The Collisions Exhibition

Collisions

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Collisions

Introduction by Maimire Mennasemay, Kenneth Milkman, Aaron Krishtalka, and Andrew Katz Edited by Frank Mulvey Exhibition April 17 – May 8, 2014 Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery Dawson College 4001 de Maisonneuve West Montreal, Canada H3Z 1A4 space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/exhibits/summary/collisions

Introduction

It has been argued that all stories explore the same dynamic: “two worlds collide.” An intriguing aspect of collisions—literal and figurative ones, across the arts, sciences and technologies— is indeed their potential to set a story in motion, to spark interaction and exchange, and to lead to both chaos and new order.

Consider just a few examples: the Large Hadron Collider is generating particle collisions whose outcomes could change our understanding of physics. New discoveries in science have regularly collided with current knowledge, leading to “paradigm shifts,” as Thomas Kuhn describes in his landmark book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions—changes in science’s basic assumptions, theories and models. A classic instance of such a shift: the change to a “heliocentric model” of the universe, which located not the earth but the sun at its center. In his book The Art of Fiction, John Gardner argues that all new art forms arise in significant part out of genres colliding, leading to “genre-crossings,” as seen, for example, in the work of Canadian artist Dil Hilderbrand, who combines blurry realism and hard-edged abstraction in the same paintings to stunning and provocative effect. Such collisions have also led to many innovations in the world of technology. What is a smart phone but an ingenious cross between a phone, a music player, a messaging device and a personal computer?

In his book The Act of Creation, Arthur Koestler argues that “all decisive advances in the history of thought can be described in terms of mental cross-fertilization between different disciplines.”

In the study of human nature and behaviour, biological, psychological and social perspectives have all collided and cross-pollinated to generate new fields such as bio economics, evolutionary psychology, socio-biology, and others which have broadened our self-understanding. Other examples of collisions and their revolutionary effects abound. Throughout history, peoples and nations have clashed and collaborated, reshaping not only territorial boundaries but also languages, diets, aesthetic sensibilities, technological capabilities, beliefs, and identities. Contradictions between scientific theories have deepened our comprehension of the structure of the universe. Ethical debates between theorists have led to a more profound view of moral and social issues.

Economic competition is considered the engine of capitalism.

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Movements for social change challenge the status quo to expand rights and freedoms for underrepresented members of society.

Differences in intimate human relationships create the potential for conflict as well as for mutual understanding and connection.

This exhibition presents a series of takes or interpretations on collisions through the perspectives of individuals who work in different disciplines. Each piece in the exhibition expresses a vision, intuition or understanding of collisions that is personal to the individual or shared by the group that submits it. SPACE invites you to consider these and other collisions and the transformations they can engender in our understanding, our lives, and our world.

Maimire Mennasemay, Aaron Krishtalka, Kenneth Milkman, Andrew Katz, 2014

Iuliana Irimia

1st Year, Illustration & Design A New World, 2013 Ink on illustration board 44 cm x 38 cm

In March 2012, the world population had reached an estimated 7 billion people. As the Earth’s population grows exponentially, so does the need for resources. With the limited resources our blue planet can produce and growing consumer demand, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization projects food production will need to grow 70% by 2050 in order to feed the world’s population.

In this drawing, I chose to make the two human figures oversized, to portray our increasing presence and interaction with the environment. Our simple presence reshapes our surroundings, yet we sleep, unaware of our impact, being comforted by the city that has become our day-to-day setting.

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Arké

Academic Dean Bramble, 2014 Digital print 50 cm x 50 cm

Portrait of a collision: gimme, gimme never gets.

We neither strive for, nor will, neither want, nor desire anything because we judge it to be good; on the contrary we judge something to be good because we strive for it, will it, want it, and desire it. (Spinoza) Desire rarely exists by itself in human life. Too often, desires are on direct collisions with each other: such is a common state of the human heart and mind.

As one desire collides with another, they do not automatically and harmoniously blend, and when they are propelled by one another in new directions, they create new collisions along their way: they tumble, perturb, disorient, aggravate, dislocate and fragment.

It is uncommon that desire has as its goal a state that can be enjoyed equally by many desiring hearts. Desire always wants its satisfaction, even as it collides with its soul mate—a different desire also wanting its own satisfaction: want, want, me, me, mine, mine.

Bramble is a work that portrays the sharp edges and thorny interlocking of colliding desires, bound together in the circle of the human heart.

How? In this work, the word ‘desire’ was originally written in Times New Roman font. This font was chosen because it is a formal business font, bereft of the lustful vagaries of real desire. Additionally, many of its letters have sharp edges which eventually converge in the centre of the image. This convergence portrays visual barbs and prickly, cutting edges in its core—hence, Bramble. The word ‘desire’ was contorted through digital manipulation, warping the text, rotating and vortexing, therewith distorting the image, and then overlapping the layers. de Spinoza, Benedictus. Ethics. Book 3.

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Bruno Lauzon-Tanzi 3rd Year, Illustration & Design Traversing the Impossible, 2013 Digital 28.6 cm x 43.8 cm

Traversing the Impossible is the depiction of our confusion as humans when it comes to attaining a certain goal in life. Making the right decision obliges us to confront our inner duality; therefore, there are collisions between what is possible and our desires. Moreover, the composition itself challenges the eye by presenting a trajectory inside an impossible geometrical module or an “optical illusion”. In other words, the viewer’s perceptions and reality all collide in the same image.

Elements of this design are derived from examples of optical illusion illustrated in the following source: Seckel, Al. La Grande Illusion D’optique. 1st ed. Groupe Fleurus, 2007

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Hannah Gerber

1st Year, CALL Excerpt from On my Back, 2013 Literature

I turn my head to the hand on my shoulder and without knowing who it is, I kiss it. It feels good to feel life squeeze and reassure me.

“Let’s change the conversation. Now, what’s the new subject?”

The words emerge from that dry, sassy, nearly lifeless mouth of hers, and whoever is in the room chuckles in amusement and wonder.

But I swear I notice, even without looking, glimmers of hope in their eyes every time she speaks.

This time I walk out of the room and into the florescent hallways of disinfectant.

I’m tired, worn, but those are not excuses anymore.

Something I can’t bear to lose is slipping through my hands, through the wasted time beneath that hospital door, through every pause in our conversation and the watch and hairbrush that I couldn’t find.

Pumping away at the disinfectant as if it could kill the moments that were strung together by a false hope of more to come. “... For the funeral... perhaps it should be this Saturday? I don’t know how long the family can stay...”

My fingers are so tired from trying to push the waves away, and no matter how tightly I squeeze, the water always finds its way through.

So I walk back in, for our very last goodbye.

A child’s intelligent heart can fathom the depth of many dark places. But can it fathom the delicate moment of its own detachment?

I get a text: “It’s done.”

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The preceding excerpt is from a more extensive text that can be found online at the site below. http://space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/explorations/article/on_my_ back Suffering lives in many different forms—remaining attached to something that is lost is suffering; holding onto death is suffering. We are brought up to love and receive love, to attach ourselves to others, to build relationships. Consequently, detachment is rarely highlighted, and we exercise it as a survival instinct not yet refined.

On my Back was written from the friction of the collision of attachment and detachment. It explores the tension between coping mechanisms regarding separation, and the ties from our past that bring life to what no longer exists. This tension may bring one on their back, but the unwavering burden lies in our power to choose not to suffer.

Rachel Mudrosky

1st Year, Visual Arts untitled, 2014 Charcoal, conté and graphite on paper 50.8 cm x 76.2 cm

The concept behind this project was to depict the modern feminine beauty ideal colliding with what one might call a more realistic, natural and truthful representation of women of today.

With the objective of illustrating—and perhaps even exaggerating—the error and infeasibility of the standards of beauty that are pushed upon the modern woman, the oppressed woman is presented as extremely overweight, being weighed down, or crushed, by a representation of the quintessential ideal. As a detractor of the inconceivable expectations and demands on women concerning physical appearance, my aim in the creation of this piece is to convey my opposition to these destructive standards, and my advocacy towards self-worth and a high morale in women.

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Maia Faddoul

3rd Year, Illustration & Design Harmonious Conflicts, 2013 Photograph 27.9 cm x 43.2 cm

When thinking of collisions, a certain idea of violent contact comes to mind; things crashing in a powerful and usually forced encounter. The collisions pictured in this image do not concord with this preconceived idea I had. I sensed something accidental yet very peaceful in the way these jellyfish were colliding. It did not seem painful, or violent. With this photograph, I wanted to express the chaotic yet serene beauty of these sea creatures.

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Melisa Badea

1st Year, Visual Arts The Clash, 2014 Pencil, conté crayon and watercolor on paper 100 cm x 111 cm

The creatures in this piece represent the clash between two different social classes: the poor and the elite. The malnourished elephant struggles to defend itself while the eagle is assaulting him mercilessly. The elephant ends up accepting its fate and loosens the grip on the eagle’s trunk, almost appearing as a soft caress.

The hidden trunk implies that they are both of the same race, however, the elephant’s identity is concealed by a ferocious predator. Giving the trunks hands personifies the beasts and connects them to us, humans. The tension between these two worlds is central and stands out suggesting that it is always present even if some of us tend to turn a blind eye. The empowered are often those who pounce first at their ill-fated preys. However, these opposites are connected by nature, for their existence depend upon each other. Like light and dark, strength and weakness... one can’t exist without the other.

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Marcia Massa

Visual Artist Of Stones, Clay & Fungi: (“What about poetry, an enterprise—so disorderly it twists the rulers—and increases the squint of school inspectors?” Miroslav Holub), 2014 Unfired clay, stones, spalted maple 10.2 cm x 45.7 cm x 14 cm

Collisions sometimes occur as a result of sudden meetings between different worlds that may be made of objects, materials, ideas, sensations, memories...be they from the conscious or the unconscious world, from any type of reality or from the imagination.

