Embedded
Donald Weber + Dima Gavrysh
April 10 – May 3, 2014
Circuit Gallery @ Prefix ICA
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 124
Toronto, ON, M5V 3A8
Reception: Thursday, April 10, 6-9 p.m.
Artist’s Talk + Discussion (moderated by Sara Matthews): Saturday, April 12 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Circuit Gallery presents Embedded, a two-person exhibition featuring work by Canadian photographer Donald Weber, from his new project War Sand, and Ukrainian born, U.S. based photographer Dima Gavrysh, from his award winning project Inshallah. The exhibition is curated by Claire Sykes with a catalogue essay by Sara Matthews.
As Canada’s troops leave Afghanistan and we prepare to mark the centenary of the First World War, Embedded offers a timely look at war and the extents to which we can experience it through photography.
In War Sand, Donald Weber looks closely at the beaches of the Normandy coast, the sites of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in 1944. His work asks questions about history and geology, and about sacrifice, memory and time. In a departure from his previous powerful pictures of people, Weber offers a series of beautiful and moody land and seascapes. These are complemented by micrographic images of sand collected from those beaches that reveal the traces of war: embedded in the beaches there remain vast quantities of shrapnel and other war debris.
Dima Gavrysh was embedded as a photojournalist with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan in 2009 and 2011. In the course of his work he moved progressively away from the kind of direct reportage he was expected to provide, toward taking a different kind of picture with the project evolving into a personal catharsis for which this war became a background. His powerful series, Inshallah, offers us a more emotional and embodied impression of that experience—one that seeks to convey the pervasive unease, confusion and frustration he witnessed there.
Embedded runs April 10 through May 3 at Circuit Gallery @ Prefix ICA with an Opening Reception on Thursday, April 10, from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (artists in attendance) and an Artist’s Talk + Discussion (moderated by Sara Matthews) on Saturday, April 12, 1 to 2:00 p.m.
Artist Bios
Donald Weber
Donald Weber is a photographer fascinated by the subject of power (be it economic, political, or psychological) and how it deploys an all-encompassing theatre for its subjects.
His Interrogations project and accompanying book (Schilt, 2011) has received notable recognition and accolades from World Press Photo, PDN, Aperture, and many others. It was preceded by Bastard Eden, Our Chernobyl (2008) which won the Photolucida Book Award.
Weber’s numerous awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Duke and Duchess of York Photography Prize, and two World Press Photo prizes. Most recently he was shortlisted for the 2014 Scotiabank Photography Award. He is a member of the acclaimed VII Photo agency.
Artist page: Donald Weber
Dima Gavrysh
Dima Gavrysh is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Portland, Oregon. He received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2012 after studying photography and motion picture imaging in Kyiv, Ukraine. Gavrysh has worked as a documentary photographer in 1998 – 2010 with major publications and news agencies such as Associated Press, Bloomberg News, and Agence France-Presse. He has also worked on multiple projects around the globe, including collaborations with Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations Population Fund, and numerous embeds with the US Army in Afghanistan. His work has appeared in a variety of international publications, including The New York Times, Stern, Paris Match, Time and was exhibited both, in the US and internationally.
Over the past four years Dima has been exploring the American war in Afghanistan through video installation, photography, appropriated imagery and data visualization.
His first book Inshallah was published by Kehrer Verlag (Germany) in 2015.
