FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A Mysterious Past Uncovered

TORONTO – To discover ones identity, questions regarding ones past must be answered. The current exhibition in the West Gallery of the Justina M. Barnicke explores one artists search for answers concerning the mystery surrounding a family member. On view from April 17 to May 15, artist Suzanne Caines uncovers the mysterious past of her great grandmother Leah Jane Davies in her installation of four iron beds entitled Where She Slept.

Leah Jane Davies was one of the 100,000 British children sent to Canada as free or cheap farm labourers. They were known as Canada’s Home Children. As a descendant of this woman, Suzanne Caines has investigated her great grandmother’s life prior to and after her exportation from England to Canada in 1896.

Funded by the Canada Council, Caines uses the installation of four iron beds as the vessels to portray the four stages of her great grandmother’s life. Accompanied by a sound component, each bed uses documents in Leah’s life to distinguish the most significant phases in her life. The first stage represents her life in England, the second stage represents her journey into Canada, and the third stage represents her life as an orphan in Canada. The final stage represents the woman she became and her life as remembered by her child.

These installations have been created to depict how the past intermingles with the present. The intention is to allow the viewer to rethink how Leah Jane Davies’ life extends into the artist’s life. Concepts of the self, such as awareness, understanding and pride are expressed through the combination of sound, painting, collage and printed material with the iron beds.

Where She Slept has been exhibited at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and at the Ottawa School of Art. Some of the installation pieces have been exhibited in the Rubin and Helene Dennis Museum and The Holocaust Memorial Center in Toronto.

Where She Slept
April 17 to May 15, 2003 in the West Gallery
Hours: Monday to Friday, 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
http://www.utoronto.ca/gallery/