a project by Sarah Charette

featuring artist Erika DeFreitas

supervised by Dr. Kirsty Robertson

thanks to SASAH and the Department of Visual Arts, Western University

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Spirits was an exhibition at Satellite Project Space, London, ON, from August 26 to September 5, 2020. The first section of the exhibition consisted of a set of photo negatives, a receipt of purchase, a photograph envelope, and a set of 24 photographs, while the second consisted of three artworks by Scarborough-based artist Erika Defreitas. This collection was based on the following premise.

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In August of 1988, Eileen Garland moved into 1113 Aldea Ave, Ottawa, and discovered a set of photo negatives. Naturally, she had them developed and was given a collection of 24 images cataloguing a young persons’ house party. She did not recognize anyone in the photographs, and more confusingly, the photographs’ backdrops did not resemble the interior of 1113 Aldea Ave.

 

So, we must wonder, who are these people? Where were they photographed? And who thought to bring a camera, especially at a time when photographs were permanent, physical objects, rather than the digital files of today? And why did Eileen hold on to these photographs for more than 20 years? This collection of found photography brings forward notions of familiarity, memory, voyeurism, and distance. How do we make meaning from others’ memories, especially those that have been spatially displaced?

 

Erika DeFreitas’ artworks function to provide another perspective on familiarity and distance. Placing an emphasis on process, gesture, the body, documentation, and paranormal phenomena, she works through attempts to understand concepts of loss, post-memory, inheritance, and objecthood.

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This is intended to act as a digital archive of the exhibition, including images of the exhibition space, scans of the found photographs, a pdf of the exhibition catalogue, and other information about its presentation.