Artist Talk by Laura Magnusson - Night Sea Journey: Visual Testimony and Sexual Violence

  • Thursday, August 2, 2018
  • 6:30pm – 8:00pm
  • MAWA, 611 Main Street

Co-presented with Klinic. Megan Mann, a counsellor in Klinic's Sexual Assault Crisis Program will be present if anyone needs support.

Laura Magnusson will discuss her current work in progress, a visual testimony of her journey through trauma after sexual violence, conveyed through metaphors of water. Over the past two years, Laura has spent countless hours on the seafloors of Northern Iceland and Cozumel, Mexico to collect underwater footage and compile her story. At MAWA, she will take us behind the scenes of this developing video work, sharing her process of finding voice and creating space to speak. Video excerpts will be shown and sculptural elements will be on display.

The artist talk will be followed by a conversation regarding issues surrounding trauma in day-to-day life. How can we create safe spaces for trauma survivors to share their stories and have them be witnessed (an important dimension of recovery, but appropriate circumstances are seldom available)? One question that is ever-present in Magnusson’s work is how can we talk about the fullness of traumatic experience, emphasizing its transformative, life-giving dimensions, without invalidating the horrors that from which such growth emerges?"

Free, all are welcome.

  • Laura Magnusson is a queer interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker of white settler descent. Originally from Treaty 1 Territory/Winnipeg, she is currently based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal pursuing a PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities at Concordia University. Magnusson’s research-creation seeks to elucidate felt experiences of trauma, most recently by combining video, sculpture, performance and water. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from the University of Michigan (2019), and a BFA in Sculpture from the University of Manitoba (2010).