Tim Whiten: Elemental Fire
Guest curated by Liz Ikiriko
September 15 – December 2, 2023
Art Gallery of York University
Tim Whiten: Elemental Fire, brought together over 14 cultural objects from the past four decades of Tim Whiten’s prolific career, including works in glass, works on paper, and a site-specific installation created specifically for this exhibition. Whiten’s enduring 50-plus year practice has been clearly and consistently focused on the known and unknowable; on practical and ephemeral aspects that fundamentally propel and challenge human existence and consciousness.
Elemental Fire, considered how the material transformations of fire appear in Whiten’s work as forms of alchemy, risk, play, and energetic power. Often alluding to notions of time and faith through histories of storytelling and spirituality (ranging from prehistoric, Greek, and Roman mythology through to Kabbalist and Buddhist traditions), Whiten’s work returns us to consider primary questions of our bodies, our presence, and our value in this current moment.
Elemental Fire was part of an expanded, multi-venue retrospective and collaborative publication celebrating Whiten’s extensive career, developed as a partnership with the Art Gallery of Peterborough, Art Gallery of York University, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, and McMaster Museum of Art from 2022 to 2023. This series of exhibitions shared the nomenclature “Elemental” and was thematically united by the classical elements of air, water, earth, and fire — a reference to Whiten’s interest in alchemical practices. AGYU was pleased to present the final exhibition of this series.
As part of Elemental Fire, AGYU presented an active program of conversations, readings, and performances, including a curatorial walk-through by Liz Ikiriko; a panel discussion with the curators of the Elemental series of exhibitions; an offsite respondent talk by scholar Nehal El-Hadi and experimental sound response by artist Zoma Tochi Maduekwe at Arraymusic; and an online reading group lead by writer and artist Farhia Tato.
Installation view of “Tim Whiten: Elemental Fire” at the
Art Gallery of York University, 2023.
Left: “Untitled / 78-1,” 1971. Graphite on paper. Collection of York University. Right: “T After Tom (Pickaxe),”2010. Cast crystal glass.
Collection of Tom Thomson Gallery.
Photograph Toni Hafkensheid.
