Worldings + Future Worldings

Future Worldings cohort at Similkameen Artist Residency with residency coordinator, Alexandra Bischoff. Future Worldings Artist + Curator Roundtable at the Future Worldings Conference. (R-L) Pebofatso Mokoena, Lisa Baldissera, Usha Seejarim, Karen Tam, Lebogang Mogul, Nura Ali, Sun Forest. The Worldings project commenced with a residency with leading South African collaborative master printer Jillian Ross. Returning to Canada in 2020, Ross was the Master Printer and Director of the David Krut Workshop (DKW) in Johannesburg, South Africa, for 16 years working with celebrated South African and international artists in collaborative printmaking. Master Printer Jillian Ross (right) with printers Chad Cordeiro (left) and Sbongiseni Khulu (centre). (Image Above) The core collaborative team for William Kentridge’s Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts series (2016 – 2020) published by David Krut Workshop. Photograph by Richard Kilpert at the Centre of Arts Education, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, December 2019. Courtesy of artist. William Kentridge, Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (1 God’s Opinion is Unknown; 2 Leaning on Air), 2018-2019. Master Squamish and Kwakwaka'wakw sculptor and carver Master Squamish and Kwakwaka'wakw sculptor and carver The seventh chapter of this project was The Future Worldings Reading Group. This group gathered of project partners, artists, writers, and presenters who shared and read diverse texts together. Meeting on two separate occasions in July and August 2024, the group shared readings that had influenced their approaches to “worlding” and shaped their considerations of the specific political, artistic and philosophical conditions at the sites of their research. Their annotated list is shared below. The ninth chapter of this project was a performance by South African artist Wezile Ngibe Harmans on the occasion of the Future Worldings exhibition. As Ngibe Harmans chooses not to document his performances, please find below the images of the sets and props he used for this performance. Future Worldings is generously supported by funding received from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Freybe Foundation, the Government of Canada, the Hamber Foundation, Metro Vancouver's Regional Cultural Project Grants program, the Michael and Inna O’Brian Family Foundation, North Vancouver Recreation and Culture, the Peter and Betty Haworth Fund at the West Vancouver Foundation, and the Vancity Community Branch Grant. Xwalacktun’s South African residencies were generously supported by funding received from the BC Arts Council’s Professional Development grant program. Future Worldings is produced in partnership with the Aboriginal Gathering Place, Artist Proof Studios, Bag Factory, Contemporary Art Society Vancouver, the Jake Kerr Faculty of Graduate Studies at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, NIROX Foundation, Similkameen Artist Residency and Transformative Memory International Network / Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia.