Anna Binta Diallo: Topographies

Topographies is a new body of work by Winnipeg-based artist Anna Binta Diallo, exploring map-making and world-building. Inspired by the rich visual histories and formal qualities of maps, this new installation explores the metaphoric and symbolic possibilities of representation. If a map is a translation of the important elements and characteristics of a particular place during a moment in time, this exhibition asks, what happens when the view is expanded? How do you contain a multitude of perspectives across geographies, times, and cultures? What richness is revealed through these layered forms of meaning-making?

For Topographies Diallo employs a personal archive of historical and outdated maps to re-interpret them as the basis for a new body of sculptural works. Exploring the sedimentary layers that form various imagined terrains, the work builds on this concept as a metaphor for the layered histories, material cultures, and human/non-human flourishing that happens within a place over time. Using layers of Plexiglas, the hung panels form large-scale topographies, consisting of cut-out shapes, textures, and found imagery, interpreted as vertical landscapes that include fossilizations of visual information, and clues of human habitation. Employing the use of light, space, layering, and depth, these new works are a material departure from Diallo’s recent work, proposing new ways to convey a narrative that continues to expand on previous research on folklore, language, history, and transcultural identity.

By assembling imagery from a diverse set of archival sources, this immersive installation maps a new world, evoking themes of place-making and stewardship, as well as the consequences of colonial histories and conquest, divisions, and ownership. Together, the works in Topographies explore how our perception of land and ground can transform, interwoven with our experiences and history, mutating and morphing like the earth’s crust.

Exhibition Publication

View a digital copy of the publication for this exhibition here.

Anna Binta Diallo is a multidisciplinary visual artist who explores themes of memory and nostalgia to create unexpected works about identity. She was born in Dakar (Senegal, 1983), grew up in Saint-Boniface (Manitoba), and lived more than fifteen years in Montreal/Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang. She completed her BFA at the University of Manitoba’s School of Fine Arts (2006) and received her MFA from the Transart Institue in Berlin (2013). Her work has been exhibited widely in Canada and internationally (Finland, Senegal, Mali, Taiwan, and Germany), in institutions such as Centre CLARK, QC, Museum London, London ON; Contemporary Calgary; MOCA Taipei; SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, and featured in Biennales such as Momenta and Bamako Encounters. In 2022, she unveiled her first public artwork, a mural integrated into the architecture of the Espace Denis Savard, in the Verdun Auditorium in Montreal. She is the recipient of several awards, prizes, and distinctions, notably from the Conseil des Arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2021, she was a finalist in the Salt Spring National Art Prize, was awarded the Barbara Sphor Memorial Prize from the Walter Phillips Gallery at the Banff Centre, and received the Black Designers of Canada Award of Excellence. In 2022, she was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award. Her works are part of numerous public and private collections, including; EQ Bank; RBC Royal Bank, and Scotiabank. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, on Treaty 1, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples and the Métis Nation. Anna Binta Diallo is represented by Towards Gallery.

Installation of Topographies at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2023. Images by Toni Hafkenscheid.

The artist gratefully acknowledges support from the Canada Council for the Arts for this exhibition.

This exhibition is supported by TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment.

Queering the Collection

Queering the Collection brings together a selection of artworks from the RMG’s permanent collection and seeks to expand upon the established interpretations of these artworks by looking at them through a queer lens. The artworks were selected taking into account records and documentation that suggest these artists lived outside of gender and sexuality binaries and in doing so, questions why these facts have been historically removed from conversations about the artist and their work.

“Queer” as a term is often used as shorthand for the wider 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Historically used as a slur, it was reclaimed during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s as a way to refuse stigmatization. Today the term remains controversial, but is rooted in the urge to challenge normative systems and relations, question accepted boundaries, and reject societal expectations. It is a way of being in the world, a shared sense of understanding and community with other queer people. In the current global context, when the rights of queer people are being simultaneously recognized and all but erased, examining historical queerness feels increasingly urgent, acknowledging that we have always been here, and provides a sense of ancestry to young queer people.

Queerness has always been present in the arts but has been historically dependent on artists remaining invisible and unnamed. Rediscovering and acknowledging the queer stories of these artists, explicit or covert, adds a valuable layer to the interpretation of their work. The featured artists have used their artwork as an outlet to explore themselves, seek change, and redefine the world around them. Some artists lived openly, sharing their lives and experiences publically through art, some we may only be able to speculate about, while others lived quietly during a time when their private lives were criminalized. They have used their artwork to express the pain of losing loved ones to AIDS, the joy of queer relationships, and the banality of everyday life; essential human experiences often only permitted in private spaces for many queer people in history and even today.

