Cotton, a fabric filled with memory…
What does antique cotton recall?
History Is Rarely Black or White examines cotton garments in the Queen’s University Collection of Canadian Dress at Agnes from the late 1700s to the early 1900s through archival research, artistic intervention, and scientific enquiry. By the mid-1800s, the cotton industry comprised a complex, transnational network of industrialization, commerce and violence. The global thirst for cotton made the oppression of marginalized communities systemic, forever affecting generations.
This exhibition focuses on the humanity at the core of this brutal enterprise. Experts at the Facility for Isotope Research, Queen’s University, locate the point of origin of raw cotton used in garments displayed in this gallery. Archival tintypes and documents trace this journey into Canada, while works by artists Karin Jones, Damian Jöel, and Gordon Shadrach illuminate the ways in which the cotton trade’s problematic legacy is still with us today.
Hero video: Exhibition walkthrough of History Is Rarely Black or White at Agnes Etherington Art Centre.
Contributors to the digital extension of History Is Rarely Black or White:
Interpretative content: Jason Cyrus and Anne-Marie Guérin
Technical research: Megan Creamer, Emy Kim, Evelyne Leduc and Dr Dan Layton-Matthews
Project coordinator: Danuta Sierhuis
Image permissions and coordination: Leah Cox
Copy-editing: Alicia Boutilier
Photography: Bernard Clark, Jason Cyrus, Tim Forbes, Anne-Marie Guérin, Evelyne Leduc and Paul Litherland
Video: Jay Middaugh
Wordmark and map design: Robin Chantree
Design: Studio Blackwell (Kelsey Blackwell with Jessica Atkinson and Jonathan Gallivan)
History Is Rarely Black or White is a fellowship and exhibition project generated by Jason Cyrus, Isabel Bader Fellow in Textile Conservation and Research.
History Is Rarely Black or White is organized by and presented at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON from 27 November 2021–20 March 2022.
Artists: Karin Jones, Gordon Shadrach, and Damian Jöel
Curator: Jason Cyrus
Thank you to the Art Conservation Department and the Queen’s Facility for Isotope Research in the Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering at Queen’s University for their assistance with the technical research.
History Is Rarely Black or White is generously supported by Bader Philanthropies, Inc. Jason Cyrus would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario through the Curatorial Projects: Indigenous and Culturally Diverse program for supporting this exhibition.
