Winsom Winsom: Bridging Time

An influential figure of the Canadian art world, beginning with the pivotal 1989 travelling group show, Black Wimmin - When & Where We Enter, and the first Black female artist to exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Winsom Winsom is a multi-media artist, activist, and arts educator. From 2004 to 2021 Winsom split her time between Canada and Belize, where she established the Winsom Foundation. Since 2021 she has been based in the Toronto area.Her instinctive works explore themes of freedom, survivance, resilience, renewal, and African spirituality within the context of the Black Atlantic experience. Winsom has said, "As a person of many cultural heritages - African, Maroon, Arawak, Spanish and Scottish ancestries I bring to my work a spirituality which manifests itself through a syncretism of African-based religions and through deeply personal experiences. These blended elements have provided the focus of my personal spiritual exploration. Central to my art practices are seven principle deities of West African-based religions called 'Orishas'. They form a pantheon of godlike forces which express themselves on earth through specific elements and human attributes, creating human behaviour and so-called 'happenstance' in the circumstances of life. To identify with an Orisha is to merge with nature and the elements. I have as one of my objectives the narration of the different facets of the histories of peoples of African and Arawak descent. By establishing an interrelation of political, spiritual and social concern I present a Black female imagery that is informed by my sense of location and belonging."

The exhibition includes an important series of mirrored, embroidered and embellished photo-transfers on silk from 1999 depicting key figures from Winsom's ancestry, along with notable historical figures such as Queen Yaa Asantewa of Ashanti Kumasi (d. 1923), Mary McLeod Bethune (d.1955, educator and advisor to Presidents), Phillis Wheatley (d.1784, first African-American author of a published book of poetry), Nanny of the Maroons (d. 1760, freedom fighter and leader of the Jamaican Maroons), Nancy Green (d. 1923, original model for Aunt Jemima) and Empress Zauditu of Ethiopia among several others.

Two versions of a new sculptural installation, Travelling Time, will be shown at CRG and at the Toronto Biennial of Art (beginning Sept 21st). Here the figure of the snake is variously presented as a symbol of both the higher and lower self. Also the alchemy of transformation, of healing, understanding, and wisdom, as expressed through the cycle of death and rebirth. Winsom notes, "The snake repeatedly sheds its old skin as it traverses physically and metaphysically through time. It transforms, and becomes the best of itself as it moves forward in its evolution. The snake swallows its own tail as a symbol of eternity, and this installation is about my time travelling through eternity, in this lifetime."