New Routes: threads across space and time reflects Raneece Buddan, AJA Louden, Garfield Morgan, and Elsa Robinson’s investigations of how their paths as diasporic people connect their distinct artistic practices. The four artists share certain relationships to place: they all have Jamaican heritage and lived in Edmonton at the same time. Yet each of them has distinct personal and ancestral immigration stories that led to Treaty 6 territory.

The works featured in the exhibition share common threads and reflect the ideas they shared together over nine months of conversation: diaspora, Jamaican culture and African heritage, reclaiming power and history, and being cultural conduits between their ancestors and descendants. Highly engaged with material and craft practices, the artworks in this exhibition span painting, ceramics, sculpture, fibre and textiles, including an artwork collaboratively created as part of their ongoing conversations.

Thank you to the Edmonton Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for support of the work in this exhibition.