Similarly to poetry, these sudden encounters will sometimes leave behind visual traces that cannot be grasped rationally.

Spalting is caused by the infections of wood with various kinds of white rot fungi. The characteristic blue-black zone lines of spalted wood form when incompatible colonies of fungi come into contact with each other and lay down barriers to separate their territories.

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Kim Berlinguette

1st Year, Visual Arts A Natural Woman, 2014 ContĂŠ, charcoal, graphite pencil 101.6 cm x 66 cm

In Roman mythology, a nymph named Daphne rejected men’s desires for her. Her beauty was indescribable which led men to chase after her. Being sick and tired of such, she begged her father for help. She was then transformed into a laurel tree, while being chased by Apollo into the woods. Apollo continued to love her despite the bark covered skin enveloping her flesh. She was still beautiful to his eyes.

This work represents the collision of the beauty of two natural life forms: women and trees. One’s perception of beauty will vary on the individual depending on where they come from. It might seem silly making connections with the female body and botany, but for me, it makes complete sense. When one walks into a forest, no matter where it is and which season it might be, no tree looks alike with their varying shapes and sizes, though they are all beautiful. In the fall, their leaves change into gorgeous reds, yellows and oranges. In the winter, snow and ice cover their naked branches. When spring arrives their flowers bloom, and in the summer the beauty of their leaves empowers the forests.

In past generations, there has been pressure for the female body to be one shape, one size; to be defined as beautiful. The collision being expressed within my art work identifies that one can be as beautiful with curves and a natural face, just as a tree is, with its bumpy bark, crooked branches and bugs crawling on it.

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Ursula Sommerer Dawson Support Staff Ode to Karl Marx, 2014 Photograph 27.9 cm x 43.2 cm

The collision of deep ideologies is one of the greatest conflicts the human mind can experience, and it does not easily resolve itself into harmony and steady states. Coca Cola—‘coke’ in the vernacular—is recorded by Forbes magazine as the world's third most valued brand and the world's first brand for beverages.

Along with the Marlborough Man for cigarettes, coke is tied for the most recognized image in advertising in the world—a central portrayal of capitalism at its zenith. It is a classic (pun intended) image of mammon, an ancient word for riches, wealth, power and ‘worldly goods’. Coke is the material god of the people. Jesus, the lamb of God, nailed to the cross, is a world-renowned image and symbol of Christianity, one of the great (as one would say) religions of the world, in which of course God is seen as omnipotent, omniscient, eternal and the highest perfection and value in existence. Clearly, not a worldly good, yet deemed to be the only true source of happiness, well-being and salvation.

Collisions: God or mammon—you cannot serve two masters.

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Leila Araar

Cecilia La Mela

Looking back on history; culture, ethnicity, and religion have been the basis of many of our collisions, and still are today. We have only to look at the clash of opinions concerning the current problems of racism and discrimination happening in Quebec, or the hate and ignorance taking place in Russia. Due to these problems, and the focus the media puts on them, we somehow forget about the progress we have made. The western world has come far in accepting people for who they are and not their ethnicities and beliefs. It’s important to remember both, so that we can face our current issues by looking back on the past.

Two bodies—one energy. In inelastic collisions, the colliding bodies change their original form of energy in order to conserve the energy of the universe. This is physics and particle interactions; this is life and human relationships.

This piece shows both the good and the bad outcomes of a diverse community. Subservience, abuse, bullying, love, friendship, and acceptance are all things we need to remember. The world isn’t perfect, but it is getting better.

Two particles, previous to colliding, have defined characteristics.

During the period of time when the interaction occurs, each body may gain or give away energy. Also, the forces involved in that phenomena will make the particles undergo changes which not only will define their directions of movement after the interaction, but will also determine what their future collisions will be.

3rd Year, Illustration & Design Integration, 2013 (See pages 14 – 15) Digital 27.9 cm x 43.2 cm

Marc-André Cright

3rd Year, Illustration & Design Carma, 2013 (See pages 16 – 17) Acrylic, sugar and varnish on cardboard 21.6 cm x 27.9 cm

3rd Year, Illustration & Design Two Bodies, One Energy, 2013 (See pages 18 –19) Mixed media 27.9 cm x 43.2 cm

When physics describes collisions, it does so without attachments, and its predictions are quite accurate. Science serves to help us understand the universe. But can we go beyond, and maybe, learn something else? How well do our sentimental experiences, seen as interactions, fit in the theory of collisions?

Curiously, physics defines “perfectly inelastic collisions”, as those where the interaction is so profound, that the two bodies become one and evolve together for the rest of their journey.

Maybe we still have much to learn.

Carma is a diptych displaying, in the form of a comic board, the story of a humanized object avoiding the path he was predestined to take. As we go through the story we realize that the character is ironically going to face the fate that he was escaping, by being a public figure of entertainment. Inspired by the unsettling humour and surreal art of Spanish cartoonist Joan Cornellà Vázquez, this piece explores the themes of the cycle of life: coincidence and destiny. The simplicity of the drawing, the limited palette, the use of ordinary cardboard, highlights the contrasts of matte/shiny, transparent/opaque, textured/plain, leaving an impression of lightness for a subject much deeper: are we linked to our destiny? Do we have the possibility to escape it? Will our fate catch up to us in a bigger collision if we try to escape it?

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Paige Blumer

1st Year, Illustration & Design Art Meets Science, 2013 Ink on illustration board 38.1 cm x 50.8 cm

In the world of modern medicine, art is playing a bigger role than ever. Visual representations can help patients understand their predicaments. The ability to map out the human body 3 dimensionally can help doctors perfect surgeries. The ways that the human body can be represented through art is infinite.

I believe that through visual imagery, subjects such as biology and chemistry can be taught in creative and stimulating environments. Many people are not aware of their bodies. As a student with a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology, I know how important it is to really understand how your body works. To be ignorant about the chemical processes within ourselves as well as the importance of nutrition and exercise is destructive.

Not many people are inclined to learn subjects they believe they won't understand. My piece combines all elements of science 22

and traditional art in a playful manner. My goal was to give the viewer room to imagine colours and two worlds coming together symbiotically, as well as the ability to see that science can be fun.

The collision between art and science is constructive and grows everyday as the two fields continue to intertwine.

Daphnée Dubé

2nd Year, Child Studies Excerpt from Looking at Special Education through the Snoezelen Lens, 2013 Article This school is currently in the process of building a multi-sensory environment called a Snoezelen room for their special needs students. The Snoezelen room, designed in the Netherlands in the 1970’s, was named from the Dutch words “snuffelen”, which means “sniffing”, and “doezelen” which means “dozing” (Snoezelen: Definition & Teaching DVD). Here, think of the word sniffing as in exploring, like a dog exploring a stranger’s shoes when he first takes them off. Dozing relates to the soft music and dim lights in these rooms that would have me doezelen off to dreamland in no time at all. Multi-sensory environments are used to communicate with people with special needs by using elements that reach the senses (lights, scents, foods, music, and physical contact with various objects), as well as to both stimulate and relax them (Janus CTV News). For these reasons, many teachers believe in the room’s usefulness when teaching special needs children.

Being in the Snoezelen room would mean that these students are separated from the others. As mentioned earlier, many teachers believe this to be effective. On the other hand, many people believe that special needs students should be integrated into regular classrooms.

This excerpt is from a more extensive text that can be found online at the site below. http://space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/explorations/article/looking_ at_special_education_through_the_snoezelen_lens In this article I discuss whether or not special needs children should be taught in regular or separate classrooms. Therefore, I ask whether the education of typically developing children and special needs children should collide. We constantly focus on the “us and them”, but in the end, what this article points out is that we are all different, and we all require different things. All sorts of different people, whether they have special needs or not, are constantly colliding in this world we share. Whether these children are taught in separate rooms or not, they will collide with others in the real world, so this article addresses what both separate and integrated education can bring to those children entering this world. People have many different opinions on this topic, but ultimately, the goal should be to prepare the child in whatever way best suits them in order to better prepare them for what lies ahead.

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Rose Gauthier

1st Year, Graphic Design Censorship, 2014 Acrylic on newspaper, digital 20.3 cm x 20.3 cm

Censorship is a means of making information invisible. It can be imposed on shocking material when this material collides with a system for controlling information. This limitation of free expression is caused by a collision between different ways of thinking. This piece represents an inversion in the role of censorship whereby the side that is a little bit crazier, honest, unusual, artistic and freely expressive collides with and takes precedence over a side that is more pragmatic, inflexible and humdrum. This collision is even more amplified by a strong contrast between both sides. When I created this mark-making, I was looking for something to break the linear and rhythmic

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structure of a newspaper text. I had the idea of mixing two tonalities of acrylic paint to evoke a sense of movement and to create a stronger contrast between the two parts, as if there was a collision between two different worlds, one more spontaneous, the other more structured.

Steven Gee

2nd Year, Illustration & Design Collision In Motion, 2013 Ink and graphite on paper 34.3 cm x 26.7 cm

This piece is about collision between genders, art media and colour, and how each play against one another. The piece speaks of anticipation and expectation. It can be seen as an illustration or Fine Art. The image provokes a collision between good versus evil as well as tension between fiction and non-fiction.

In essence, it speaks about the everyday collision in our lives: the traffic jams on our congested highways that commuters encounter on their way to work, the many disagreements we have with our loved ones, the conflict we have between our pig-headed employers and difficult co-workers.

Collision is part of the journey of life. In the end it’s a beautiful day. Every day is a gift.

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Gwendolyn Schulman

Independent journalist and freelance translator Humanity in Collision, 2014 Short essays: seven collaborations with the Illustration & Design Department Illustrations by students and Meinert Hansen Art directed by Meinert Hansen, faculty, Illustration & Design

Collision implies violence and transformation. On one extreme, it can result in destruction and death, as in the collision of two cars. On the other, it can lead to creation, as in the collision of atoms to create molecules. The effects of the collision of groups of human beings, in certain places and times, has led to unspeakable devastation and the emergence of something new and magnificent.

