Labrador Interpretation Centre
At the Labrador Interpretation Centre, you’ll discover the founding peoples of Labrador—Innu, Inuit, NunatuKavut Inuit and Settlers. Here, you will explore the lifeways and history of Labrador’s Indigenous peoples from the past into today.
The permanent exhibition The Past is Where We Come From combines voices, art and artifacts from each of our cultures. The exhibition is presented in Inuktitut, Innu-aimun and English.
Special events and temporary exhibitions are presented each year.
Making Home Here
April 29 – August 27, 2023
Artists: Shazia Ahmad, Brian Amadi, Ethel Brown, Ksenia Korniewska, Anita Singh, Ginok Song
Curator: Rachel Gilbert (Association of New Canadians)
Curatorial Advisor: Mireille Eagan (The Rooms)
This exhibition explores the newcomer and migrant experience and how they have come to call Newfoundland & Labrador home. Through their paintings, photography, screen-printing and textile work, the artists give insight into the challenges of relocating, domesticity, marginalization and the importance of multiculturalism.
About the Artists
Shazia Ahmad’s work speaks to the centrality of reminiscence and the passage of time as an accumulation of history. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, to a Pakistani father and a Chilean mother, Ahmad’s practice centres on the notions of home, belonging and otherness due to her interfaith and unique mixed-race background. She pays tribute to her Pakistani heritage by merging elements of the country’s material culture with personal imagery in her visual vocabulary. Ahmad’s painting and printmaking comprises domestic microcosms encapsulated in handmade dioramas.
Brian Amadi is a full-time, self-taught painter and tattoo artist. Born in Nigeria, Amadi travelled to Newfoundland in 2016 for tertiary studies and completed his Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Law and Society in 2021. Amadi’s work focuses on highlighting social organization and the revelation of the different superstructures of our society's current system. Through his paintings, he holds a mirror to society and himself to bring awareness to the various cultural and interpersonal practices that exist in society. He believes that the clearer we can see our community, the more we can act consciously in it.
Ethel Brown is a visual artist living in St. John’s, NL. Born in the Philippines, Brown immigrated to Newfoundland in 1987. Her unique visual sensibility and awareness, notably echoed in her work, was a reaction to the experience of this relocation and displacement in her youth. Brown’s photographs are predominantly documentary and storytelling in nature, exploring themes of belonging, home, motherhood and everyday life. Brown’s work is expansive yet personal at the same time. She is known for her patience in finding perfect composition and for capturing organic moments and the ephemeral beauty of natural light.
Ksenia Korniewska is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist from Kyiv, Ukraine, who relocated to St. John’s, NL, in May 2022. While her artistic practice encompasses painting, drawing, photography, sound and video art, painting remains her primary focus. Taking unconventional approaches to ancient painting media of encaustic and egg tempera, she creates alien icons that explore themes of alienation, dislocation, liminality and disconnect. Korniewska’s paintings are tangibly organic and pictorially ethereal, inspired by 14th-century Sienese iconography, 17th-century anatomical illustrations, metaphysical poetry, Neoplatonic philosophy, mineralogy, mycology and natural phenomena.
Anita Singh was born in Guyana, South America, with a Russian and Indo-Caribbean bloodline. Having lived in Montréal, Toronto, British Columbia and New York, Singh has a profound background in graphic design, printmaking, papermaking and book arts. Singh lived in England for one year, where she completed an apprenticeship in letterpress printing and various binding techniques. During a cross-Canada trip in 1999, she discovered and fell in love with Newfoundland. By creating symbolic designs of iconic plants and animals found in Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as in the Caribbean and Russia, she works with mandala-style patterns to explore multicultural connections. Singh lives and works in St. John’s, NL as a printmaker, encaustic painter, ceramicist and educator.
Ginok Song is a Korean-Canadian visual artist. Song grew up in the city of Pusan, South Korea. After meeting the love of her life, she moved to St. John’s, NL, in 2000. Song persists in her effort to visualize identity and difference with the medium of painting, mural and printmaking, with an interest in realism and womanhood. Her works appear in numerous private and public collections in Canada, UK and Korea. Song resides and works in Petty Harbour, NL and finds influence in Atlantic Realism (or magic realism).
About the Curator
Rachel Gilbert is a Canadian American of mixed-race descent living in St. John's, NL. She works with symbolic painting, drawing, printmaking and new media tools to explore her identity, familial experiences and perceptions of home(s). Since receiving a BFA in Visual Arts in 2020 and a Graduate Certificate in Museum and Gallery Studies in 2021, Gilbert has worked with The Rooms, St. Michael's Printshop and Eastern Edge Gallery, focusing on community programming and outreach. Serving on several boards and committees, Gilbert is interested in increasing diversity, accessibility and inclusion in the arts.
Image credit: Ginok Song. Hope Holding (2021), 15.24 x 30.48 cm. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Christina Parker Gallery. (detail)
Contact Information
Location
2 Portage Road, North West River in Labrador
Hours of Operation
Open April 29, 2023 – October 1, 2023
Monday - Saturday: 9 am - 4:30 pm
Sundays & July 1 (Canada Day): 12 pm - 4:30 pm
Admission is free. Fees apply to some special events. To find out about temporary exhibitions and events, or to book a tour, call (709) 497-8566.
Contact
Telephone: (709) 497-8566
Mailing Address
Labrador Interpretation Centre
P.O. Box 389
North West River, NL A0P 1M0
Practices and Policies
Scent Free
The use of scented products is to be avoided, in order to provide employees and visitors with a healthy and safe environment. The use of scented products has the potential to create an unsafe environment for our employees and visitors due to the associated serious health risks.
Baggage
Brief cases, backpacks and oversized bags are not permitted. Please check with staff if you need clarification.
Eating & Drinking
Food and beverages are not permitted in exhibition spaces. This is enforced to protect our collections and items on display.
Cell Phones
The use of cellular phones is not permitted in exhibition spaces.
No Smoking
This is a smoke free building.
Admire – But Don’t Touch (in most cases)
Please do not touch the artifacts or artwork on display, except where clearly permitted.
Children
Children are welcome. For their safety and to protect the items on display, we ask that children under 12 be accompanied and supervised by an adult at all times.
Conduct
Please refrain from shouting, running and rowdy behaviour that might interfere with other visitors’ experiences or result in injury.
Fire/Emergency Alarms
In the event of an alarm, please prepare to exit, following any instructions provided by staff. If you require assistance, please ask the nearest staff person.