Stephanie Comilang: ANTHEMS

Discover ANTHEMS, Stephanie Comilang’s most comprehensive exhibition to date, exploring migration, technology, and the invisible networks that connect us. Through a layered and multifaceted approach, Stephanie Comilang poetically humanizes the weighty subject of how global flows of capital impact real lives. Through the cultivation of intimacy, Comilang creates deeply engaging single- and multi-channel video installations that also include VR, textile works and 3D-printed objects. Weaving together the narratives of seemingly disparate people, places, and things, she crafts moving portraits that investigate the meanings of “home” and the diasporic experience, while revealing little known worldwide networks that have been forged through colonialism. With a focus on specific objects of desire, such as the pearl and pineapple, or the remarkable Monarch butterfly, she simultaneously explores notions of value, worth, adaptation, and resilience. Throughout her body of work, Comilang adopts a hybrid strategy that combines aspects of documentary with fiction to make what she calls “science fiction documentaries.” This speculative approach gives her the freedom to expand beyond the limits of reality, so that through her works we may encounter “Paradise,” an all-seeing drone spirit, or peek into the private life of an artificial intelligence named “Piña.” The intricate weavings, embroidered textiles, and sculptures in her works extend the science-fiction aspect of her proposal as manifestations of futurist speculation. Broadly defined, anthems inspire and connect people together in a spirit of community. In this way, each of Stephanie Comilang’s works is an anthem. They honour the cultures, histories, and lives of courageous individuals brought together by invisible yet extraordinarily powerful forces, stirring up a sense of kinship in the viewer that transcends geography and nationality. This is the artist’s most comprehensive exhibition to date, and the first time her work is being presented in Québec. Curator: Cheryl Sim