Chasm at McMaster Museum of Art is closing the great divide

Historically, museums have never been welcoming nor have they been neutral spaces for women, people of colour, immigrants, or those of certain classes.

Revolving Concave Mirror — Joseph Callaja Photo credit: Doreen Nicoll

Museums are inherently, shaped by the prevailing cultural and political environments to showcase a culture, economic and class structure based either on ideological belief or patron funding. That has overwhelming been a lens that focused on the privileged, white male purview.

So, it goes without saying, that historically, museums have never been welcoming nor have they been neutral spaces for women, people of colour, immigrants, or those of certain classes to either share their creations or comfortably view the creations obtained by their oppressors.

Chasm, the abyss or great divide, is the current exhibition at the McMaster Museum of Art (M(M)A) in Hamilton, Ontario. The show spans decades of museum holdings including recent acquisitions to explore the implications that interventions on the power dynamics of colonialism pose for the future of museums, their collections and their traditional ways of presenting collections within square, white spaces.

Curated by Pamela Edmonds and Betty Julian, Chasm is, according to the curator’s statement, “offered as a proposition to bring together a selection of works from the M(M)A’s collection of over six thousand objects of European, Canadian and Indigenous art. This exhibition has been curated from the premise of not claiming an “authoritative” voice rather, it unfolds from a particular vantage point of interrogation, provocation, and accountability.”

Chasm makes space for the alternative, ambiguous narratives often silenced or omitted from conventional museum exhibits – including personal and political histories.

“Chasm takes the unique vantage point of critiquing the power dynamics of colonialism from within the museum, informed by the transcultural positions of resistance that seek Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation,” the curators’ statement explains.

“Our curatorial conversations on how to activate critical dialogue within museums through exhibitions are meant to encourage and expand informed engagement. Our critical and curatorial tasks have been to find ways through our work to redress and resist the cultural amnesia surrounding intersecting systems of colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism and the anti-Black racism inherent in the foundation of our art institutions,” the curators state in their website statement.

Upon entering the main gallery, I was pleasantly surprised and delighted that the first work I encountered was an interesting piece by the Maltese-born artist Joseph Calleja (1924 -2018) called Revolving Concave Mirror (1968).

Calleja emigrated to Canada from Malta via England and settled in Willowdale, Ontario where he taught art at the local high school while maintaining strong Hamilton connections through his art, as well as his extended family, who called the Hammer home.

The mirror captures the gallery space, surrounding artwork and the viewer — in other words the environment within a sphere — but the vantage point is ever changing.

Calleja’s work was the ephemeral gateway to a space filled with deserving art many of which had not seen the light of day in regularized spaces.

The second floor of the exhibition draws the viewers attention to the materials and scales of the pieces. It included works by portrait artist Arthur Renwick a member of the Haisla First Nation; Mohawk filmmaker and visual artist from Six Nations of the Grand River Shelly Niro who is also exceptionally skilled in sculpting and beadwork; and German painter and sculptor Anslem Kiefer who employs a variety of materials in his work that reflects on life and death while commenting on the intersection of power and politics that inform art, culture and history.

Artist Catherine Blackburn Photo credit: Doreen Nicoll

Both museum and art worlds find themselves at a cross-roads where they feel increasingly pressured to expand the scope of the works they include to showcase the talents of women and marginalized individuals who have often been othered and excluded from these sacred spaces.

Museums and art institutions are also undergoing a transformation in the way that they not only exhibit critical materials and artifacts, but how they address the question of properly repatriating artifacts and works of art while ensuring restitution to those harmed.

Photo credit: Doreen Nicoll

Add to that the immediate threat that the climate crisis poses not only to museums and art, but also humanity itself and endless conversations abound.

Photo credit: Doreen Nicoll

Artists featured in Chasm include Marissa Y Alexander, Sonny Assu, Nicolas Baier, Catherine Blackburn, Deanna Bowen, Joseph Calleja, Douglas Clark, Chris Cran, Paul Cvetich, Cathy Daley, Max Dean, Stan Douglas, FASTWÜRMS, Gerald Ferguson, Yves Gaucher, Betty Goodwin, Francisco Jos. de Goya y Lucientes, Angela Grauerholz, Spring Hurlbut, Clarissa Inglis, Alfredo Jaar, Svava Thordis Juliusson, Anselm Kiefer, Kapwani Kiwanga, James Lahey, Rita Letendre, Gino Lorcini, Liz Magor, John Massey, Guido Molinari, Shelley Niro, Ed Pien, Margaret Priest, Arthur Renwick, Susan Schielle, Takao Tanabe, Michael Thompson, Graham Todd, Serge Tousignant, Jan Wade, and Shellie Zhang.

Gallery Maps: Second Floor, Fourth Floor

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Chasm Opening Reception is Thursday, September 28, 5-8 PM

Enjoy an evening celebrating the opening of the collection exhibition Chasm, co-curated by Pamela Edmonds and Betty Julian. Many exhibiting artists will be in attendance. This event is free and all are welcome!

Talk with Alex Jacobs-Blum
Wednesday, October 18, 12:30-1:20 PM

Talk with Christina Leslie
Wednesday, October 25, 12:30-1:20 PM

Curators in Conversation
Wednesday, November 1, 12:30-1:20 PM
Learn more.

Curated by: Pamela Edmonds and Betty Julian

May 18, 2023 – December 08, 2023

Please Note:
The second-floor galleries featuring this exhibition are booked for an event on October 4, from 2-4PM. They will be open for limited viewing, but may be busier than usual. We ask that all museum patrons please be respectful to the event speakers and attendees throughout.

McMaster Museum of Art is a public gallery in the heart of the McMaster University campus. The museum aims to create inclusive, dynamic and experiential relationships between peoples and artistic practices.

The McMaster Museum of Art recognizes and acknowledges that it is located on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and the Haudenosaunee nations and within the lands protected by the Dish With One Spoon wampum agreement.