Spread from The Day After.

Information

The Day After takes root in Maryam Jafri’s ongoing project Independence Day 1934-1975 (2009-present), an installation composed of photographs taken on the first independence day in former European colonies across Asia and Africa between 1934 and 1975. The photos are sourced from the countries themselves (in order to highlight, in the artist’s words, “how post-colonial states in Asia and Africa preserve the founding images of their inception as independent nations”) and display striking similarities despite disparate geographical and temporal origins, revealing a political model exported from Europe and in the process of being cloned throughout the world. The installation gathers images collected from 29 Asian and African archives, juxtaposed according to a specific grid around categories of events. In her arrangement, Jafri emphasizes the generic character of the rituals and ceremonies held during the 24-hour twilight period when a territory transforms into a nation-state. The grid, reminiscent of both photo-conceptualism and the storyboard medium, is broken, disturbing the ideological order at play in the images and suggesting non-linear readings.

How To Order

To order any of our publications, please send an email including title(s), number of copies, and your mailing address to: blackwood.gallery[at]utoronto.ca.

The Blackwood Gallery would like to thank Bétonsalon – Centre for art & research, Tabakalera, Films Division of India, The African Photography Initiative, and Kamel Lazaar Foundation, as well as all the researchers and contributors to the exhibition.

The Blackwood Gallery is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Department of Visual Studies (UTM).

The Day After

Maryam Jafri

Micropublication produced on the occasion of the exhibition, The Day After, January 13 – March 6, 2016.

Featuring texts by Maryam Jafri with contributions by Jean Genet, Kapwani Kiwanga, Helihanta Rajaonarison, S.N.S. Sastry, Jürg Schnieder, students and researchers from the University of Toronto, an introduction by curator Christine Shaw, and black and white archival photographs throughout.
Download micropublication
pdf

The Blackwood
University of Toronto Mississauga
3359 Mississauga Road
Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6

[email protected]
(905) 828-3789
The galleries are currently open. Hours of operation: Monday–Saturday, 12–5pm, Wednesdays until 8pm.

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Sign up to receive our newsletter.

The Blackwood is situated on the Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Seneca, and Huron-Wendat.
Back to Top