November 1 – November 22, 2019
The Paradox: Free Speech and Holocaust Denial in Canada
Holocaust denial is a destructive force that exists to assault the dignity of survivors, sanitize the historical record of Nazi Germany, and legitimize the prospect of future genocide. 75 years after Liberation, Holocaust denial and antisemitism are reviving and renewing while international debates rage over the limits of free speech. The Paradox: Free Speech and Holocaust Denial in Canada explores the regulation of historical memory and what Austrian philosopher Karl Popper terms the paradox of tolerance: that “Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance.” How should a liberal democracy like Canada respond to Holocaust denial? Is it right to limit the participation of those that would destroy democracy? What are the reasonable limits of free speech? What major decisions set the limits of denial? How have other nations responded to Holocaust denial?
The Paradox: Free Speech and Holocaust Denial in Canada is an exhibition running as part of the Sarah & Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre’s 2019 Holocaust Education Week.
May 1 – June 2, 2019
Ayana V. Jackson | Fissure
(CONTACT Photography Festival)
Ayana V. Jackson, Saffronia, from the series Intimate Justice in the Stolen Moment, 2017.
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Baudoin Lebon.
Employing her own body, Ayana V. Jackson deconstructs racial and gender stereotypes to create contemporary portraits laced with historical allusions. Deeply influenced by her own fluid identity and her transcontinental practice—working between New York, Paris, and Johannesburg— Jackson’s images crystallize African and African-diasporic realities while challenging a fraught legacy of pictorial representation. With Fissure, Jackson’s work activates the Campbell House Museum. Built in 1822, the Campbell House’s age, style, decor, and original function epitomize the historical period alluded to in Jackson’s photographs in a visceral way.
Organized by CONTACT in partnership with Campbell House Museum. Presenting partner Wedge Curatorial Projects
April 9 – 18, 2019
A Shot in the Dark – Sheridan College Student Art Exhibition
A Shot in the Dark presented a collection of work by fourth year students in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College. Working in a diverse range of media, the artists exhibited contemporary work in print media, photography and sculpture. Displayed at Campbell House, one of Toronto’s most historic buildings, this group of emerging artists looked to the explorative and experimental nature of art making.
The Art and Art History Program is a joint program between the University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College. For more information on the program, please visit www.artandarthistory.ca
March 1 – April 1, 2019
Redefining Home: A Story of Japanese Canadian Resettlement in Toronto
Harold and Hana Kawasoe on a Picnic
Courtesy of Kawasoe Family
Redefining Home: A Story of Japanese Canadian Resettlement in Toronto uncovers the hidden story of Harold and Hana Kawasoe, a Japanese Canadian couple who once lived in the attic of Campbell House. During the Second World War, over 22,000 Japanese Canadians were exiled to internment and work camps. Others were forced to move to sugar beet farms in Alberta and Manitoba to keep their families together, or even deported to Japan.
Harold and Hana, like many Japanese Canadian citizens, left for Ontario, leaving their homes and families behind in British Columbia. Removed from everything they had ever known, how did this young couple eventually make Toronto their home?
Using Harold’s and Hana’s remarkable story, Redefining Home focuses on the forced relocation and resettlement of Japanese Canadians in Toronto in the 1940s and beyond. The exhibition invites visitors to engage with the topic through archival materials, family photographs, and historical objects – assembled for display in the very house where Harold and Hana lived from 1948 to 1951. Redefining Home uncovers the opportunities and obstacles that Toronto’s Japanese Canadian community faced as they rebuilt their lives and homes in a foreign city.
The exhibit also features original art installations by Lillian Michiko Blakey and Laura Shintani. Reflecting on Harold’s and Hana’s story, as well as their own experiences of being Japanese Canadian, each artist explores ideas of home, identity, loss, and resilience.
Most often people think of Campbell House in the colonial era, forgetting that the building has been part of Toronto’s history for nearly 200 years. This exhibit brings to light the slice of time shortly after the Second World War, when Hobbs Glass Co. shared the house with the Kawasoe family. I am grateful to the curators for placing this significant aspect of Campbell House’s history within a national context.
Liz Driver, Director/Curator, Campbell House Museum
Curated by: Meghan Drascic-Gaudio, Hailey Graham and Madeleine Howard
Redefining Home ran from Friday, March 1 to Monday, April 1, 2019.