Views on the 4th: Sameer Farooq

“While journalism reports and fiction reveals, aesthetic journalism does both.” – Alfredo Cramerotti

Visual artist Sameer Farooq will present his views on the topic of art as reporting to inaugurate our new speaker series, Views on the 4th. This theoretical and philosophical discussion will expand on a reoccurring tendency among contemporary artists to employ aesthetic journalism as a strategy of recounting historical, political, and personal events. This form of experimentation in the arts encourages viewers to decipher fact from fiction while also considering intentions of the author/artist. Sameer will meditate on the place of the imagination in reframing truth telling and its visual consequences. This topic is particularly timely as popular discourses are preoccupied with debates around veracity. As facts and fictions are being blent, viewers are asked to consider: who has the privilege of representing the truth, and who has the privilege of receiving it?

Sameer Farooq (b. Canada) completed an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (2014) and a BFA from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam (2005). His interdisciplinary practice investigates tactics of representation and enlists the tools of installation, photography, documentary filmmaking, writing and the methods of anthropology to explore various forms of collecting, interpreting, and display. Upcoming projects include an ambitious public installation at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, a residency with Open Studio, Toronto, and an exhibition inaugurating the University of Reno’s new arts centre. He has exhibited internationally and nationally at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), the Art Gallery of York University, Maquis Projects (Izmir), Blackwood Gallery (Mississauga), Trankat (Tétouan, Morocco), Sol Koffler Gallery (Providence), Artellewa (Cairo), and Sanat Limani (Istanbul). Reviews and essays dedicated to his work have been included in C Magazine, The Washington Post, BBC Culture, Hyperallergic, Artnet, The Huffington Post, Canadian Art, and others. Farooq has been awarded several grants from the Canada Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and the Europe Media Fund, as well the President’s Scholarship at the Rhode Island School of Design.

sameerfarooq.com

SAVAC is pleased to inaugurate its speakers series Views on the 4th. The series hosts artists, curators and arts administrators who share views about themes relevant to their work – promoting research-based artistic practices in the arts and furthering critical examinations of contemporary issues.