I’m excited to announce that my MFA thesis exhibition I Saw You in the Archive will be exhibited at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery (UWAG) on May 15th - May 31st. This exhibitions is the culmination of two years of research and creation while pursuing my graduate studies at the University of Waterloo. The body of work explore how history and the past still linger and effect the present; how the rhetoric of eugenics still seeps into our contemporary understandings of ourselves and each other. I Saw You in the Archive explores a local history within Kitchener-Waterloo of sterilization of people deemed ‘feeble-minded’ during the mid-20th century. How does this history of control and containment persist today? And how do we understand and frame such a history?

My exhibition investigates these questions and more through an immersive installation featuring video, performance, and print materials. It explores the history of the Kaufman Rubber Company, it’s owner A. R. Kaufman, and his connection to the eugenics movement within Canada. My research involved extensive digging through the University of Waterloo’s archives, which house the Kaufman family fond, and creating work that expresses my personal reactions to encountering this material.

I invite anyone who is able to please attend the exhibition. We will be having an opening event on Thursday, May 15th from 5-8pm. My solo exhibition will show adjacent to my lovely classmate Azadeh Pirazimian’s MFA thesis exhibition. UWAG is open Wednesdays to Saturdays, 12-5pm or by appointment, and is located at East Campus Hall, room 1239 at 263 Philips St in Waterloo, ON.

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