Queering the Collection invites viewers to consider a new lens of interpretation when looking at these works. In questioning how society interprets our histories, we establish foundational methods for being curious and questioning how we live today, and think critically about our role in the world.

Installation of Queering the Collection at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2023. Images by Toni Hafkenscheid.

The RMG Spring Artisan Market

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is very excited to host our first artisan market of the year in partnership with the City of Oshawa.

The RMG Spring Artisan Market will take place on Sunday, June 11^th from 11-4PM. Our market will be conducted indoors, alongside the Oshawa Peony Festival.

Featuring high-quality artisans from across the GTA, we strive to provide a unique and local shopping experience.

Curatorial Tours: Fountain of Dreams and Topographies

Join Associate Curator Erin Szikora for a guided tour of the exhibitions Fountain of Dreams, with work by Aaron Jones, and Topographies, with work by Anna Binta Diallo.

Thursday Curatorial Tours are free and open to everyone. They provide deeper insight into the themes, context, and content of our exhibitions. Seating options are available. For more information about access and our facilities, please visit rmg.on.ca/visit/ or contact Hannah Keating at [email protected] with any specific requests.

No advance registration required.

Part of the Curatorial Tours Series.

Curatorial Tours: Queering the Collection

Join Project Coordinator, Digital Collections and curator of this show Heather Riley for a guided tour of their permanent collection exhibition, which explores themes of queerness within the RMG’s collection.

Thursday Curatorial Tours are free and open to everyone. They provide deeper insight into the themes, context, and content of our exhibitions. Seating options are available. For more information about access and our facilities, please visit rmg.on.ca/visit/ or contact Hannah Keating at [email protected] with any specific requests.

No advance registration required.

Part of the Curatorial Tours Series.

Save the date! Join us for these upcoming Curatorial Tours:

September 21 – Untouched Landscapes and Topographies, Erin Szikora

OPG Sunday: Colourful Flowers

Let’s celebrate Oshawa’s Peony Festival together! We will create fantastical colourful flowers in our studio space.

Free admission.

This is a drop in event. No registration is required.

This event is generously sponsored by Ontario Power Generation.

OPG Sunday: Watercolour Collages

Join us for a special guest, Ms Love from The Love & Light Collective at 11am who will do a literary workshop with a story, active movement and discussion on a book called “Indigo Dreaming”. In the studio, create a watercolour collage inspired by the book and the Oshawa Art Association exhibition.

Free admission.

This is a drop in event. No registration is required.

A young girl living on the coast of South Carolina dreams of her distant relatives on the shores of Africa and beyond. Indigo Dreaming is a poetic meditation between two young girls—on different sides of the sea—who wonder about how they are intricately linked by culture, even though they are separated by location. The girls’ reflections come together, creating an imaginative and illuminating vision of home, as well as a celebration of the Black diaspora. This gorgeous lyrical tale engages the senses and evokes childlike curiosity and wonder.

This event is generously sponsored by Ontario Power Generation.

Seniors Spring Social

Let’s celebrate spring together! We are offering an afternoon of tea, tours, a floral arranging workshop, and watercolour painting opportunities. This free event is funded by the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program.

Schedule of events

Tours of the RMG exhibitions at 1pm and 2pm
Watercolour Flowers workshop 1:30-2:00pm or 2:30-3:00pm (drop in maximum 15 per session)
Floral Arranging Workshop with Brookstead Flowers 1:30-2:30pm (waitlist available)
Tea and Coffee in our onsite Arthurs Restaurant 1-3pm

OPG Sunday: Patterns and Prints

We will be inspired by the patterns, colours and shapes seen in the Piecework exhibition to create two unique artworks.

Free admission.

This is a drop in event. No registration is required.

This event is generously sponsored by Ontario Power Generation.

OPG Sunday: Fringe Feather Craft in Association with the Durham and Oshawa Metis Council

This month, create fringe art led by Métis Council instructor Kathy Morgan. Decorate your fringe with colourful beads and feathers to design unique art that you can attach to bags, purses or key rings. Explore the Mamanaw Pekiskwewina | Mother Tongues: Dish with One Spoon Territory project colouring book Story and Song to customize your own page and display proudly!

Free admission.

This is a drop in event. No registration is required.

This event is generously sponsored by Ontario Power Generation.