DesignTO - Exchange Piece, 2021
Exchange Piece, DesignTO
January 22-February 28, 2021
Exchange Piece was the curated exhibition at DesignTO in 2021. I applied to be a part of this exhibition, loving the idea of being paired with another artist to collaborate on a piece. I was thrilled to find out that I had been selected for the exhibition and paired with artist, Khadija Aziz. We met virtually to chat about our practices, shared readings and inspiration and began to collaborate on our piece for the exhibition. We created a diptych of collages. Each collage was created by one of us working on a layer without knowing what the other person was doing. We would then send the file to the other person, who would add another layer. This was a really inspiring and fun way to collaborate, and it shifted how I thought about creating work. Not only was I responding to what Khadija had done in the previous layer, but I was leaving space for what Khadija could also do next.
Khadija and I also created an additional project to accompany our artwork for Exchange Piece. In thinking about care and collaboration, we created an interactive collage-making website called Layers of Love for the public to visit and interact with and create their own collages. You can visit this website and make your own collage here.
Additionally, in June of 2021, we had the good fortune of being selected to have our work printed large scale and installed on the windows at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, curated by DesignTO.
Photograph by Laura Kay Keeling
Here are more details about the project, from the DesignTO website:
The online exhibition ‘Exchange Piece’ explores collaboration as an act of care through an exchange between 10 early career and senior artists and designers working in pairs to explore how care in the creative process affects the way we relate and position ourselves to what we create. As an extension of the exhibition, the ‘Exchange Piece’ window installation features the work of one pair of collaborators: Khadija Aziz and Laura Kay Keeling, and the solo work of Laura Kay Keeling.
Working together, Khadija Aziz and Laura Kay Keeling created ‘Layers of Labour of Love’, a diptych of digital collages exchanged between the artists reflecting on labour, love, and acts of care that have become especially prominent in our communities over the last year. Paired by DesignTO, the artists participated in an exchange of conversations, readings, and their own artworks, to learn about each other’s personal narratives that inspire them to make the art that they do. Twice a week for four weeks, Khadija and Laura exchanged two digital collages and each added new scanned images of plants, textiles, and other everyday objects to develop this diptych. These reciprocating acts of care – through the labour of consciously contributing to each other’s work – has culminated in a visual representation of what could only be the result of a truly collaborative effort.
Photographed by Laura Kay Keeling
‘When It Gets Dark, I Have Shallow Breath’ is an installation by Laura Kay Keeling that strives to unpack grief and explore healing following the traumatic death of her grandmother. Through experiencing loss as a lingering visitor, she practiced sitting with grief to honor her experiences and memories. In creating this work, Laura practiced care through her approach to the subject: care for herself, her memories, and in the selection and use of materials.
The ‘Exchange Piece’ window installation was curated by DesignTO, co-presented with Harbourfront Centre, and supported by Lemay.