Rocks, Stones, and Dust
Curated by John G. Hampton
Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 28, 6:00 – 8:00pm, University of Toronto Art Centre
Michael Belmore, Bonnie Devine, Jimmie Durham, FASTWÜRMS, Jason de Haan, Spring Hurlbut, Kelly Jazvac, Susanne Kriemann, Lindsay Lawson, Nicholas Mangan, Marcelo Moscheta, Kerri Reid, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok, and Lawrence Weiner.
Rocks, Stones, and Dust is an exhibition devoted to rocks and their relations. It surveys diverse speculations on the roles that rocks play in the development of human culture and how they exist to and for themselves. Rocks are everywhere—they are in our tools, architecture, philosophy, theology, beneath our feet, and flying far above our heads—but this ubiquity sometimes masks their ontological significance. Rocks are prototypically non-human and characteristic of the least animated objects in our world, yet stones are born, they move, age, breed, and return to dust. Some ask us to pick them up off the side of the road and carry them with us, and others invite us to stare into their surfaces to look for inner truths. In their omnipresence, rocks can go unnoticed, but within object-oriented philosophies, aboriginal epistemologies, panpsychism, and countless other systems of knowledge, rocks are recurring characters that show us how even in what seems to be the least mobile of things, we can find life. The works brought together in Rocks, Stones, and Dust address this vitality and unearth the role rocks play in helping us understand questions of beingness outside of human being.
This exhibition is supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Jackman Humanities Institute, Manulife Financial, and the Goethe-Institut Toronto.
Related Programming
Culture Talks @ Goethe:
Lindsay Lawson Artist Talk + Screening
Friday, November 6, 5:30 – 7:00 pm
Goethe-Institut Toronto, 100 University Ave., North Tower, 2nd floor.
Curator’s tour with John G. Hampton
Wednesday, November 11, 6:30 – 7:30 pm
University of Toronto Art Centre
Falling for Stones:
Artist Talks by Lindsay Lawson + Michael Belmore
Wednesday, November 18, 6:30 – 7:30 pm
Debates Room, Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle
Stones as Species:
Artist Talks by Egill Sæbjörnsson + Bonnie Devine
Friday, November 27, 6:30 – 7:30 pm
South Sitting Room, Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle
University of Toronto Art Centre (UTAC)
15 King's College Circle
Toronto, ON M5S 3H7
416-946-8687
www.utac.utoronto.ca
Justina M. Barnicke Gallery
7 Hart House Circle
Toronto, ON M5S 3H3
416-978-8398
www.jmbgallery.ca
Gallery Hours
Tuesday - Saturday 12-5pm
Wednesday 12-8pm
Sunday and Monday closed
The Galleries are wheelchair accessible.