Humans are masters of collision. They have collided over class, race, gender‌ all fault lines around which human societies fracture in an effort to maintain or destroy inequalities of power.

Throughout history, these messy and violent collisions have created the conditions for the emergence of some remarkable individuals and groups. We have just collectively mourned the loss of one such person, Nelson Mandela, who was born out of the ugly strife of racism.

There have been many others through the ages, some wellknown, others brilliant and remarkable but relatively obscure.

All of them cut from the cloth of collision.

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Meinert Hansen

Faculty, Illustration & Design Collaborative Project: Humanity in Collision, 2014 Watercolour and digital 43.2 cm x 27.9 cm (size of layout with text and image)

Gwendolyn Schulman

Independent journalist and freelance translator

Thomas Sankara (1949 – 1987) If one were to imagine colonialism as a kind of funnel, draining the wealth of a country to the benefit of others, then neocolonialism is a system that keeps that funnel in place, with the help of a handful of locals. Thomas Sankara grew up in a neocolonial world. Despite its independence from French colonial rule, his homeland of Burkina Faso continued to bleed wealth, leaving its people crushingly poor. Sankara seized power and for four short years he audaciously tried to plug that funnel. The results were immediate. Education, health, land, security… And then a bullet took Sankara down, and knocked the plug out of the funnel.

You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future… I want to be one of those madmen.

[Thomas Sankara, Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87]

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Cecilia La Mela

3rd year, Illustration & Design Collaborative Project: Humanity in Collision, 2014 Ink, watercolour, graphite and digital 43.2 cm x 27.9 cm (size of layout with text and image)

Gwendolyn Schulman

Independent journalist and freelance translator

Nawal El Saadawi (1931 – ) Nawal El Sadaawi has an appalling childhood memory. When she was 6, she lay in a pool of her own blood…her clitoris cut away at the hands of a midwife. This agonizing crucible defined the direction of her life. Fifty years later, she sat in a dank cell in Qanatir Women’s Prison…an attempt by the Egyptian government to stifle her mighty cry for girls’ and women’s freedom. But from behind those bars, eyebrow pencil in hand, she reiterated her demands on a tattered roll of toilet paper. The government banned her books, blacklisted her from practising as a psychiatrist and physician, exiled her… to no avail. Just three years ago, there she was, at the age of 80, in the heart of Tahrir Square and the Egyptian revolution, shoulder-to-shoulder with millions of others, demanding democracy and justice, and a true revolution for women.

Danger has been a part of my life ever since I picked up a pen and wrote. Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world of lies.

[Nawal El Saadawi, Memoirs from the Women’s Prison]

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Maxwell Adjei

3rd year, Illustration & Design Collaborative Project: Humanity in Collision, 2014 Ink and digital 43.2 cm x 27.9 cm (size of layout with text and image)

Gwendolyn Schulman

Independent journalist and freelance translator

Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941 – 1995) Ken Saro-Wiwa grew up watching the mangrove trees of the Niger Delta choke and die on a diet of black gold. His internationally acclaimed novels and poetry sang the woes of Nigeria’s Ogoni people—fishers and farmers—left destitute by one of the most profitable industries in the world—oil. And when he decided to stand up to the twin powers of Shell Oil and the Nigerian dictatorship—organizing hundreds of thousands to take to the streets in peaceful demonstration—the government put a noose around his neck, and we lost one of the most eloquent environmentalists the world has ever known.

I am not worried for myself. When I undertook to confront Shell and the Nigerian establishment, I signed my death warrant, so to speak. At 52, I think I’ve served my time and, come to face it, I’ve lived a charmed life. A few more books, maybe, & the opportunity to assist others would have been welcome. But it’s okay.

[Ken Saro-Wiwa, Silence Would be Treason]

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Katherine Deros

3rd year, Illustration & Design Collaborative Project: Humanity in Collision, 2014 Colour pencils, ink and digital 43.2 cm x 27.9 cm (size of layout with text and image)

Gwendolyn Schulman

Independent journalist and freelance translator

Journey of Nishiyuu – Journey of Humanity (2013) It was -55°C on January 16, 2013 when six young Cree and a guide set out on a walk. A 1600-kilometre walk, from the mouth of the Great Whale River in Northern Quebec to Parliament Hill in Ottawa. For 67 days, they trudged south, following traditional Cree, Algonquin and Mohawk trade routes, and picking up 200 new walkers along the way. Where once these routes connected vibrant, autonomous communities, this was a trek through reserves harbouring the open wounds of suicide, dispossession and racism. Once their demands for justice were submitted at the doorstep of power, they joined thousands of supporters in a massive round dance on the lawn of Parliament Hill, to the sounds of drumming…and Cree, Mohawk and Algonquin flags flapping in the breeze.

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We have to keep our land. We have to. It is the only way we can live.

– Gordie Rupert, walker, 21 years old [APTN National News, March 26, 2013]

Yamika Sanon

3rd year, Illustration & Design Collaborative Project: Humanity in Collision, 2014 Ink on paper 43.2 cm x 27.9 cm (size of layout with text and image)

Gwendolyn Schulman

Independent journalist and freelance translator

Rosa Parks (1913 – 2005) On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks decided she’d had it. It had been a long day at work, and the seamstress and housekeeper was tired, tired of being treated like a second-class citizen. So when a white man on the bus she was taking home demanded she give up her seat, she did something that would spark the modern civil rights movement in the United States. She said “No.” Rosa Parks didn't make it to work the next day. Instead, she sat in a jail cell.

But 50,000 other African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama stayed off the buses in protest, and didn't get back on for a year.

Parks challenged the bus segregation laws in court and won, driving a nail into the coffin of legalized racism in the U.S. People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day […] No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.

[Amy Goodman and David Goodman, Standing Up to the Madness. Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times]

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Stéphanie Palumbo

3rd year, Illustration & Design Collaborative Project: Humanity in Collision, 2014 Ink and acrylic on illustration board 43.2 cm x 27.9 cm (size of layout with text and image)

Gwendolyn Schulman

Independent journalist and freelance translator

Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948) When Mohandas Gandhi joined the fight against the most powerful empire in the world, he didn’t pick up a gun. Instead, he decided to disobey. He disobeyed when India’s British rulers dictated that Indians buy cotton cloth directly from them.

Instead, he designed a hand loom and wove his own, inspiring millions of others to do the same. He disobeyed when the British imposed a monopoly on the production and sale of salt. Instead, he walked 385 kilometers to gather salt at its source, the Arabian Sea, prompting tens of thousands of others to follow suit.

Individual acts of disobedience grew into widespread noncooperation, chipping away at the foundations of British colonialism, and eventually an empire began to crumble.

A good person will resist an evil system with his whole soul.

Disobedience of the laws of an evil state is therefore a duty.

[Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), M.K. Gandhi]

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Marc-André Cright

3rd year, Illustration & Design Collaborative Project: Humanity in Collision, 2014 Ink and colour pencils on paper 43.2 cm x 27.9 cm (size of layout with text and image)

Gwendolyn Schulman

Independent journalist and freelance translator

Binyavanga Wainaina (1971 – ) In an act of outraged defiance, Binyavanga Wainaina came out of the closet. Was it the recent criminalization of homosexuality in Nigeria? Or Uganda’s efforts to make it an executable offence?

Was it the fact that homosexuality is illegal in 38 African states?

Perhaps it was the death of a gay friend, whose family was then forced to leave their church. Or could it have been the Sochi Olympics putting homophobia on the podium? It was all of this for the celebrated Kenyan writer who had kept his sexuality secret for 43 years. It was too late to tell his mother in person, so he told her posthumously, along with the rest of the world, in his essay “I Am a Homosexual, Mum.” A courageous move in a mood so decidedly ugly.

I’m extremely optimistic about rapid transformation and change of things in Africa in general. It’s set off. It cannot stop. It’s going to be turbulent. There’ll be dark bits and there’ll be bright bits, but it’s a speed train.

[The New York Times, January 24, 2014]

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Kelly Perlman

2nd year, Health Sciences Excerpt from Golden Beginnings, 2013 Essay

Scientists, such as Edo Berger, lead author and researcher at the Harvard-Smithson Center for Astrophysics, have recently made the claim that gold originated from collisions of dead stars, which happened a very long time ago, even before the birth of our solar system. That is about 4.5 billion years ago. These collisions are rare and are also very short; as short as a fraction of a second. So how is it possible that these extremely short collisions that took place such a long time ago gave way to the gold in your necklace or watch? The theory is that gold and other precious metals are the byproducts of these cosmic collisions. According to an article on the CBC website, entitled “Dead Stars Colliding Forged Gold on Earth, Study Finds,” ‘heavy metals could be formed when two exotic stars—neutron stars—crash and merge.

Neutron stars are essentially stellar relics—collapsed cores of massive stars.’ So essentially, gold, with all of its 79 protons, came about when two dead, very dense stars violently crashed together.

However, these rare collisions produce enormous amounts of heavy metal each time. According to Bergee, ‘We estimate that the amount of gold produced and ejected during the merger of the two neutron stars may be as large as 10 moon masses—quite a lot of bling!’ However, do not forget that the gold from these collisions are to be distributed across the entire universe, which, contains at the very least 176 billion galaxies, only one of which is our very own Milky Way (Siegel).

Dead dense stars colliding to make gold? What an out of this world concept! However, the scientists’ hypothesis is quite logical and conceivable, if you look at all the facts. It will take time and much more research to see if this hypothesis is truly as good as gold.

This excerpt is from a more extensive text that can be found online at the site below: http://space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/explorations/article/golden_beginnings

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Arké

Academic Dean Progeny, 2006 High-fired granite 17.3 cm x 41.3 cm x 31 cm

Granite giving birth. Impossible!

