Critical Distance Locations CANADA

Anahita Norouzi is a multidisciplinary artist, originally from Tehran and active in Montreal since 2017. For the past four years, she has been traveling between Iran and Canada to conduct her research which lies at the intersection of colonial histories, experiences of immigration and displacement, and the issue of identity and memory.

Katherine Melançon’s practice is interested in the intersection of the natural and the technological. More recently, she has been exploring non-human beings’ agency; what could become of the world of art, if it was created with non-human people? Often using the starting point of scanography of natural specimens, she plants these new seeds in various materials, exploring images’ fluidity through cycles of metamorphosis between physical and digital soils.

Lamis Haggag is an Egyptian multimedia artist, living and working in Toronto since 2016. She received her MFA from The University of Calgary in 2013 and her BFA from Helwan University, Cairo in 2008. She participated in exhibitions and residencies in Toronto (Doris McCarthy AIR program), Montreal ( Artist in residence at Fonderie Darling), Calgary, St. Thomas Ontario, Cairo, Beijing, Dakar, Lagos, Berlin and Incheon. In addition to her art practice, Haggag is an art instructor, installer and proposal writer.

Noor Alé is an independent curator, art historian, and writer. She is the Associate Curator at The Power Plant, Toronto. Her curatorial practice examines the intersections of contemporary art with geopolitics, decolonization, and social justice in the Global South. Alé has contributed to curatorial research, exhibition management, and public programmes at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, Bowmanville; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY; and Art Dubai. She holds an MA in Art History from The Courtauld Institute of Art, and a BA in Art History from the University of Guelph.

Aislinn Thomas is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes video, performance, installation and text-based work. She culls material from everyday experiences and relationships, exploring themes of vulnerability, empathy, possibility and failure.