In conversation with former Visual Arts Centre Director Victoria Leblanc, exhibition curators Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley discuss the history of working in friendship at the VAC, from its founding in the 1940s as the Potters Club to the cultural institution it is today.
Ceramics Friends highlights community building, friendship and creative interrelation through clay. This edition of the biennale expands the notion of ceramics beyond produced objects to present the works of five artist duos ― Margaux Smith and Heather Goodchild (Ontario), Benny Nemer (Paris) and August Klintberg (Calgary) with Rosalie Namer, Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley (Montreal), Eve Tagny (Montreal) and Emii Alrai (Leeds), Celia Perrin-Sidarous and Marie-Michelle Deschamps (Montreal) ― who work in friendship, engaging with clay as a shared conceptual material to bring forward communal aspects of ceramics work within a studio setting, and the care, resilience, and collaboration this generates. The McClure Gallery thanks the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for their support of this project.
Leisure is a conceptual collaborative art practice between Montreal-based artists Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley. Working together under the name “Leisure” since 2004, they engage with cultural historical narratives through research, conversation, published texts, curatorial projects and art production.
