What’s On April: Canadian Culture in the UK and Beyond
Finally, the sun is making an appearance as warmer weather beckons us outdoors. Spring has officially begun, and with it comes plenty of opportunities to attend events that expand our cultural horizons. In the week leading up to April and throughout the month, the UK offers Canadian culture in the form of films to watch, theatre shows to attend and contemporary art exhibitions to immerse yourself in. Read on to find out what you should be adding to your cultural diary so that this spring will be your most exciting yet.
Affairs of the Art, UK/Canada, 2021. Director: Joanna Quinn. 16 min. Film still.
Best Animated Shorts and Orchestra Symphony at the Barbican, London
There are many ways to appreciate culture, as a quick glance at the Barbican’s programming will reveal. On 26 and 31 March, as a part of Oscar Week 2022, you’ll be able to watch five of Best Animated Shorts featuring some of the most groundbreaking recent animated films that are less than 20 minutes long. Amongst these innovative animations is Affairs of the Art, from 2021, directed by Joanna Quinn and distributed by the National Film Board of Canada. Then on the 1st of April, Canadian conductor Jordan de Souza’s debut UK concert reconceives Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique along with Edith Canat de Chizy’s Omen and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Concerto for Two Pianos.
Edward Burtynsky, Phosphor Tailings Pond #4, Near Lakeland, Florida, USA, 2012. Courtesy Flowers Gallery London and Nicholas Metivier Gallery Toronto.
Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition 2022, Somerset House, London
Opening 13 April 2022
The 15th edition of the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition sees an expansive array of photography from around the world, covering all iterations of this medium in its most contemporary forms. The exhibition showcases winners and longlisted entries for its many awards, from portraiture and landscape to fine art and architecture. Amongst the awards is the 2022 Award for Outstanding Contribution to Photography, the recipient of which is Canada's own Edward Burtynsky. In celebration of this outstanding achievement, a presentation of over a dozen of his large-scale works will be on display, from his oeuvre spanning over 40 years.
The Handmaid's Tale at the English National Opera, London
8 April - 14 April 2022
Based on Canadian author Margaret Atwood's best-selling novel and worldwide cultural phenomenon, this operatic rendition of The Handmaid's Tale tells the timely and evocative story of the Republic of Gilead, a familiar territory in a near future where women are stripped of rights after years of widespread reproductive issues plague the land.
Cassils, Tiresias, photograph of performance.
Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Until 6 November 2022
Fashion and gender identity have long fed into each other, with forms of gender expression evolving and informing fashion throughout history. The men’s fashion of today comes from both traditional tailoring and attempts to break with tradition, both in sartorial customs and societal mandates.
To further explore the rich landscape of gender and fashion, Fashioning Masculinities presents recent pieces by designers that push the boundaries of men’s fashion, or else pays homage to its history, alongside artworks that inform the cultural milieu which bred these fashions. Included in the lineup are Canadian photographer Anthony Patrick Manieri and artist Cassils. Photos from Manieri’s series Arrested Movement will be shown, with works that reframe male bodies through body positivity. Cassils’ performance Tiresias will be shown, where a block of ice carved into a neoclassical Greek male torso melts over the course of hours against their chest in a raw confrontation with body, sexuality, and resistance.
You Can't Trust Music, digital exhibition on e-flux.com
A must-share that I discovered and an engaging way to either unwind or start your day, You Can't Trust Music is a digital exhibition on e-flux.com funded by the Canada Council for the Arts that explores the depths of music by using sound as its primary medium, accompanied by complementary texts. Curated by Toronto-based curator Xenia Benivolski and featuring a selection of Canadian and international talent, this exhibition uses the universality of digital platforms to its advantage, offering a world of eerie, soothing, uncanny sound and delectable text to become immersed in.
Paper Moon (2020),oil, pastel, and mixed media collage with functioning clock mechanism on linen, 220x175cm.
Andrew Salgado: A Never-Setting Sun at Beers, London
10 April – 14 May 2022
Canadian-born and UK-educated artist Andrew Salgado presents a solo exhibition of new paintings at Beers in London. Originally intended as a response to Derek Jarman's autobiography, Modern Nature, the works have now expanded beyond to incorporate themes that recur in Salgado's oeuvre, such as failure and exuberance. At its core, the artist reveals that this show is one about mistakes. See his vivid figuration and intense hues until 14 May, and get to know the youngest artist to have received a survey exhibition at The Canadian High Commission with his show in 2017.
Stan Douglas, Installation view of Doppelgänger, 2019, in Venice. © Stan Douglas, courtesy of the artist, David Zwirner and Victoria Miro.
Stan Douglas: 2011 ≠ 1848 at the 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia in Venice, Italy
23 April - 25 September 2022
If you're able to hop over to Italy in the upcoming months, the Venice Biennale, one of the foremost important events in contemporary art, will be taking place from the end of April until September this year. Along with presentations from artists representing countries around the world, Canada will be showing a new commission by acclaimed artist Stan Douglas, presented in partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts and the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, with support from galleries David Zwirner and Victoria Miro, which is headquartered in London, UK.
Across two venues, Douglas will be showing new large-scale photographs and video installations inspired by the world events of 2011, including the Arab Springs, the Occupy protests, the unrest in the UK in response to austerity measures, and a riot in his hometown of Vancouver after a hockey match, compared with the continent-wide upheavals of 1848 Europe, where middle and working classes fought to win back democratic freedom from an aristocratic elite.