Outdoor projections during nighttime hours Thursday to Sunday, at the Centre at the Forks (behind Museum London). Please note that during private events at Museum London, the video will not be on view and we apologize for the inconvenience.
Jessica Karuhanga,
Being who you are there is no other, 2017
two single channel videos, 14:58 mins.
Collection of the Museum London; Purchase, 2021
Jessica Karuhanga lives and works in Toronto. She completed her BFA degree in visual arts at London’s Western University. Her practice often involves a complex mix of movement-based performance, video, sound, and drawing. An important objective of her work is the investigation of what she describes as “constellations of blackness.” In it, the body, usually Karuhanga’s own, serves as an expressive instrument.
In this video, bodies and gestures assert difference within the traditional history of Canadian art and particularly, its ideas of landscape. Over the twentieth century the Northern landscape has been mythologized, shaped into a symbol of national strength, and as unpopulated paradise for settler expansion. Amongst the trees, reeds, and grasses, lyrical movement—some of which relate to Karuhanga’s Ugandan heritage—celebrates diversity and growth, and beckons us to envision a broader, more accurate view of Canadian culture.
Jessica Karuhanga is an acclaimed artist with performances and showings across Ontario, Canada, and beyond. She has presented her work at The Royal Conservatory, Art Gallery of Ontario, OCAD University, Videofag, The Drake Hotel, Deluge Contemporary Art (Victoria BC), Varley Art Gallery of Markham, AGYU, Queer Arts Festival, Vancouver, and Goldsmiths (London UK). She has performed (with Lido Pimienta) at the Polaris Prize festival and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Electric Eclectics Festival; Xpace Cultural Centre and Trinity Square Video (Toronto ON). Karuhanga has also performed in a work by Brendan Fernandes at the Sculpture Centre, New York City.