Blurred Belonging: In Conversation with Sandra Brewster

Corresponding and then meeting with artist Sandra Brewster led to a brief yet engaged exchange about the perennially contested and divided geographical entities that can be brought together through the practice of image-making. Brewster’s interest in Caribbean communities stems from her parents’s place of birth—born in British Guyana—as she seeks multiple and diverse means of addressing the need to untether and reflect upon socio-cultural fixity.

Including a single towering piece presented at the Rencontres d'Arles this year, Brewster’s works of art are image transfers from paper to wall using a self-styled technique, which explore surface textures of cracks and creases, and are produced by taking images of the black community in Canada. Forever in motion, they speak to the cross-genre, experimental and the intersectional, as her work underpins a broader interest in new aesthetic paradigms around notions of identity.

A Trace: Evidence of Time Past, her thesis project at the University of Toronto, looked at images of a river in Guyana. In this earlier project, she transferred images on mylar. The focus on the notion of transference—both real and media centered—has been integral to her work ever since, whether it be seen in generational differences and legacies, or in the very form of her expression. In this brief interview, Brewster further discusses the ways in which notions of symbolism emanate from a broader consideration of “home” or indeed, resettlement. The ephemerality and materiality of the works draw us to other dimensions—belonging/non belonging, genealogy—and how to consider non-nativist ways of engaging with questions of identity. 

ASAP: Identity, representation and community imperatives are central to your work titled Blur. What has been the response to this work in Canada, and has it elicited responses from the Caribbean or other places associated with the diaspora?

Sandra Brewster (SB): I am surrounded by many people who feel that they have roots in more than one geographical location. The work seems to resonate with such people. They may have even been born in their present country; however, among many reasons, and as a result of an ongoing sharing of stories by family of previous generations, they feel that they have this grasp on an elsewhere—a “back home.”  

In 2019, I was asked to participate in a Caribbean film festival called Third Horizon. The movement embedded in Blur connected with themes of gentrification, and the festival organisers grappled with being located in Little Haiti, Miami. This movement caused by a systemic pressure can be argued to be in line, in some ways, with the pressure many Caribbean folk were under as they felt the need to leave the Caribbean for another location north. 

ASAP: Migration, movement and the need to recontextualise our own perception of and as insiders/outsiders is also an important facet of the work. The blurring effect and anonymity have also played a pivotal role in the realisation of this. Could you reflect upon these dimensions in critical terms? Do they perhaps further question how we/you may give voice and agency to the subjects in front of the lens?

SB: Blur has been referred to as an anti-portrait. The subject rebels against being fixed, which is what the camera traditionally does when taking a picture. There is a tension between that resultant anonymity—the subject not being identified—and the subject knowing themselves to be beyond fixity given that they are complex, layered individuals. Not being “allowed” to see the person brings an awareness of that person.

ASAP: Given that you have showcased this work earlier in other venues such as the Georgia Scherman Projects, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, can you talk a little about this new manifestation in Arles? Has the narrative changed/developed over time?

SB: As this is an ongoing series, I find that I am learning from it anytime I engage with it. I think about it aesthetically, not only wanting to convey the intention of the work—as I feel I have established this—but, in this case, how the work is applied to the wall and what I will allow myself to get away with. This piece at Arles is an example of where I am with the series currently. The application is looser, I would say, and I am allowing myself to be freer within the adhering of the gel transfer. The impression of the image is enough for me and I am even less concerned about how intact the form is. I am not sure if it is a development of my confidence within the work or if it is because I am aware of how I think of these pieces as I would the making of a painting. I think the work at Arles may be softer than previous pieces, yet there are other elements—the gesture and choices made while creating the work—that convey the same level of energy. 

Antoine Bertron, a graduate student of photography, is working with ASAP | art for the duration of the festival and conducted this interview along with ASAP's Founder Rahaab Allana. 

To read more about Rencontres d'Arles, please click here and here.