In a private alleyway within one of Toronto’s industrial pockets, Scrap Metal Gallery shares space with a family-run marble business and an independent glass-and mirror-cutting store. Their common yard is filled with marble scraps, unused glass, discarded mirrors, metals, wood crates, and paint cans.

This kind of environment is particularly fitting to the work of Luanda, Angola-based artist Edson Chagas, which considers the resonance of everyday, abandoned materials and how those objects can speak to the cultural makeup of a place. For his series Found Not Taken (2008 – 2014), Chagas photographed objects found on the streets of the places where he has lived, including Newport, Wales, and London in the UK, in addition to his native city of Luanda. This exhibition includes photographic selections from all of these cities. Through this series, an extensive archive of the broken and discarded unfolds, including old furniture, office and household items, clothing, outdated electronics, glass bottles, tires, and random metal and wooden objects whose original purpose is no longer discernable.

Chagas repositions found objects, “recycling” them into new relationships with their immediate environments, and then photographs them. In this, his work has a performative aspect; hidden within the minimal, almost abstract aesthetic of the resulting still images that render simple form and surface texture in sensuous detail. His subtle yet playful compositions heighten the connections between object and context, opening up narrative possibilities about how a city can be read and experienced through consumerism. By attentively arranging discarded objects, Chagas explores the various dichotomies that exist in a city as it grows and transforms.

Organized by CONTACT in partnership with Scrap Metal Gallery

Curated by Bonnie Rubenstein