Rock inside rock?

Such eggs are found in the nests of the glaciers.

Imminence shatters its containment.

Nascence bursts the womb’s constraints.

Outburst shatters cohesion.

Eruption explodes dormancy.

Disruption tears coherence.

Plenitude overpowers limits.

Explosion annihilates coalescence.

Outburst overcomes serenity.

The ‘to be’ collides with the ‘is’.

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Anita Haurie‡2 Anne-Marie Langlois†1 Christopher Roy†1 Corey Spector‡2 Eric Elmoznino†2 Erica Bugden‡2 Freddie Ramirez†1 Gabriel Fizer§2 Hélène Nadeau* Hikmat Corbani‡,2

Ian Jones-Mackling‡2 Jake McKinnell‡1 Joel Trudeau* Justine Beaudoin-Poulin‡1 Katherine Martakis‡1 Matias Rittatore‡2 Michael Ralph‡1 Nathan McDonald Fortier‡2 Pauline Pestre‡2 Rigel Zifkin‡1

Samrat Debroy‡1 Sandrella Samaha†1 Sascha Kavanagh-Sommerer¶1 Schaël Marcéus§2 Stephanie Goyer †1 Tadhg Ferrier‡1 Tharsan Ponnampalam‡1 Xuan Dai‡1 Zahra Altalibi†1

Health Sciences, ‡Pure and Applied Sciences, §CALL: Cinema, Video & Communications, ¶3D Animation & CGI, 1 First year, 2Second year, *Coach Interdisciplinary student collaboration overseen by Joel Trudeau, faculty, Physics Pathways, 2014 Mixed media Catalogue text and collage by Joel Trudeau with photographs by Frank Mulvey †

Pathways is an audio-visual map of the processes initiated by students to develop a proposal for an experiment to be carried out at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research and home of the Large Hadron Collider. The image on the facing page provides a glimpse of Pathways and incorporates some elements from a much larger audio-visual installation to be experienced in the Collisions exhibition.

The carefully crafted textbooks recommended to students for learning the rudiments of science invariably pose problems that are solvable. The polished arguments found therein are necessarily laid out in an orderly fashion, methodically building up the structures of what is known. Less orderly is the narrative of how this knowledge came to be through the collisions of competing theories with new experimental methods, through the trials, errors and the circumvention of the manifold difficulties inherent to all open questions. In this story technical and creative processes are combined in new ways to think about and do science, to move beyond the bounds of what is known. When students engage with the unknown and are emboldened to ask and explore potentially insoluble questions, they begin the transition from being consumers of scientific knowledge to participants in its creation. With an eye towards the rudiments of science, and by asking more questions than it answers, Pathways emulates such transitions in the collaborative efforts of 27 Dawson College

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students.

Now, while all good science is generally rooted in the scientific method, there is no unique process for cycling through the stages of theory, prediction, observation and experiment. In practice there are specific methods taking on the character of the scientists involved and shaped by the nature of the questions being asked. This work explores the individual and collaborative processes by which scientific questions can be conceived, expanded upon, exchanged, tested and refined. In particular, it traces the nonlinear history of an experimental particle physics proposal constructed by Team Dawson Technicolor for an international student competition hosted by CERN in calculations, text and figures, photographs and video. CERN has provided the challenge of proposing a feasible experiment to be run on a fully equipped particle beam line. In taking up this challenge, the Dawson Technicolor students pose their own questions for collisions in the unknown.* *As of the opening of the exhibition, results of the competition were also unknown.

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Francis Boucher

1st Year, Illustration & Design Mind Blown, 2013 Black charcoal, white charcoal and red colour pencil on paper 65 cm x 50 cm

This piece was created in a period of very high stress. It was the end of the semester and this was the last project I started to work on. I was drained from the extensive work I had put into all the other projects. I felt like I had given everything I had, but I still needed to deliver, and I didn’t want to disappoint either myself or my peers.

Going through a bit of an inspiration crisis, the pressure was almost tangible. What was I going to do with this project??

Then—EUREKA!! Why not try to illustrate what I was experiencing at that very moment?! Always a firm believer that creativity and stress don't get along too well, I was trying to handle both to my outmost capacity. This was it, this was my collision. My ideas were colliding with the stress of meeting this deadline with little to no inspiration left. This piece reflects precisely my state of mind at the moment of creating it. It felt like my head was going to explode from the pressure within. Instead it burst with an idea I felt was really appropriate for the theme. There I was, MIND BLOWN.

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Yu Xiang Ren

1st Year, Illustration & Design The Battle of a Mind, 2013 Ink on paper 43 cm x 35 cm

The Battle of a Mind is exactly what occurs within one’s head during the making of a decision or the formulation of an opinion. It is the clash of the complexity of the human brain, summarized as the continuous struggle for control between logic and emotion, depicted here by the twin figures. The two opposing forces, both decorated with war paint in the shape of tears, try to overpower the other by incorporating and planting parts of themselves into their counterpart. Their eternal war regrettable, but inevitable—for it is in their nature to collide against the

other, fighting for what they know to be right. The veins relay the state of the world below to the consciousness of the individual, who then makes the decision or finishes the thought process by weighing emotions against logic. Therefore, it is a collision of point of views; the conflict enabled by the different sections of the human brain, in short, it is The Battle of a Mind.

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Isabelle Brunette

1st Year, Illustration & Design Complementary Collision, 2013 Ink on paper 33 cm x 50.8 cm with borders

This illustration shows two characters confronting each other invoking their inner energy by taking a koi fish form. At midpoint, there is a collision between these two forces that results in the representation of the yin and yang balance symbol. It is an allegory of rivalry, but also of unity. On one hand, the black symbolizes femininity, darkness, negativity, and the moon.

Conversely, the white symbolizes masculinity, clarity, positivity, and the sun. The use of Koi fish is to symbolize the yin and yang, which is synonymous with harmony.

In Chinese culture, the concept of yin and yang applies everywhere. According to this philosophy, we always find a piece of one in the other. One does not exist without the other. The two complement each other and form a perfect union representing the cycle and balance of nature. In this work, I opted to focus on the contrast, while keeping a touch of white in black and black in

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white. The man in white features a black sun tattoo on the back of his head, while the woman in black has a white crescent moon on her forehead. The man invokes the black fish with white eyes and the woman the white fish with black eyes. This artwork represents the collision between two distinct forces, both opposite and complementary.

Gyula Gefin

Faculty, Graphic Design Passenger, 2014 Digital print 80.5 cm x 58.5 cm

I’ve always been fascinated by the unexpected beauty of destruction—whether it is a living organism or a manufactured product.

It is a bewilderment of how things can change form so dramatically after suffering a specific chaotic event.

In this project, the fascination turns to car crashes. We are bombarded daily with glossy images of the ubiquitous automobile that taunt us with endless qualities and features. It is an image that is omnipresent in our daily lives. But how quickly this vehicle transforms into the grotesque when it suffers a dramatic accident. It is here that I am captivated: how a pristine product could morph into an abstract object.

There is also an investigation in the precise moment of the crash.

What happened in the instance of the crash? What were the passengers saying? What were they listening to on the radio? How did that affect the defining and tragic instance?

Through the use of digital manipulation, an actual photograph of a car crash is transformed into an image of curious abstraction but mimics the form of a shattered heart: an element that is reflected in a possible song aired on the radio at the moment of the crash.

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Alina Cara D’Amicantonio

1st Year, Illustration & Design Remember Where You Stand, 2013 Ink on paper 14.6 cm x 25.4 cm

After having witnessed a child playing in a reconstruction of a World War 1 battlefield at a museum, I realized that they probably did not understand what that place was, and that they probably never would, simply because it represents a reality so different from our own here in the 21st century.

Moreover, as the veterans and survivors of the World Wars (and other conflicts) grow fewer and fewer, our connection to that time grows weaker and weaker; as we lose that link to the past, said past becomes less relatable and less real. While the land is still scarred, places like Vimy and Hill 60 resemble parks more than they do the battlefields they had once been. Children who visit these sites today do not always instinctively remember the gravity of these places, and have a tendency to play until they are reminded about the significance of the place where they stand.

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That is the collision of my drawing: the collision of the consequences of peace—where, in general, children grow up in times of prosperity, abundance, and freedom, and the lack of serious armed conflicts—and how this relative peace affects our perception of the past—the disconnect between the previous generations and the current ones, the change in attitude towards past historical events and the significance allotted to aforementioned events.

Trevor Yardley-Jones 3rd Year, Illustration & Design Collisions—Art and Fascism, 2013 Digital, ink 28 cm x 43 cm

During the Nazi occupation of Western-Europe during World War II, efforts were made by the Nazi party to seize modernist artworks that were considered unsightly and done by degenerates. This is where the term “Degenerate Art� had come forth to describe modernist artworks that were seized by the Nazi party.

They also forbid the artists from making any further artworks.

This sequential artwork expresses a narrative of an artist creating an artwork in his studio, and at the same time; a fascist figure arriving to ultimately remove the creation from the creator.

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Aidan Ferguson

1st Year, Visual Arts Husk, 2014 Graphite on vellum 61 cm x 91.4 cm

This drawing is meant to show what happens during and after an individual experiences a period of great change through the collision of who they were and who they are becoming. The dragonfly is the new self that has grown too large to contain within her shell and can no longer hide her true form from herself or the world. No longer painfully contained, the relief of the individual is slightly tainted by the fact that she still has yet to accept herself for who she is and not who she was. The reason why the drawing is on the reverse side of the paper is because I wanted to convey the idea that the image shown is a husk of itself, a memory of an image and thus in the past. The new creature is still unsure of her new self and clings to her shell, but the fact that the image is in the past implies that the creature has, or will accept her new form and take flight.

