The Weight of Inheritance

Sep 11 — Oct 24, 2020
Field:

Exhibition

Description:

The Weight of Inheritance was an exhibition of work by Hazel Meyer. In the spring of 2016, a chance encounter at a house in Toronto’s east end led to Meyer being gifted a ton of marble that once belonged to artist and filmmaker Joyce Wieland. The marble—unremarkable domestic leftovers from a project never fully completed—had been left behind in the house Wieland lived in until her death in 1998, and was undisturbed for nearly two decades by the house’s next inhabitant, Jane Rowland.

Wieland’s marble formed the conceptual base for The Weight of Inheritance, an exhibition that included sculptures and drawings which wrestled with questions of legacy, queerness, and lineage, and of how to reconcile and situate oneself in the gaps and overlaps between feminisms.

Presented together, these works served as a theatrical set for a performance entitled The Marble in the Basement. As the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic did not allow for a full presentation of Meyer’s performance project, Meyer used the exhibition at Western Front as an occasion to develop, rehearse, and think through that performance. In lieu of an audience, the performances were witnessed by artists Alysha Seriani and S F Ho, who worked with Meyer to produce film and writing that sit alongside this continually developing body of work.

Curated by Pablo de Ocampo.

A long bright gallery space stretches, with white walls topped in a thick band of pale purple. In the center, there stands a blue metal folding ladder, with two milk crates below. Curtains of earthy tones hand behind. Fragmented pieces of marble rest against the right wall, below a long rectangular window. Furthest right hangs a tough leathery pair of pastel purple pants with text along the waist.
A large rectangular quilted textile bordered in yellow inside white with four rectangular panels three of varying shades of blue, and the bottom leftmost of brown, hangs on a white wall with pale purple boarding its top. WHAT IS MEANS TO GROW UP POUR, is spelled out in stuffed black letters. Small multi coloured hearts are scattered across the entirety of the surface.
On a white wall, framed in silver, matted in white, a not quite solid drawn royal blue oval sits, lying longways with a semicircle taken out of its top. Glory Hole is written in large white lettering centered in the oval. In small writing in the oval along the top, A HOLE IN SOMETHING, followed by THE WHOLE OF SOMETHING, on the other side of the cut-out.
In the left in the corner of a white walled room, a human-like creature made of connected marble-like blocks sits atop an upside down yellow milk crate with casters. It has purple hair and two eyes and a smile, and wears a white sweater with grey trim. To its left a bright luminous green fabric wrapped tube rests upright against the wall. Three bows are tied and equal distance apart at the top, middle and bottom.
On a white wall, framed in silver, matted in white, a not quite solid drawn royal purple oval sits, lying longways with a semicircle taken out of its top. Joyce Wieland is written in large white lettering centered in the oval. In small writing above THE ARTIST AND FILMMAKER, below, 1930-1998 WORKED AND LIVED HERE FROM 1975 TO 1998 Jane Rowland 1950-2017 bought this house from Wieland’s estate and kept much of it intact as an unofficial house museum. In the oval along the top, TORONTO LEGACY PROJECT, followed by AND HERITAGE TORONTO, on the other side of the cut-out.
Two upside down milk crates with casters, one black, one slightly larger to the left and blue sit on the floor in front of a blue metal ladder with a thick leather belt hanging off its backside. A patterned orange and green curtain hangs behind but does not meet the floor.
On a white wall, framed in silver, matted in white, a not quite solid drawn royal purple oval sits, lying longways with a semicircle taken out of its top. Diana Ross is written in large white lettering centered in the oval. In small writing above October 20th 1979, below, releases the single “It’s My House” with the lyric “There’s my chair/I put it there.” reminding us all of self determination’s aesthetic pleasure. In the oval along the top, WRITTEN BY, followed by ASHFORD & SIMPSON, on the other side of the cut-out.
Against a white wall, pieces of marble of varying sizes and looks are stacked below a window, which from the rightmost side hang a pair of leather looking metallic light purple pants, back facing out. ABOUT POWER is written in white bold blocky letters along the top just under the belt loops.
An academic article bound with a binder clip, hangs on a white wall, marked up and annotated with markers of varying colours. The article is Power, technology and the phenomenology of conventions: on being allergic to onions by Susan Leigh Star. The pages are slightly worn and some are marked with small yellow sticky notes.

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Captions:

Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.

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