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Contemporary Art Gallery

555 Nelson Street
Vancouver, Canada
Open from Tuesday to
Sunday 12 pm → 6 pm

Admission always free
ArchiveExhibition
5 Jul 19until22 Sep 19

Maryam Jafri

Automatic Negative Thought

B.C. Binning and Alvin Balkind Galleries

A close up view of a sculpture forming a large-scale crossword puzzle. The dead squares of the crossword are filled with physical books affixed directly to the wooden surface.

Maryam Jafri Where We’re At (detail) 2017. Photo: SITE Photography

Automatic Negative Thought is the first major solo exhibition in Canada of works by Copenhagen and New York based artist Maryam Jafri. Jafri works across a breadth of media, including video, sculpture, performance and photography. Her practice draws from diverse traditions of literature, theatre, pop and conceptual art, often bringing together both found and original material. For the past fifteen years she has questioned the cultural and visual representations of history, politics and economics, interrogating the politics of food production and consumption, the highly-coded performance rituals of nascent nation-states, cultural memory and copyright law, as well as the impacts of graphic design, branding and display.

Across both gallery spaces, Automatic Negative Thought interrogates our contemporary culture’s fixation on “wellness” and self-care, suggesting the ways in which these trends are often manifested through consumerism and materialism, and entangled with underlying conditions of economic precariousness. Jafri uses strategies of appropriation and analysis to expose and dissect the systems that underpin our post-industrial, capital-focused society and implicate us in its maintenance.

Organized by Nigel Prince

Automatic Negative Thought is generously supported by the Danish Arts Foundation

Biography

Maryam Jafri’s work has been the focus of recent solo exhibitions at Taxispalais Kunstahalle Tirol in Innsbruck (2019); ICA Los Angeles (2019); Van Abbemuseum, Eindoven (2016); Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2016) and Kunsthalle Basel (2015) and included in the Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art (2018); Sao Paulo Biennial (2016) and the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennial (2015).

Two sculptures sit on the floor of a gallery space. The sculptures are made of wooden rectangular boxes with prosthetic feet protruding out of them. Four photographs are placed in various spots.
A sculpture sits on the floor against a wall of a gallery. The sculpture is a wooden box with prosthetic feet protruding out in front. Two photographs of people’s backs and an egg carton sit on top.
A sculpture forming a large-scale crossword puzzle hangs on the gallery wall. The dead squares of the crossword are filled with physical books affixed directly to the wooden surface.
A sculpture forming a large-scale crossword puzzle hangs on the wall. Across the gallery, a wooden, two-tier box displays Buddha toys and a monitor. The monitor displays video of soldiers' meditating.
A video is projected onto a dark gallery wall with a black bench in front. The video displays a photograph of Maryam Jafri’s sculptures watermarked with a Getty Images copyright.

Documents

Program guidepdf1mbExhibition materialpdf1mb

Talks & Events

A photograph of a pair of prostheses feet placed on black fabric. EventTalkMaryam Jafri with Martha Rans: What’s Copyright Got to Do with It?
6 Jul 19·3:00 PM

Related Exhibitions

An image depicting the back of a person’s head, with short blonde hair. The person is cast in warm light with rainbows refracting throughout the image. ExhibitionThe Act of Seeing with One’s Own EyesEd Atkins, Edgardo Aragón, Kim Beom, Rossella Biscotti, Stan Brakhage, Duncan Campbell, Fabiola Carranza, Maryam Jafri, Toril Johannessen, Shahryar Nashat
13 Jun 14until29 Jun 14
A close up view of a sculpture forming a large-scale crossword puzzle. The dead squares of the crossword are filled with physical books affixed directly to the wooden surface.
Two sculptures sit on the floor of a gallery space. The sculptures are made of wooden rectangular boxes with prosthetic feet protruding out of them. Four photographs are placed in various spots.
A sculpture sits on the floor against a wall of a gallery. The sculpture is a wooden box with prosthetic feet protruding out in front. Two photographs of people’s backs and an egg carton sit on top.
A sculpture forming a large-scale crossword puzzle hangs on the gallery wall. The dead squares of the crossword are filled with physical books affixed directly to the wooden surface.
A sculpture forming a large-scale crossword puzzle hangs on the wall. Across the gallery, a wooden, two-tier box displays Buddha toys and a monitor. The monitor displays video of soldiers' meditating.
A video is projected onto a dark gallery wall with a black bench in front. The video displays a photograph of Maryam Jafri’s sculptures watermarked with a Getty Images copyright.