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C. J. Goldman

Visual Artist Dad, 2013 Silicone rubber, resin, pigments, human and rabbit hair 36 cm x 17 cm x 23 cm

This work is a silicone replica of my father. It was sculpted first in clay then reproduced in silicone. Skin color details, hair, eyebrows and eyelashes were inserted into the skin, and false eyes were created to bring the sculpture to a finished state.

The piece was created with the intention of creating two simultaneous, and opposing, reactions. If the viewer takes some time and focuses their attention on the face itself and its expression, they can begin to feel a certain warmth towards this ‘person’, perhaps a feeling of empathy. They may begin to look at it as if it is an actual individual. However, as soon as they step back and take in the bigger picture, it becomes jarringly apparent that this is a trick. It cannot be real—it is disembodied and artificial. The viewer may then unconsciously begin to analyze the elements of this ‘trick’—picking out the airbrushed veins, the glossy plastic eyes—in an attempt to reconcile these two apparent realities. If the work is successful, then the collision between these realities can produce feelings of intense cognitive dissonance. The brain doesn’t know what to make of it; it jumps back and forth between empathy with this ‘person’ and the uncomfortable knowledge that this is an illusion, a piece of rubber and plastic. The more seamless the replica, the more strongly this psychological collision will be felt.

It is my hope that my attempts to capture the essence of my subject have succeeded in giving this piece of rubber and plastic the ‘illusion of life’. I hope that the viewer will have a unique and unsettling experience.

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Phil Carpenter

Montreal Gazette Photographer, Dawson College alumnus Dying Alone, 2010 Photograph 27.9 cm x 43.2 cm

Pedestrians watch as a man lay bleeding to death from gunshot wounds in front of the Grand Cemetière de Port a Prince, in Port au Prince, Haiti, Sunday January 17, 2010, five days after a magnitude 7 earthquake struck the country. Bystanders said he was shot by police. There were numerous reports of police and others in civilian clothes, shooting looters who were scavenging items from destroyed buildings, in a situation where food and other essential supplies were hard to get.

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Phil Carpenter

Montreal Gazette Photographer, Dawson College alumnus Chaos, 2010 Photograph 27.9 cm x 43.2 cm

A Haitian policeman aims his shotgun at a suspected looter in downtown Port-au-Prince, January 20, 2010, eight days after the earthquake. There were concerns about security as food and essential item shortages continued. Some condemned the police for shooting people who were just trying to eat. It was further evidence, in their view, of the deep class divisions in the country.Â

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Beverly Sing

Faculty, Liberal Arts, Humanities Japanese Brush Calligraphy: A Haiku Poem, 2013 Washi paper mounted on a silk scroll 105 cm x 30 cm

Japanese brush calligraphy (shodo) is at the crossroads of art, philosophy, science, technology, and spiritualism. These fields are fraught with conflicts and collisions.

Calligraphy could be seen as a way of mediating these collisions through a technique that channels the colliding richness of life and the world through the human hand that moves to capture with brush, ink, and paper the fragility of the human experience of the infinite.

The poet of the text on this scroll was Kyoshi Takahama (高浜虚 子; 1874–1959), a celebrated Japanese haiku master and novelist during the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras. His works include over 40,000 poems. Haiku is a traditional poetic genre which follows a 5-7-5 syllabic form and generally includes seasonal references and descriptions of the phenomena of nature. As a writer, Kyoshi Takahama dealt with collisions of an artistic and philosophical nature as he moved back and forth between modern and traditional perspectives on haiku. Yet the elegance, subtlety and tranquility so inherent in this Japanese poetry remained integral features of Takahama’s output as a whole.

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Centuries old, the art of brush calligraphy is still being practiced in the 21st century, not only in Japan but also in many other parts of the world, including Montreal. This art form—essentially a momentary glimpse into the human spirit—can be appreciated by non-Japanese as well as Japanese. The calligrapher’s sense of transcendence during the often meditative process of preparing the ink, followed by the act of moving the brush over paper may be mirrored in an observer’s calm contemplation of the finished work, regardless of identity, time, or place.

Whereas the collisions of life, knowledge, passions and interests disclose the insatiability of human desires and the mortality of humans, calligraphy tries to snatch immortality from infinity through its graceful and soft movements. Japanese brush calligraphy offers a way out of collisions.

Poem by Kyoshi Takahama (高浜虚子; 1874–1959) Nagare yuku / daikon no ha no / hayasa kana 流れ行く大根の葉の早さかな

Text and translation of the poem: Flowing by, the leaves of daikon. What swiftness! (daikon=Japanese radish)

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Josh F. Goldberg

2nd Year, Liberal Arts Collisions and Contrasts: Living with Conflict, 2014 Photographs 27.9 cm x 91.4 cm (each diptych pair)

These four image pairings, or diptychs, aim to capture the bold contrasts of life in Israel and the West Bank. Upon traveling to the West Bank, I questioned what my community and Jewish education had told me regarding the land of Israel. I took these photographs that evoke different realities for those who live on either side of the separation barrier. The first diptych shows two contrasting images of childhood. On the right, we see a girl walking alone in the Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramalah, Palestine. The left depicts two brothers and a father fishing in the Mediterranean at the Tel Aviv Port in Israel. In her current situation, the Mediterranean is but a dream that the Palestinian girl will gaze upon from rooftops in Ramallah, without ever having the opportunity to swim in its waters. The next pair shows the contrasts of the two walls that Israel is known for. On the left, we see the western wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism. On the right, standing eleven meters high, we see the concrete separation barrier that cuts between Israel and the West Bank. This wall prevents Palestinians from migrating freely in the region, creating what seems to be a large open-air prison. The third diptych shows two contrasting images of city life in West Jerusalem and Ramallah. On the right, we see a polished West Jerusalem which highly differs from the image of a chaotic Ramallah street. It seems that the two cities are culturally

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distinct, yet Ramallah remains under Israeli occupation in the West Bank. The last pair of images evokes a less evident conflict. The photos were taken at the Tel Aviv Port in Israel. They represent the internal conflict that occurs within the fabric of Israeli society where the conflict is largely an external, physical issue, it also creates for a nation of tension and internal strife.

The figures in these images look outwards at the sea, wondering what the future will yield for the Land of Milk and Honey.

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Maude HallĂŠ

1st Year, Visual Arts World’s Cruelty, 2014 Graphite, charcoal and collage on paper 111.7 cm x 71.1 cm

My piece expresses the collision between the rich and the poor by showing a fat man crushing a bunch of dead human skulls with his foot. Obesity in this case is meant to illustrate wealth and domination. The low angle I chose for this drawing is also meant to make the viewer feel the heaviness of the character in order to underline this idea of domination and power. Through this drawing, I especially want to denounce capitalist societies which use their power over the poor countries in order to get what they want. They consume astronomical quantities of things and destroy everything around them without caring. In this picture, the detached look of the fat man looking down at the skulls, shows arrogance or disinterestedness towards poor people’s misery. Poor people are shown here as weak and vulnerable since they are pulled down on the ground by this heavy oppressor. The cracks on the skulls underline the theme of collision by suggesting pressure and violence. As for the war articles and images of pain and destruction in the background, I believe they are not only significant in terms of meaning, but also visually powerful in the overall picture.

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Lauren Hannough-Bergmans & Nelanthi Hewa 2nd Year, CALL Excerpt from Deconstruction or: Caffeine-Driven Daydreams, 2014 Fiction It started with the fourth window-

pavement below.

Sounds like the fourth wall. Is that on purpose?

This excerpt is from a more extensive text that can be found online at the site below:

Minds work in mysterious ways.

Oh really, ambiguity? Because that hasn’t been overdone.

Anyway, the point is, the human psyche is far too complex for any one person to understand. Mazes within mazes, all curving back into themselves.

Ooh! Write that down. of a sterile office building which overlooked the bustling city. A city of wandering lanes and blind streets like a maze curling back into itself. A city full of the ignorant in freshly pressed suits and polished shoes like fish eyes. Above them all, the man casually lounged against the sturdy mahogany surface of his impressive desk.

http://space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/explorations/article/deconstruction_or_caffeine_driven_daydreams Our piece explores the collision between creator and created piece, character and author. Our narrative deconstructs the artistic process through the interactions between two seemingly. omniscient voices and our main character, an unnamed protagonist seeking to escape the endless drivel of his post-modern life.

Deconstruction questions who is really in control when writing a story and this collision drives the story forward. As well, there is the literal collision of body and pavement, a recurring motif in our piece.

Is that a phallic symbol? Because it seems like he’s compensating for something.

What? No. Well… That didn’t occur to me. You would say that.

That’s presumptuous.

Is it? Is it?

Oh stoppit you. Moving along.

A lit cigarette lay smouldering in his crystal ashtray, accompanied by a half-empty Old Fashioned. Yes, he felt the heavy weight of the overused. Yes, he was perhaps a stereotype. But it worked for him. He was a business worker, an accounts man. An average Joe accompanied by his cup of joe and Joe the janitor. Today, he knew he would succeed. He had climbed the social ladder, and now he stood at the head of the snake, looking down. He was ready to transcend his existence and paint a bloody sunset on the

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Iuliana Irimia

1st Year, Illustration & Design Self-Portrait, 2013 Charcoal and conte 50 cm x 65 cm

A quick Google search of the words “self-portrait” will result in pages of artists’ faces from frontal or three-quarter views.

Other approaches that contain abstract or non-representational elements usually make use of the head as the focal point of the piece. As human beings, our faces are the vehicle through which we show our past, our emotions, our personality…

With this piece, our expectations of a conventional self-representation (with the face emphasized) collide with the flipped viewpoint offered in this drawing. The foreground represents the aftermath of the need for new perceptions. It is no longer about what I represent today, but about the journey I have taken to arrive to the present.

