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Addenda: Meredith Snider, Mélanie Myers, Tim I. Smith (Opening)
January 27 - March 3, 2018
SAW Video, 67 Nicholas St.
Price: Free Admission // Cash Bar

curated by Michael Davidge

Opening reception: Saturday, January 27th, 5pm-7pm

SAW Video Media Art Centre is thrilled to open its new exhibition venue, Knot project space, with a group show featuring works by Meredith Snider (Ottawa), Mélanie Myers (Hull) and Tim I. Smith (Ottawa). Curated by Michael Davidge, Addenda marks the end of the long term project Cultural Engineering (www.culturalengineering.ca) in which local media artists documented and responded both critically and artistically to the Arts Court Redevelopment Project as it continues to unfold.

"With nine quarterly issues of an online video magazine (www.culturalengineering.ca), and now this exhibition (Addenda), the Cultural Engineering project comes to a close, although the implementation of the Arts Court redevelopment will continue. The participating artists have eloquently borne witness to this historic infrastructural investment that has substantially transformed the downtown of Ottawa and given a significant boost to the stature of local arts organizations. Stationed as critical observers more so than cheerleaders of the undertaking, the two stalwarts of the project, Meredith Snider and Tim I. Smith, have contributed videos to each issue of the magazine since its launch in February 2015. A number of guest artists have also contributed videos, expanding the points of view and adding to the diverse range of topics addressed, including city planning, social justice, Indigenous issues, transgender rights, labour, and the conservation of built history, among others. With the exhibition, the first in SAW Video’s new Knot project space, the Cultural Engineering artists have been given an opportunity to go offline and make a physical intervention at Arts Court. Each artist in Addenda is contributing work that incorporates and transforms materials that have been salvaged during the demolition phase of the Arts Court renovation. In keeping with the structure of the previous online installments of the project, the exhibition includes new work by Snider and Smith, as well as work by guest artist, Mélanie Myers." - Michael Davidge

Meredith Snider

Working with a variety of materials. Meredith Snider’s artistic practice draws from everyday experiences, common objects, and routines. In contrast to the culturally conditioned ties between happiness and normalcy, Snider is motivated by seemingly undesirable experiences such as failure, frustration, or discomfort. Control, lack of control, improvisation and chance are strategies she uses in the making of sculpture, video and photography. In 2013 Snider earned an MFA from the University of Ottawa. Her videos have been screened in international film festivals and she exhibits regularly in Ontario and Quebec with occasional production support from funding agencies and art institutions in the region. She currently resides in Old Hull, Quebec among other artists and benefits from skill sharing and collaboration amongst her peers.

Mélanie Myers

Mélanie Myers lives and works in Hull, Gatineau. She holds a master’s degree in Visual Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (2013), as well as a bachelor’s degree in Art and Design from the Université du Québec en Outaouais (2008). In production, she reconfigures space and describes situations through her installations and drawings. Myers process touches on various fields of interest: safety, reality, error and the middle class. Her projects have been supported by the CALQ and exhibited in several Canadian art centres and galleries, including the Galerie UQO, the Forest City Gallery and the Anna Leonowens Gallery. She has completed residencies at the Centre Bang and the Maison Scott-Fairview (2017), and works as a project manager at AXENÉO7.

Tim I. Smith

Tim I. Smith is a photographic artist who is interested in the relationship between photography, video and how they are viewed in a digital form. He has been exhibiting his work since 2006 and was a UK representative at the Biennial of Young Artists in Skopje, Macedonia, 2009. He studied Fine Art at the University of Brighton, UK and Photography at Nottingham Trent University, UK.

Michael Davidge

Michael Davidge is an artist, writer, and curator who lives in Ottawa. He holds an M.A. in English Literature from Concordia University in Montreal and an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Western University in London, Ontario. He has been involved in various artist-run centres and organizations through the years, including Artexte in Montreal, the Forest City Gallery in London, and Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre in Kingston, Ontario. His writing on art and culture has appeared in several publications, including BlackFlash, Border Crossings, C Magazine and Matrix.