Bind, Special Projects Gallery, York University, Toronto,  Feb 6-10, 2023

Exhibition Text written by: Corynn Kokolakis

Bind: An exhibition of works by Corynn Kokolakis, D’Andrea Bowie & Rachael Grad, Toronto, Canada

Tethered through the emplacement and material conditions of their making, three artists explore the inherent connections and conflicts between art and life. Produced by mothers always in relation to multiple others (human and non-human) the works in this exhibition speak to the entanglements and constant negotiation required to “be with” everchanging place, materials, small humans, and the creative self. Themes of collaboration, holding, shaping, watching, and waiting are addressed with a similar focus on the material qualities of each artist’s chosen medium, drawing a line toward embodiment. In this sense artistic labour might mimic maternal labour, but as writer Eula Biss notes: “Mothers are more families than just workers, and that is the bind. We are lashed to this institution by our own attachments and desires” (xviii). It is those varied attachments and individual desires that permeate through the works included in Bind.

Rich, Adrienne, et al. Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. W. W. Norton & Company, 2021.