Artist page: Dima Gavrysh
Works Exhibited
Donald Weber: War Sand
Gold Beach, Sector How, Green. October 4, 2013, 5:45am. 17°C, 82% RELH, Wind SW, 13 Knots. VIS: Good, Broken Clouds, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 50″ x 35″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Omaha Beach, Sector Easy, Green. October 6, 2013, 10:47am. 19°C, 63% RELH, Wind NNE, 2 Knots. VIS: Good, Few Clouds, Haze, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 50″ x 35″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Omaha Beach, Sector Charlie. October 4, 2013, 6:38pm. 17°C, 88% RELH, Wind WSW, 8 Knots. VIS: Poor, Thunderstorm, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 50″ x 35″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Gold Beach, Sector Item, Green. October 2, 2013, 4:48pm. 20°C, 68% RELH, Wind SSE, 7 Knots. VIS: Good, Clear Sky, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 29″ x 21″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Utah Beach, Sector Uncle, Red. May 18, 2013, 5:22pm. 12°C, 66% RELH, Wind N, 10 Knots. VIS: Good, Clear Sky, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 26″ x 21″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Omaha Beach, Sector Charlie. October 3, 2013, 8am. 17°C, 93% RELH, Wind ESE, 13 Knots. VIS: Fair, Moderate Rain, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 29″ x 21″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Sword Beach, Sector Queen. May 17, 2013, 6:16pm. 10°C, 87% RELH, Wind NE, 8 Knots. VIS: Fair, Overcast Clouds, Rain, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 26″ x 21″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Utah Beach, Sector Uncle, Red. May 18, 2013, 4:54pm. 12°C, 66% RLH, Wind N, 10 Knots. VIS: Good, Clear Sky, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 26″ x 21″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Juno Beach, Sector Mike, Red. October 3, 2013, 4:40pm. 21°C, 83% RELH, Wind S, 8 Knots. VIS: Good, Broken Clouds, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 29″ x 21″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Pointe-du-Hoc, German Battery. October 4, 2013, 5:04pm. 20°C, 68% RELH, Wind SW, 6 Knots. VIS: Good, Breaking Clouds, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 29″ x 21″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Gold Beach, Sector Item, Green. October 2, 2013, 7:35pm. 16°C, 87% RELH, Wind SE, 7 Knots, VIS: Good, Clear, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 29″ x 21″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Juno Beach, Sample #016 (Assorted Shrapnel), Sector Nan, Green, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 20″ x 16″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Omaha Beach, Sector Easy, Red. October 3, 2013, 6:45am. 16°C, 93% RELH, Wind SE, 6 Knots, VIS: Fair, Clear Sky, Haze, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 20″ x 16″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Gold Beach, Sector Item, Green. October 2, 2013, 5:17pm. 20°C, 68% RELH, Wind SSE, 7 Knots, VIS: Good, Clear Sky, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 20″ x 16″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Gold Beach, Sector How, Green. October 4, 2013, 6:35am. 17°C, 82% RELH, Wind SW, 13 Knots, VIS: Good, Broken Clouds, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 20″ x 16″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Omaha Beach, Sample #144 (Assorted Shrapnel, Seashell and Glass), Sector Dog, White, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 20″ x 16″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Juno Beach, Sample #073 (Shrapnel Fragment), Sector Nan, Green, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 20″ x 16″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Omaha Beach Shrapnel #188 (Assorted Shrapnel), Sector Dog, White, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 20″ x 16″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Sword Beach, Sector Oboe. October 3, 2013, 5:23pm. 21°C, 83% RELH, Wind SE, 6 Knots. VIS: Good, Moderate Rain, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 20″ x 16″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Gold Beach, Sample #213, (Assorted Shrapnel, Seashell and Glass), Sector Jig, Red, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 20″ x 16″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Sword Beach, Sector Queen. October 3, 2013, 8am. 17°C, 93% RELH, Wind ESE, 13 Knots. VIS: Fair, Moderate Rain, from the project War Sand, 2013
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size: 20″ x 16″; Edition 6 + 1AP
Dima Gavrysh: Inshallah
KG Pass, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Tangi #1, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
David, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Khost #1, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Wazir Akbar Khan, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Brothers, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Palimpsest, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
10:06 AM, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″
Edition: 6
Pasab, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Kabul, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Salerno, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Finch, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Russian Cultural Center, Kabul, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Paktia, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Ambush #2, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Clark, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Kandahar #1, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Suicide Bomber, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Zerok, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Close Air Support, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Medevac1, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Naan, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Logar, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Air Assault #1, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Black Hawk, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Kandahar #4, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Kandahar #2, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Tangi #2, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Khost #2, from the series Inshallah, 2009
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Larry, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP
Concussion Dust, from the series Inshallah, 2011
Medium: photography; archival pigment print
Size – Print: 16″ x 16″; Image: 12″ x 12″; Edition: 8
Size – Print: 24″ x 24″; Image: 18″ x 18″; Edition: 6 + 1AP