Meera Margaret Singh: What We Hold

Curated by Karly Boileau, in collaboration with Noa Bronstein. 

The archive of a life is abundant. In the touring exhibition What We Hold, a series of photographic and sculptural still lifes by Meera Margaret Singh trace familial histories and memories through objects—some joyful, others haunted. Books, shells, vases, trinkets, rocks and plants narrate the time spent and the stories shared among family. These are stories of loss, migration, marriage, rupture, illness, recovery, healing and love.

Through her large-scale photographs and sculptures, Singh playfully considers the varied definitions of “inheritance” to ask: What will I choose to carry? To keep? What will I pass on? What will I let go? The artist creates portraits of generations of her family made up of collected and inherited objects, each of which reflects the intimacies and intricacies of the lives of its owners. 



Co-presented in partnership with Gallery TPW, supported and circulated by the Ontario Arts Council. 

                               

Meera Margaret Singh is a visual artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. She holds a BA in Anthropology, a BFA in Photography from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and an MFA from Concordia University, Montreal. Singh has been the recipient of numerous residencies and awards, most notably Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council grants. She has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions throughout Canada and internationally. She is currently an Associate Professor in Photography at OCAD University.

Noa Bronstein is a curator and writer based in Toronto, whose practice is often focused on the social production of space and thinking through how artists disrupt and subvert systems including those registering across social, political and economic structures. Noa has previously stewarded two leading artist-run centres through her role as the Executive Director of Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography and Gallery TPW. Her writing has appeared in publications including Artforum, Border Crossings, C Magazine, Canadian Art, esse art + opinions, PUBLIC Journal and The Journal of Curatorial Studies. Noa is currently the Assistant Director of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto.