SPECIMENTAL    

Carrier Bag Collective’s inaugural exhibition was held at Action Potential Lab in Toronto in April 2023, featuring Carrier Bag Collective members Levi DeCoste, Abby Kettner,  and Jay Clarke, with guest artists Marcella Driver-Moliner, Anika Becker, Leah Klingbile,, and Iris Adrienne Langlois Smith.

Excerpt from Curatorial Essay:
 
“The word specimen typically implies a detachment; a piece of something; a sample. The collection of specimens continues to be a central aspect of scientific practice, but in this context they are most often seen as abstract artifacts. However, the practice of collection also expresses a deep sentimentality and presents complex questions about the way in which humans relate to nature. Specimental, Carrier Bag Collective’s inaugural exhibition, juxtaposes this sterilized understanding of specimen with a sense of the sentimental and asks us to re-examine the detachment that characterizes the way that we typically relate to our natural world. The exhibition presents work from seven artists who offer emotional, spiritual and creative interpretations of “specimens” from our environments and through collection based making. Artists explore the relationships they have with the world around them and its ephemera, particularly in an urban setting and explore the intersection of memory and environment, hybrid bodies, and symbolic language.”

To read the full essay, click here.