – often they were subtle, quiet, but with enduring effects. This paper aims to explore such a moment within the realms of visual art through the lens of British artist and doctor Grace Pailthorpe. After being formally expelled from the British Surrealist Group in 1940, Pailthorpe and her partner Reuben Mednikoff travelled first to America then to British Columbia, Canada where they were to have a joint art exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1944. Alongside this exhibition, Pailthorpe gave a series of lectures on Surrealism that greatly impacted visual artists in Western Canada. Shortly after this, the pair returned to England but the impression of their time remained as the Vancouver art community took to Pailthorpe’s message of Surrealism with greater vigor than their English-speaking artistic counterparts in Toronto. Exploring Pailthorpe’s scientifically-based approach to Surrealism in the visual arts highlights the evolution of this discipline in a part of the world more often associated with conservatism and creates essential translocal links with Canadian Surrealist artists such as Jock MacDonald and Lawren Harris, which have been underexplored in the realms of global Surrealism.
Melissa Berry received her MA from the Courtauld Institute in 2006 and her PhD in Art History and Visual Studies in 2015 from the University of Victoria where she is now an Adjunct Assistant Professor. Her current research is focused on the art market as well as translocal interconnections between European artists in the mid- to late-19th century, which she has presented at various international conferences and published in The Victorian Review, Visual Culture in Britain, and The Burlington Magazine. Her book The Société des trois in the Nineteenth Century was published with Routledge in 2018.
E.7.2 The Surrealism of Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun
Miriam Jordan-Haladyn, OCAD University
The work of Cowichan/Syilx First Nations artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun has consistently been called ‘surrealist’ because of his imaginative and unconventional use of imagery. While actively denying this connection, he does acknowledge that “the visual imagery of Northwest Coast art and belief is itself undeniably surreal.” This paper will examine the contemporary surrealism of Yuxweluptun through a discussion of his dialogic treatment of both First Nations and European art histories.
Miriam Jordan-Haladyn is a First Nations writer and scholar. She the author of Groundwork for a Haudenosaunee Philosophy (2020) and Dialogic Materialism: Bakhtin, Embodiment and Moving Image Art (2014), as well as numerous writings on contemporary art and Indigenous cultural history. With Julian Haladyn she curated Ways of Being: Yhonnie Scarce and Michael Belmore (2019-2020) and The Films and Videos of Jamelie Hassan (2010). Jordan-Haladyn teaches courses in art history at OCAD University.
E.7.3 Are You A Surrealist, Mimi Parent?
Julian Jason Haladyn, OCAD University
Born in Montreal, Mimi Parent became an important contributor to late Surrealism. Her work was featured in many of the final exhibitions, including the 1959 International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris and the 1960 Surrealist Intrusion in the Enchanters’ Domain in New York. Aside from the keen interest of Surrealist scholar Penelope Rosemont, there has been little serious consideration in Parent’s work and role in the late Surrealist movement. This paper will explore a number of her works in relation to the question of Surrealism, drawing upon Parent’s text (published in Rosemont’s book Surrealist Women) “Are You a Surrealist?”
Julian Jason Haladyn is an art historian, cultural theorist and Assistant Professor at OCAD University. He is the author of The Hypothetical (2020), Duchamp, Aesthetics, and Capitalism (2019), Aganetha Dyck: The Power of the Small (2017), Boredom and Art: Passions of the Will To Boredom (2014) and Marcel Duchamp: Étant donnés (2010), and co-editor, with Michael E. Gardiner, of the Boredom Studies Reader (2016). In addition, Haladyn has published articles on art history and cultural theory in numerous journals.
