April Hickox

Last updated

April Hickox
Born1955 (age 67–68)
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Education Twickenham College of Technology
Ontario College of Art and Design
Website aprilhickox.com

April Hickox (born 1955) is a Canadian lens-based artist, photographer, teacher and curator whose practice includes various medias, from photography, film, video and installation. [1] [ non-primary source needed ]

Contents

Hickox has said about her works of the last 10 years, "I think in my work, I have always worked with history, place and a sense of self, and sometimes language, communication and voice". [2] Hickox has created works surrounding numerous themes including landscape, history, memory, site... Hickox's works are largely based on narratives which record aspects of humanity and nature and explore the relationship between the two with collective memories from human histories and activities.

Hickox is the founding director of Gallery 44 Centre For Contemporary Photography, as well as a founding member of Tenth Muse Studio and Artscape.

Early life, education and career

Toronto Islands Toronto Islands panorama.jpg
Toronto Islands

In 1955, April Hickox was born in Oakville, Ontario.[ citation needed ] She and her family moved to Toronto Islands when she was 3 years old. [3]

In order to continue to explore interests in photography, Hickox went to London to study photography and graphic design in Twickenham College of Technology from 1973 to 1974. Hickox returned to Canada for the 5th year graduate studies program at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, where she obtained an AOCA degree and further explored her interests in photography and printmaking from 1974 to 1978. [4] [ non-primary source needed ]

Hickox lives on the Toronto Islands from which she derives much of her inspiration. Her personal experiences as a mother of a deaf daughter also contribute as inspirations for her works, such as her installation work Within Dialogue which shows the visual representation of language and communication across individuals and cultures. [5]

She is an associate professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. [4]

Works

Hickox' has created works surrounding numerous themes including landscape, history, memory, site, language, communication and voice ... [1] Hickox's works are largely based on narratives which record aspects of humanity and nature and contribute to the deeper understandings of its relationship with collective memories from human histories and activities.

Landscape

Since Hickox move to the Toronto Islands at an early age, she has experienced the frequent change of the island's environment caused by human intervention. The relationship between natural landscape and human intervention has been considered by Hickox and become a central theme of her work for over thirty-five years. [6]

Memory

A lot of Hickox's work contains images of collected objects, from either people on the Toronto islands or her own collection such as the series named Gather. [7] [ non-primary source needed ]

Crystal, Porcelain, Glass, 2002

Crystal, Porcelain, Glass is a series of photos of broken tea cups or the fragments of various broken objects. They were either held by a variety of hands in various positions or being repaired and stacked in what appears to be a fragile tower. All of the broken objects belong to an older woman who had died on the Toronto Islands. [2] They were collected by Hickox from a bridge that is often called the free bridge. [2] In an interview, Hickox described her work as "a recycle of life and change". [2] From this project, Hickox started to think about people who were gone, the houses that were clearly lost and what was left behind. This work eventually led into the series Landscape + Memory: An Island History in 2003.

Memento, 2007

Memento is a series of images of family heirlooms, which incorporate a photographic element. All the heirlooms were collected from Hickox's female friends and have been passed down through generations. [8] [ non-primary source needed ] There is always an intimate story behind each heirloom, the objects act as reminders of loved ones who have passed away. [8] However, all the photographic portraits from the heirlooms are rarely identified and the significance of the photos has been shifted. Memento not only records all the stories but also helps to reflect the fragility of the connection and physicality. [8]

Landscape + Memory

Landscape + Memory: An Island History, 2003

Since Toronto Islands contains one of Toronto's oldest residential communities, the work Landscape + Memory: An Island History explores the links between the physical landscape, as it is today, and the memories of that landscape. All the sites in Hickox's photographs were once part of a thriving community whose homes were demolished in the 1950s. [9] [ non-primary source needed ] The photographs record how the land has changed after the demolition of the homes, capturing the remaining flora and landscape that now covers the resident's old home in each photo. [2] Hickox demonstrates this work as the "traces and evidence of the past". [2]