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AurĂŠlie Bellacicco

1st Year, Professional Photography Morning Explosion, 2013 Photograph 27.9 cm x 43.2 cm

Every morning, two worlds collide: peaceful dreams that are shattered by brutal and violent awakenings. Each day of mine depends wholly on the results of these collisions, between my dreams and my awakenings. These encounters are crucial; they will decide how I will grasp my day and spend my time. I need a part of my dreams in my waking life; they must survive my awakenings to enrich my reality.

I try to keep this state of mind when I work on a photograph: it allows me to be more creative and let the pleasantly unexpected occur.

I have chosen to represent this daily collision with this photograph. The cup of tea is the reflection of my dreams as the madeleine bluntly thrown into it symbolizes my awakening. Each time the results are unpredictable and therefor the stories are different. That is why Life is so interesting and surprises me every day.

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Antonina Kallaur

1st Year, Visual Arts Sphygmus, 2014 Colour pencil 66 cm x 50 cm

All our lives are beset with collisions; some are just mere everyday challenges and others result in weighty repercussions. This pencil drawing illustrates a personal collision of mine, yet is open to personal interpretation and understanding. The raised arm, firmly clinging onto the pencils is meant to represent myself holding onto my desires to remain studying art and pursuing a future within the art sphere. The other two hands are meant to embody my arthritis, one of the hands clenching my arm and the other checking for a pulse. Many of my joints have become affected over time, and only recently my fingers and wrists have become a victim to its unforgiving symptoms, therefore collid-

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ing with my desires to produce art. The black paper and white pencil was used in order to show both the physical and spiritual struggle that it has been and continues to be. The colours, as well, were chosen to reflect the theme of collision. The red was used in order to illustrate the anger and pain of the arthritis and the blue, its cool contrast to the red, showing the numbness to this rage and agony.

Anjali Kasturi

1st Year, Visual Arts Islands, 2014 Graphite, white contĂŠ, ink on paper 76 cm x 56 cm

Every day, we interact with each other, we talk, we laugh, we argue, yet in reality, we are alone in our minds. Everyone lives and experiences life differently; unable to fully share what is seen, and how it is perceived, despite the efforts made to do so.

Therefore, there is no way to fully comprehend the nature of one’s mind, one is only able to see the material manifestations of it. The body and the mind collide, one that everyone can see, and one that is hidden, far more intricate in its complexity.

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Zaki Saati

Jeffrey Esteban

The short film The Last in Line brings on the theme of collision in a way similar to The Matrix, where two worlds of “illusion” and “reality” collide with each other. Unlike The Matrix where both worlds are separate and very different from each other, the short film The Last in Line has both illusion and reality exist in the same world. The shock that the main character first experiences in the film, when he awakens and becomes aware of where he is and who he is, is the collision between two perceptions of oneself; one that is very limited and confined, and the other one that is free and infinite.

In the story of the Monks, I wanted to show the idea of opposites clashing with each other. This collision creates disharmony, fighting, and eventually, pain and suffering. This can, however, be a good thing. Collision also brings rebirth; a return to harmony. Like the Yin and Yang, the two opposites can find a way to harmony. One just needs to step back and see things in perspective. Even after a collision, there is always a way to find balance in life.

Alumnus, 3D Animation & CGI The Last in Line, 2013 3D animation video 2:12 minutes

Alumnus, 3D Animation & CGI Monks, 2013 3D animation video 2:09 minutes

Naomi Savoie & Carmelida Condemi

Alumni, 3D Animation & CGI The Messenger, 2013 3D animation video 4:01 minutes

Through the journey of our lives, we collide with all sorts of individuals who ignite a flurry of emotions and desires within ourselves. Encounters influence our personal growth and whether we like it or not, slowly change who we are. In this story, we look into a lighthouse keeper’s inner struggles and how the ghosts of his past haunt his every step. Holding on to memories of a distant happiness, the keeper can only drown further in his depression. Yet, life is full of surprises and in a moment of desperation, a fateful encounter crashes into his life. It is this collision that sparks the will to continue on. Like electrons spiraling into each other, the energy we receive from other individuals, even from the tiniest of meetings, can leave an impression in us that lasts forever.

Visit http://space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/exhibits/summary/the_ collisions_exhibition to see these videos.

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Still from Monks

Still from The Last in Line

Still from The Messenger

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Mathieu Larone

1st Year, Illustration & Design The Day Anger Beat Up Sadness, 2013 Watercolor and ink on paper 66 cm x 50.8 cm

The idea of collision often comes as something physically violent and destructive. What I wanted to illustrate in this piece was the collision of thoughts that can be hidden within the human mind.

Bipolarity, schizophrenia and depression can all be placed into this peculiar category and they all fascinate me. More particularly, this illustration represents a man succumbing to the forces and emotions hidden within him. I wanted them to reflect what his personality was when it was dissected and analyzed. This piece

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is in essence a simple and colorful way of explaining that human emotions and thoughts aren’t black and white. They take every idea, opinion and reaction into account, whether you like it or not.

Sandy Mei

1st Year Visual Arts Problem Magnet, 2014 Conté, coloured pencils and charcoal on paper 50 cm x 65 cm

The collision of my artwork is the collision between the reality and the illusion of the problems of a person. From one person to another the point of view might vary. One person facing a problem might feel as if the world’s problems are on his shoulders, but in reality, it is just a problem that can easily be solved with some help. The illusion is thinking that one’s problems are more serious than someone else’s. Furthermore, based on my own experiences, when something bad happens, other problems will just

keep building up, as if the problems themselves attract more. To illustrate this in my artwork, I drew a magnet stuck on the girl’s back, as if it were part of her body, attracting dangerous weapons such as a gun, a grenade, bombs, swords and knives.

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Maria-José Lara Menéndez

1st Year, Visual Arts Communal Scar, 2014 Ink and spray-paint on paper 74 cm x 66 cm

Everyone has conflicts with one another, the beauty in them being how they can bring people together. The collision may deeply hurt the two individuals involved yet the blood that they both bleed is what intensifies and solidifies their connection. The red crumpled paper is holding the two hands together to represent how the bond between two people was determined by what they went through. Though this phenomenon doesn’t always work; the connection can get broken after the collision. But, what is certain, is that both hands bleed if the relationship before meant something. With this artwork, I wanted to create something that everyone could relate to.

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Caleigh Murphy

1st Year, Visual Arts Thoughts Collide, 2014 Charcoal with colour pencil on paper 70 cm x 77 cm

When thinking of an idea for a drawing my thought patterns go through a chaotic battle with one another until I decide on a concept. This work represents both the process and result of these thought patterns. Using owls as symbols for wisdom I represent them as my individual thoughts or ideas colliding with one another to create the subject matter. The background of the subject matter reflects the background of my thoughts. I show this with the three primary colours dividing the background, as I must decide on a colour scheme for my concept. Within these three sections I seclude the three different constructions that go into the details of my drawings: firstly the negative space for my

composition, secondly the simple form which at first appears geometric in my head, and finally the actual stylized form to the work. In this drawing both background and owls are at a point just at the beginning of this thought pattern where nothing has been clearly decided and new ideas always join in on the battle.

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Theo Noury

2nd Year, Illustration & Design Continental Shift, 2014 Watercolour and paint marker 38 cm x 56 cm

The art work you are observing is what graffiti artists commonly call a “Piece”. The connections between the four letters, and the personal stylization of them are what makes this piece of graffiti art different from what you may have noticed on your backyard wood fence or garage door.

My first approach to this piece was to make the letters fight over the space they had on the page, so I decided to bring them together in a more violent and lively way, making them collide with each other. As I went farther and farther into the watercolour process, the piece took on a more explosive feel.

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This piece ended up being my representation of the process of an island being created. The two letters in the middle—the A and R—smashing into each other, represent the action of the colossal plates of the earth’s crust converging. The warm colours in the interior of the lettering represent the volcanic eruption that is a result of shifting continental plates. The deep blue is the ocean in which this all occurs. Finally the shallow aqua blue background is the water sweeping onto the beach of this island thousands of years later.

Eul Hee Park

1st Year, Visual Arts Collision—Breaking Through the Invisible Obstacle, 2014 Graphite, soft pastel and acrylic on paper 50.8 cm x 60.9 cm

There are different types of collisions that can be observed in our daily lives, from automotive collisions to molecular collisions in chemistry. However, there are collisions that occur within the conceptual realm, the realm in which the creative process occurs. From the start, the possibilities are endless, which might sound compelling. But more often than not, we encounter an invisible obstacle of fixed ideas of how to approach challenges.

In order to create a veritable art work, one must struggle inside invisible walls, and eventually break through them. This is what my drawing represents.

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Alice Picard

1st Year, Visual Arts Contamination, 2014 Watercolour 40.6 cm x 50.8 cm

We live in a very distorted world where nature is controlled by science, where colours are saturated, and shapes the biggest they can be. My piece is about the confusion related to the basis of life; food. There is a collision between nature and science, which has a direct influence on our food. The scientific innovations are creating genetically modified foods that have supposedly no effects on human health or nature. We aim to feed all of the population, but at the same time we destroy it. Scientific innovations are creating messed up modified nutritious substances that change our environment. We have no idea what “they� do to our food and we have nothing to say in this empire of powerful minds.

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Valentina Espinoza

1st Year, Illustration & Design Lines of Fantasy, 2013 Ink on paper 28 cm x 43 cm

In this artwork, I wanted to express the collision between reality and imagination, and between freedom and limitation. I used lines and two figures—the same person—to do so. Reality is represented with straight lines and imagination with curved lines.

The left side of the drawing is darker because for me reality is something that is boring and it restricts one from being free.

My work is about how the artist sees reality in comparison to his or her own world. This artwork can be interpreted in many ways and I would like the viewer to interpret it for themselves.

