Urban Myths & Modern Fables

Hamra Abbas, Khadim Ali, Henna Nadeem, Hitesh Natalwala, Tazeen Qayyum, Nusra Latif Qureshi, Naeem Rana, Sabeen Raja, Amin Rehman, Sangeeta Sandrasegar, Alia Toor
Co-presented with the Doris McCarthy Gallery, UTSC, 1265 Military Trail

Curated by Haema Sivanesan

Eleven contemporary artists from all over the globe interpret urban myths and modern fables. Drawing on the notion of myth–a perpetuating narrative featuring heroic or supernatural characters and events–or the idea of a fable–an aphoristic or instructive story–these artists employ fictive strategies to comment on the contemporary world. Using conceptual techniques of visual puns, quotation and metaphor to re-invent and challenge master narratives informing perceptions of culture, the work of these artists speaks of culture as operating between the past and the present, the real and the imagined, as an ongoing process of myth-making and story-telling.