Point Pelee: Landscape and Memory, 2004

Point Pelee: Landscape and Memory was commissioned by The Art Gallery of Windsor in 2003. [2] Point Pelee has a similar history to the Toronto Island in that it was once a vibrant community before the land was purchased in the 1970s to develop a national park. [10] [ non-primary source needed ] Over the years, Hickox has observed the changes that have taken place in the park and documented the overlapping layers of human and natural histories through photographing. The exhibition aims to "evoke a dialogue on the history of our region, environmental issues, and the way in which communities evolve over time". [10] According to Hickox, the big difference between the project Point Pelee: Landscape and Memory and Landscape + Memory: An Island History is that there are less traces and evidence of the past found in the project Point Pelee. [10] Since people tried to plant new indigenous species in the park, the residents plants had been removed. [10]

Language, communication and voice

As an artist as well as a mother to a deaf daughter, April Hickox started to explore the photographic works on the themes of language, communication and voice which had become her main focus in the past ten years. [2]

Can You Hear Flowers? 1994

Can You Hear Flowers? was produced based on Hickox's personal experience as a mother to a deaf daughter. [11] [ non-primary source needed ] These experiences were transformed into a site specific work outside the Power Plant in Toronto. [11] According to April Hickox, "the garden consisted of four sensory gardens. The idea for this work came from the question of a deaf child. [11] Adult responses impact on a child's perception of the world around her. [11] "

Within Dialogue, 2000

Within Dialogue is an installation work which consists of 100 photographs of mouths in the motion of communication. [12] [ non-primary source needed ] In 2000, The Globe and Mail reviewed an April Hickox's exhibition Within Dialogue in Toronto's Leo Kamen Gallery in the news article Hickox's Photographs "Speak Eloquently from Silence". [13] It was mentioned that the 150, small, black and white photographs of mouths embodies Hickox's fascination with the mouth and paradoxical silence. [13] The diverse pictures of the human mouth reflect a wide range of potential identities from the deaf to the hearing. [13] There is also a sense of associated emotional and personal experiences as the mother to a deaf daughter. [13] April Hickox also collaborated with Tom Third on the audio component of Within Dialogue to provide viewers an infused experience of sound and silence. [12]

Feminism

Hickox often uses photography as media to record images of women or female objects from the past, she mainly focuses on how they reflect female identity and self-recognition throughout time. [14] [ non-primary source needed ]

Lives of Girls and Women, 1972–1973

This series of works, completed between 1972 and 1973, contains fourteen images of Barbie doll clothing to reflect how gender stereotypes are imposed by social structures and pressures, ultimately expressed through popular media of the society. [15] [ non-primary source needed ] There are fictional conversations constructed under the typical representational clothes from women's magazine. [15] Barbie doll clothes largely reflected the changing trends in women's clothing and lifestyle since their creation. [15] Hickox borrows the Barbie doll clothes and combines them with a new narrative to present the changes in not only the representations of women over time but also the changing thoughts and life experiences of women throughout recent history. [15]

Women, 1999 – 2001

This series of work consists of 9 portraits of women over 50 in age. [16] [ non-primary source needed ] In these black and white photographs, the women display a reflective look while closing their eyes. [16] In this series Hickox is trying to explore the inner strength of these women and question the relationship between these women and the viewers of the images, questioning photography as the means for communication. [16] The representations of women were derived based on the concept of women being the carrier of family memories over generations. [16] However, in contemporary meda, mature women usually appear invisible compared their young and beautiful counterparts, while their experiences and values are also underestimated by society. [16] From viewing the thought provoking portraits, one could reduce the misunderstanding of the mature woman from who they truly are. [16]

Echo, 2010These works are representing different types of hand-mirrors as a traditional female object. [17] [ non-primary source needed ] People would use the mirrors to see their reflection make the adjustments to their makeup/hair that they felt they needed. These actions made Hickox consider about the self-being presented in the public, and that that self may be different from the ones we truly are and what we truly believe. [17] Nevertheless, the mirrors being photographed are unable to reflect as the mirror images are transformed into a sea of black by the scanning process. The reflection is no longer available. [17]

