In response to the transient quality of photography, curator and historian Jennifer Blessing has claimed that “every photograph becomes a memorial to the past.” Inspired by this sentiment, Pickering-based artist Christina Leslie created a new body of work exploring the question of how to memorialize the past when few images of it exist.

Leslie’s father was born in Jamaica in 1950, and only three images of his childhood remain. It was not until he immigrated to Canada at the age of 19 that there began a substantive photographic record of his life. The artist’s mother, on the other hand, also born in 1950, grew up in Canada with English/Canadian parents and her childhood was recorded at every stage. In the form of a collaged family photo album, Leslie’s The Album memorializes her parents’ individual and shared histories. Its pages are filled with images of their childhoods, marriage, and now 48-year relationship together. Presented as an online exhibition and public artwork on the front of the gallery, this series points to the slippery and permeable nature of memory and identity.

Curated by Leila Timmins

• Christina Leslie is an artist and curator based in Pickering, Ontario, currently serving as Interim Assistant Curator at the McMaster Museum of Art (MMA), Hamilton. Her work has been featured in publications worldwide, and exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM); Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto; Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21; Art Windsor-Essex; GAMU, Prague; Caribbean Fine Art Fair, Kingston (JM); and Paris Photo. She has spoken at national and international conferences, at venues including the ROM, the MMA, and the Caribbean Art Meet-Up. Her work is in private, corporate, and public collections including The Art Gallery of Ontario.