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Kelly Perlman

2nd year, Health Sciences Excerpt from Hearing Green, 2013 Essay

Synesthesia is approximately 8 times more common in artists such as poets, novelists and painters. Dr. Ramachandran has an incredible hypothesis for why this is. Think about it: artists have a way of intertwining all of our distinct senses. They twist and connect images, language, and metaphorical meanings and find a way to put the abstract into a concrete form. This kind of thought process gives insight into their brains. Since thoughts and senses flow and interconnect so fluidly in artists, it makes sense that they could have some excess cross wiring between the senses in their brains. These traits and characteristics of artists reveal that they are more prone to synesthesia, due to their patterns of thought and the depth and diversity of their creations.

Now consider the fact that the Angular Gyrus is eight times bigger in humans than in lower primates. This area of the brain is “the crossroads between hearing, vision and touch” (Ramachandran). The fact that it is so much bigger in humans has a special significance, Ramachandran postulates. With a bigger surface area for the interaction of these senses, there is a greater possibility of having accidental cross wiring. If these areas become crosswired, these senses become intermingled. He suggests that it is possible that all humans have some degree of cross wiring and this gives rise to one of humanity’s most unique and treasured attributes—creativity.

Just think about it. Our creativity can possibly be a result of accidental cross wiring in the brain. A flaw in the brain’s natural wiring system could have led to all of the most cherished and valued pieces of art created. Consider Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Picasso, Degas, Monet, Shakespeare, Socrates, Aristotle and Plato, just some creative people that come to mind. Every single person has their own variation of creativity and imagination and each person’s traits help to shape the creativity of the human race.

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What we humans have done with this gift is utterly astonishing.

One could very strongly argue that creativity is what separates us from lower primates. One could argue even more strongly that without our creativity, civilization itself wouldn’t exist. Humanity would not even resemble what it does today without this exceptional trait. In fact, one might not even consider humans to be humans without their creativity. Luckily, some accidents are meant to be.

This excerpt is from a more extensive text that can be found online at the site below: http://space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/explorations/article/creative_ cross_wiring Synesthesia is a hereditary condition comprised of involuntary interaction between different senses. For some people, sound and vision can be associated due to surplus cross wiring in the sensory regions in the brain. For example, when a synesthete hears a sound, he or she may also see a letter. This sort of intertwining of the senses is hypothesized by Dr. Ramachandran to be the source of all human creativity and the basis for the way humans interact with their world. This article explores the in depth mechanisms of this mysterious condition and culminates knowledge about the arts, the sciences and the humanities to create a multidisciplinary collision between a neurological condition and the nature of humanity.

Mony Pich

2nd Year, Illustration and Design Kindle, 2014 Graphite and coloured pencil on illustration board 38 cm x 38 cm

Reality can be cruel and many a time does it work against us, constantly testing our will. In times of deep reflection and desperation, we retreat into our minds; a safe haven, where one can be the master of one’s own domain. Within its confines, we perceive our surroundings, our situations, and even ourselves in a different manner. As a result, a sense of control is created; an illusion we wish were real. My piece is about this very conflict: the collision between the realities of the world and the way we perceive them. As a world decays and falls into ruin around him, the boy, distraught, succumbs to his own illusions. A desire ignites within him; the desire to be in control. He ruminates, his

mind burning from within. His body becomes shell-like, slowly cracking and chipping away. His armor protects him from reality and his crown is the symbol of his authority. Everything is played out in his head. Even still, the physical world moves on and every so often, it awakens the boy, no matter his unwillingness to wake up.

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Yu Xiang Ren

1st Year, Illustration & Design An Ethereal Apparition, 2013 Charcoal and colour pencil on paper 66 cm x 56 cm

This drawing shows a child who could be the last of them; suffering and paying for the heinous destruction that he did not commit. He is chained to a dead or dying figure while simultaneously approaching the light. Quite obviously, it is the collision of the imminent end and complete desolation versus a flicker of hope for life and rediscovery. While the former is depicted by an overbearing bleak and charred landscape, its oppressive and impossibly stifling aura is easily counterpointed by the strong light emitted by the frail, solidary plant. Hope is frail, as we all know, but it is also powerful enough to illuminate even the darkest of places. However, in this world of despair and silent lamentation, mental sanity is a difficult virtue to come

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by, therefore, as the title suggests, the actual existence of the mysterious plant must be questioned for it is indeed—too good to be true. Could it be a gift of compassion from a higher power, the seed to plant a new world? Or perhaps it is the happy ending conjured by the child’s mind to ease his passing. Or it could be an encouragement to revive hope and keep going. In the end, only a leap of faith will yield the path to survival: to follow, or not to follow the ethereal light.

Michael D’Itri

2nd Year, Liberal Arts Excerpt from Islam: Confessions of a Hopeless Outsider, 2013 Article

Muslims are dark-skinned, sword wielding, suicide-bombing, misogynistic, homophobic, oil profiting, overly devout, uber conservative, socially oppressed and Jesus-hating Arabs.

Even in 2013, this is the picture that some of us in the West might deem an accurate, or partial, representation of a quarter of the world’s population. Although I had hoped our society would have evolved beyond this type of ignorance, a recent wave of islamophobia, or perhaps xenophobia, has convinced me otherwise. It is obvious that, although certain aspects of this description may be representative of certain groups within Islam, it remains obvious that the entire Muslim community does not even closely resemble this caricature. This divide between the concerns we may have about the violence that is committed in the name of Islam and the acceptance of other societies that we hold dear in our country becomes a pressing issue.

We see the Muslims in our country, whether immigrants or born here, as being the more peaceful and moderate practitioners of the religion, while fundamentalist groups in third world countries are viewed as extremist terrorists. As a complete outsider to the entire religion, I can only try to attain a grasp of this entire dilemma that has been plaguing the West since 9/11. Is Islam a violent religion? Is it just culture that makes some Muslims oppressive? Should I respect this religion and be tolerant, or do I speak out about the violence committed in its name? What do we, as outsiders, even know about Islam?

This excerpt is from a more extensive text that can be found online at the site below. http://space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/explorations/article/islaam_ confessions_of_a_hopeless_outsider This article seeks to describe my own personal mental conflict with Islam as well as the real religious conflict that exists in the world today.

My mind is in utter turmoil: collisions between the world of Islam and the reality that exists today bombard me every day…

There is thus a divide between the ‘two Islams’ that I have experienced throughout my life. There is the theoretical Islam, which I have been taught in an academic setting, and which, I hold, has the core beliefs to be peaceful and progressive. On the other hand, there is also the Islam as it is manifested today, the one which condemns homosexuality, oppresses women in some countries, and slaughters thousands in the name of God. The theoretical Islam may essentially be seen as construction of my own mind, in a desperate attempt to reconcile the collision between relativism and absolutism.

On the other hand, it seems to me that Islam is a religion of interpretation and circumstance. Any nutjob may find the motivation he needs to further his political or psychological needs and see it as a justification for a suicide bombing; however this does not put the entire religion at fault.

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Jonathan Sasson

2nd Year, Liberal Arts Excerpt from Get My Drift: When Wegener Moved Continents, 2013 Article

Wegener devised his theory of continental displacement, which later took the form of continental drift. The theory hypothesized that the continents move over time. Additionally, it said all the continents used to be connected, creating a large supercontinent known as Pangaea, which literally translates to mother earth. Furthermore, when continents hit each other, they form mountain chains such as the Himalayas. By the same token, when continents hit the ocean floor, they create mountain chains like the Andes in South America. Wegener remarked how the “present-day continental blocks have […] the same outlines” dating back to when the continents broke apart from Pangaea.

This observation of his is perhaps the most convincing aspect of the continental drift theory because it forces one to ask and think about why these continents look like they can fit nicely together.

Wegener believed Pangaea started to break up approximately 200 million years ago. Then 20 million years later, the supercontinent was divided along a northern and southern land mass. Approximately 65 million years ago, the Americas and Africa became separated by the Atlantic Ocean. [...]

Wegener began trying to accumulate a variety of evidence to support his theory. Regardless of the fact that his ideas contradicted the views of the status quo, he believed his view was the correct one and that anyone who was exposed to his ideas would undeniably agree with him. In late December of 1911, Wegener wrote to a friend stating, “If it turns out that sense and meaning are now becoming evident in the whole history of the Earth’s development, why should we hesitate to toss the old views overboard?”

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This excerpt is from a more extensive text that can be found online at the site below: http://space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/explorations/article/get_my_ drift_when_wegener_moves_continents The article at hand relates to the theme of collisions because it deals specifically with Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift. Continents move or drift overtime. Quebec touched Spain.

Brazil fit under Ghana and Nigeria in West Africa—150 million years ago. But it was only 100 years ago that a scientist from Berlin, Alfred Wegener, proposed the idea of continental drift.

It was January 1912; Wegener had just given talks in Frankfurt am Main and Marburg, Germany. His ideas on continental drift first came to the public eye in print after he published two papers. Three years later, Wegener presented his masterwork titled The Origin of Continents and Oceans (1915), which sought to formally explain the theory of continental drift. The theory was highly controversial as it went against the status quo whose beliefs included the idea that earth’s continents were unchanging or that earth was a tetrahedron that violently exploded to produce our moon. It took nearly half a century before the theory of continental drift became accepted by the scientific community because Wegener lacked solid evidence to explain why the continents move. He could only offer vague speculations as to what the underlying force was. Nonetheless, he set the foundations for our modern understanding of tectonic plates. For instance, tectonic plates grind to produce volcanoes and earthquakes.

Examples such as these highlight the theme of collisions.

Kim Simard

Faculty, Cinema, Video and Communications Rembihnútur, 2012 Video 5:00 minutes

Rembihnútur is about colliding with who you are and who you were. It focuses on the complex connections between all that is embedded in our personal history, and all that is changeable. It is about letting go of what is already gone, allowing for the ties between that which is present and past to unravel as one strives for a deeper experience of the present moment.

This video is inspired by the song Rembihnútur, written by the band Sigur Rós and made possible for use through their music video competition launched in 2012.

