12.04.1999 | 01.16.2000
LUMINOUS STORIES | LEILA SUJIR

This exhibition is the first to present a collection of Leila Sujir's videos and video installations. During the last ten years, Sujir has produced a mature body of video based work that addresses a complex matrix of cultural issues with poetic acuity and visual sophistication. The works form a suite with a major theme on the flow of history and how it carries public events and private lives in its current. The stories begin with Sujir's own experience. They spread out to include the voices of those close to her, her family and friends, then the public sphere of politics, social history, the contemporary issues, and finally, back to her family and their future. Sujir develops new structures for a hybrid narrative of autobiography, fiction, history, interviews, myth, and documentation. Throughout she engages the senses of with texture, sound, light, vibrant colour and pattern.

Autobiography serves as a taproot for Sujir. Drawing from it, she can address issues of culture, class, and gender. Her commitment to developing ethical relationships with her 'subjects' is significant. In a time when we are offered a regular menu of human spectacle in news and entertainment, it can be startling when subjects' have a hand in how their story is told. Sujir's luminous stories are a strong endorsement of identity and difference.

Organized by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery of Peterborough with funding assistance from The Canada Council for the Arts.