THE LAST THINGS
Call for Submissions
NAC’s Flea Market Gallery
Deadline for proposals: Wednesday 2 March 2016 to be received at NAC by 5PM
Once a thing is gone, that is the end of it.
– Anna from In the Country of the Last Things
by Paul Auster
Members of the Niagara Artists Centre are invited to submit proposals for art work to be included in an exhibition entitled The Last Things at NAC’s Flea Market Gallery.
Using materials sourced from the Flea Market, artists are invited to reconfigure found materials as a way of speculating on a post-industrial future. Tools, prototypes, contrived artefacts, and other imaginings are suggested to evoke a future era of salvage and survival. THE LAST THINGS proposes an imagining of future material cultures, the socio-political circumstances of those futures, and the kinds of innovations and responses that could arise with the disappearance of advanced technologies and newly manufactured goods. The exhibit wonders: Where and how does art merge with utility? What kinds of hybrids might arise out of necessity?
The title of this exhibition draws inspiration from the 1987 dystopian novel In the Country of the Last Things by Paul Auster. Set in a speculative future of an urban post-industrial wasteland, it follows Anna, a collector who scavenges and sells useful found objects.
The St. Catharines Factory Outlet Flea Market—Niagara’s largest flea market—coincidentally opened its doors the same year that In the Country of Last Things was published. In 2010, NAC converted an 8’ x 10’ flea market booth into a gallery and invited artists to create site-responsive work for the space. THE LAST THINGS is one of over fifteen exhibits to be shown at NAC’s Flea Market Gallery since it opened. The Flea Market currently accommodates over 250 booths, and welcomes 2500 visitors every Sunday.
Your submission for the LAST THINGS should include:
> a 300-word proposal describing the work and how it relates to the theme
> up to five relevant drawings, diagrams or photographs that support your proposal (sized 1024 x 768)
> a short artist statement/bio
> up to ten images of related past work (sized 1024 x 768)
> you must be a member in good standing
A jury will select works to be included in The LAST THINGS exhibited at NAC’s Flea Market Gallery in Spring 2016. CARFAC recommended artist-fees will be paid to selected artists or collectives.
For more information or questions please contact NAC 905-641-0331 or artists@nac.org
