Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture presents:

Q: What Happened Then (2020-2022)?

May 2022

At the moment that all Canadian universities went into lockdown in March 2020, Landon Mackenzie was a visiting artist at Brock University. Our lives and plans were all abruptly interrupted at the stroke of midnight, and we woke up in the unknown. Two years later, in January 2022, students came back for face-to-face learning. In March of that year, Mackenzie was again in contact with Brock University and conducted two workshops (a verbal one and a visual one) at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. Participants were invited to reflect on how the self reacts to the pandemic experience of lockdowns and restricted use of space outside one’s own four walls.

During the Visual Workshop, students in VISA 4P04 – Contemporary Painting used sheets of paper cut into rounds and conceptualized this working space as a charged “surface of record” to contain fragments of time lost but insights gained. Selected artworks are presented here.

During the Verbal Workshop, students in STAC 3P42 – Methods and Principles in Curating described their experience of wearing a mask during the pandemic in 3–5-minute stories. They also created masks to accompany these stories. Twelve contributions are presented here.

This virtual exhibition is an initiative of the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, with participation from the Department of Visual Arts; it draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).