Visit http://space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/exhibits/summary/the_ collisions_exhibition to see this video.

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Naomie Chartier-Auger, Noémie Fortin-Brunet, Chris Forsyth, Brandon Haber, Alexander Lee, Giovana Olmos, Jesse Ostroff, Christina Spencer, Ruth Stewart-Patterson, Kheanna Walker, Camille Vaugeois-Young Cin/Vid/Com students overseen by Kim Simard, Faculty Collisions Explorations, 2014 Video series Various durations

Bullets Ruth Stewart-Patterson

Students in Experimental Film & Video have compiled video projects they have created that explore the notion of collisions.

The video Bullets takes us on a journey from a dream to the real world. It examines how violence invades our lives and how we accept this. Sam explores what happens when dreams collide with reality and everything you expect is turned inside out.

Digging Picking Shedding proposes that reality consists only of heart rate and Time’s craving stomach. Slumber collides against the tides of logic; and in the deep sea of reveries, the floating shadow of empiricism ambushes pleasant memories with visions of bowels engulfed with fear, guilt, regret and confusion. RED sees dreaming in a different way by combining an intense bone chilling ambiance with objects of everyday life.

Incision presents a human encounter with new technology and our ability to adapt and formalize our everyday lives. It is the collision of art and technology by design and represents the unusual sense of conformity to new technology as an impact on the human experience. Les Hyènes en Muselière is about something wild being tamed.

Kim Simard Visit http://space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/exhibits/summary/the_ collisions_exhibition to see these videos.

Sam Chris Forsyth, Ruth Stewart-Patterson

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RED Camille Vaugeois-Young, Christina Spencer, Naomie Chartier-Auger, Ruth Stewart-Patterson

Digging Picking Shedding Giovana Olmos

Incision Alexander Lee, Brandon Haber, Jesse Ostroff, Kheanna Walker

Les Hyènes en Muselière Noémie Fortin-Brunet

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Etia van Hell

2nd Year, Illustration & Design Contained, 2013 Acrylic on canvas 91 cm x 60 cm

This piece represents how simple one may appear on the outside, when truthfully everyone is somewhat complex on the inside.

Everyone appears the same, and seems to do the same things on a day to day basis. If we could just dig inside people’s minds we would find much more, a collision of thoughts and an explosion of ideas. We would find a gold mine of memories, pain, wisdom, happiness and adventure. I depicted the woman on the bottom in high heels and wearing a towel to represent how women are depicted on the outside. I also used the towel to represent how you can easily unveil someone and find out who they really are.

We all hide behind a curtain, constantly scared of being judged and mocked. Truly, we are all special in different ways and if we could all be ourselves and open our minds we would live in a much more interesting world and would live much more meaningful lives. I left the wood in at the bottom to represent simplicity, and added much more color to the top to represent the human mind. The faces are self-portraits, although two of them on the top are my best friend, with whom I lived all my adventures. She will always be a part of me. It is easy to see a woman as bait. Often women feel like prey, and it is so easy for a woman to give in and throw in the towel. This painting also represents the power that a woman can have if she uses her mind instead of her body to make an impact on how others view her and on the world. Everyone can be extremely powerful but our power is toned down by society, and masked by our fear of being judged. The mind is the most powerful weapon. “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.” (Milton) Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Book 1. Lines 253-55.

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Marie Ashley Nelson

Multidisciplinary Special FX artist Geometry, 2013 (from the Multiple Ways series) Photograph 27.9 cm x 43.2 cm

Multiple exposure photography is a collision of individual photos, layered upon one another to create a visual metaphor. It is a collision of zones of flight and darkness complementing or cancelling each other out. It is a collision between the predictable and unpredictable behavior of vintage cameras with many quirks messing around with the image you’re trying to build. It is a collision of age old chemistry and the desire to make time stand still, a collision between anticipation and patience, and an interpretive collision between the viewer and the image. The process behind multiple exposure photography presents a stark contrast with today’s digital world of instant gratification and super modified images supporting the cult of perfection. It is a process by which I am reminded of the value in taking the time to calculate

an action before executing it, where patience brings immensely more satisfaction than instant gratification, where creating is about being in the moment, where taking a pause from your hectic schedule to notice something lovely becomes a part of everyday life, and finally, how I found the ability to let go and view errors as a part of all things beautiful. It is my pleasure to share with you a photo from my collection called Multiple Ways.

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Vincent Smith Charron

1st Year, Illustration & Design Schism for Profit, 2013 Ink on paper 60 cm x 90 cm

The individuals on the left seek to spread awareness. They yearn for revolution and they act in desperation. Unable to be heard, their mouths are crossed off, but their eyes are wide open.

To the right are the obedient many. They are indulging in the luxuries provided to them by corporate empires, treating life like a party while ignoring the truths that make them uncomfortable.

They exist in a cycle of escapism and existential self-indulgence.

They believe whatever they are told. They are unable to see, so their eyes are crossed away, but they are able to be heard, even if they have nothing important to say.

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In front of them is the police force, defending the status quo behind the veil of peace keeping. They are but pawns in this grand game of chess, but their blind ignorance protects the evils that blind.

The man in the middle is the true victim, a psychosocial symptom of a sick society.

Behind him stands the symbol of Capitalism, the source of all the propaganda, all the brain numbing ads and all the stupid TV shows that tell us how to act. All this while those who maintain power are going overseas and stealing resources, protecting one another when they act unjustly, and gradually destroying the middle class. They are holders of the “truth”, and they don’t like sharing. It is the manifestation of the 1%, and of those who manipulate collective thought through their brotherhood’s network.

Sumaya Ugas

McGill, International Development Studies, Dawson College alumnus Excerpt from thursday, 2014 Letter

thursday you had a patronizing way singular to older relatives, close or distant, and like every child of immigrants grappling with often overbearing elders, i usually cast aside your words of counsel; the calculus books you gave me years ago are still collecting dust at the bottom of my book shelf. like my father you never failed to remind me that i was: dark, muslim, and woman, in a world where such characteristics did not represent success. reminded me that i had to embrace myself, work twice as hard as anyone and never waver under the pressure to get to where i had to. only when it was too late did i realize what you intended. you wanted me to have a home in my heart, that i be whole and strong and able. you wanted unbelonging to be foreign to me. http://space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/explorations/article/thursday

during the early nineties, my parents, like many somalis at that time, packed and fled somalia as a crisis which would eventually become a bitter, and still on going civil war, unfolded. this wave of emigration expanded an already existent transnational somali diaspora across the continents. i am a first generation immigrant; meaning Canadian-born, of immigrant parents. early on i had struggled with identity; most of the time because i felt i was only pieces of clashing identities; that i could not belong in a single group. in a way it is true, but i’ve now learnt, in part thanks to an aunt whom i’ll never get the chance to thank, to be grateful and embrace how lucky i am to have a home that is not confined in one space. this is a piece on diasporic generational disconnect and collision, a letter to this aunt i began to understand only a week before her passing. some things make much more sense when left unsaid. you try verbalizing them and suddenly realize the fragility of it all, feel the thoughts silently deflate or implode. but often times healing happens through sharing, through expressing. so i write, to let the hurt bleed and the wounds heal.

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Chloe Yoshino Lemay

1st Year, Illustration & Design The Eternal Supernova, 2013 Pen and ink 43.0 cm x 17.3 cm

Contradiction and opposition have always been intriguing subjects for me. The inner collision of oneself especially comes to my mind whenever I think about drawing something. In this artwork, I have attempted to draw the collisions of multiple oppositions in this world. The upper part represents the daylight, as opposed to the lower part which represents the night. It also represents the opposition of nature and technology that we humans are experiencing nowadays.

Many symbols support these oppositions, such as the volcano versus the buildings, the ruins versus the geometric forms, etc.

However, the composition itself is almost symmetric, because the ultimate message that is portrayed in this piece is, “Contradictions are meant to be: the more one struggles, the more their inner explosion will be beautiful and eternal.” Again, even this message is contradictory, for an explosion cannot be eternal.

Hence, the title that I came up with for this piece is The Eternal Supernova; that is what “collision” means to me, and what I aim to be.

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Acknowledgments

Gratitude to all individuals and entities listed below: Guidance to those involved in the project: Geoff Carley, Guiseppe Di Leo, Meinert Hansen, Julianna Joos, Andrew Katz, Aaron Krishtalka, Don Mahon, Maimire Mennasemay, Kenneth Milkman, Frank Mulvey, Kim Simard, Joel Trudeau, Jiri Tucker and George Vaitkunas

Image source for components of the cover design: David Hoult Graphic design: Catherine Moleski Dean of Instructional Development: Barbara Freedman

Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery Committee: Andréa Cole, Don Corman, Simon Davies, Mary Di Liello, Guiseppe Di Leo, Scott Millar, Frank Mulvey, Michèle Seguin

SSAP Coordinator: Tina Romeo

SPACE and exhibition coordinator, creative director, editor, additional photography: Frank Mulvey

Office of the Director General: Donna Varrica

Administrative assistance, file management: Ursula Sommerer

Secretary, Visual Arts Sector: Helen Wawrzetz Photographs, scans and digital files: Individual contributors Special thanks to: SPACE committee and advisors, all students, faculty, staff and other participants. © 2014, Dawson College ISBN 978-1-5501607-0-3

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Collisions / introduction by Maimire Mennasemay, Kenneth Milkman, Aaron Krishtalka and Andrew Katz ; edited by Frank Mulvey.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery, Dawson College, Montréal, Québec from April 17 - May 8, 2014.

ISBN 978-1-55016-070-3 (pbk.)

1. Art, Canadian--Québec (Province)--Montréal--21st century-Exhibitions. I. Mulvey, Frank, 1960-, editor II. Warren G. Flowers Gallery, issuing body N6547.M65C64 2014

709.714'28

C2014-901664-6

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