Dialogue, 2012

These works picture a young girl in different moments of her life. [5] According to Hickox, these photos of a young female represents snapshots of her daughter's life in the information age. [5] She demonstrates her work as "I see these images not so much as a portrait of my daughter, but as a portrait of a moment in time that could exist in the lives of many women in our Digital Age". [5] Therefore, these works bridge the dialogue between this general representation of moments of a young female and many other women's life moments. [18] [ non-primary source needed ]

10x10, 2014

This work consists of five portraits of couples gazing toward the viewers in various settings. [19] These photographs were a commissioned work for the Toronto base 10x10 Photography Project to celebrate the LGBT Canadians in the arts. [19] [ non-primary source needed ]

Portraits

Toronto Island Workers, 2009 – 2013

This series of work consists of over 90 public installation pieces of life-size photographs of city staff (farmers, gardeners, lifeguards, maintenance workers, etc.) on the Toronto Islands between 2009 and 2013. [20] [ non-primary source needed ] In the CBC interview of April Hickox, it was mentioned that the City staff are an important part of the local community who produced the opportunity to relax with their hard works. [21] According to April Hickox, these workers should be recognized for their investments in jobs physically, emotionally and spiritually toward building the safe and beautiful environments. [20] In fact, the installations of the works actually made the workers happy by recognizing them instead for their contribution to the city, instead of being invisible to the general public. [21] April Hickox was appreciated by the islanders for drawing attention to these workers and reminding them not to take the environment for granted. [21] April and colleagues presented the photographs to the visitors, making the social engagement and interactions between the installed photographs and viewers possible. [21]

Exhibitions

Teaching

As a past chair of the photography department at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in Toronto from 1998 to 2007, [24]

She is currently employed as an associate professor of photography at OCAD. [25] Hickox has previously held academic appointments at the following institutions: Ryerson University (1997), Canadore College (1989), Art Gallery of Ontario (1985–89), and University of Toronto (1985–90). [26] [ non-primary source needed ]

Community involvement

Hickox has served as a member of several charitable and academic organizations in Toronto from 1997 to 2013. To mark the beginning of this involvement in 1997, Hickox served as a founding member of Gallery 44 Center for Contemporary Photography, a non-profit studio in Toronto where she held the position of director for seven years. [27] Gallery 44 is an artist-run initiative whose mission statement is providing affordable resources to support photography-based artists. [28]

Hickox is also a founding member of the Toronto-based Tenth Muse Studio, and Artscape, which she acquired the position as a committee member for the Founding board of directors in 1998. [29] Through Artscape, Hickox directs artists' residencies and studio rentals on Toronto Islands under the Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts. [30]

From 1997 to 2000, Hickox was the Advisor and Training Coordinator for Arts and Crafts at Silent Voice Camp for the Deaf, in honour of her deaf daughter Alex. She simultaneously became a part of the Manitoba Mentoring Artists for Women's Art in Manitoba, CA. From 2010 to 2011, Hickox was responsible for building an online art collection as part of her role as guest curator for the Line Art Auction held by the LGBT Youth Line at the Art Gallery of Ontario [31] Between 2010 and 2013, Hickox held the position of committee member for Project 31, a fundraising auction that supports OCAD University. [32] In 2013, Hickox also fulfilled the committee membership role as the Co-Curatorial Chair for the Art with Heart event at the Casey House Fundraising auction of Canadian Contemporary Art to support HIV/AIDS. [33]

In 2021, she was one of the participants in John Greyson's experimental short documentary film International Dawn Chorus Day . [34]

Collections

Works by April Hickox are held in, among others,

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Gallery of Ontario</span> Art museum in Toronto, Ontario

The Art Gallery of Ontario is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beverley streets just east of Chinatown and just west of Little Japan. The museum's building complex takes up 45,000 square metres (480,000 sq ft) of physical space, making it one of the largest art museums in North America and the second-largest art museum in Toronto, after the Royal Ontario Museum. In addition to exhibition spaces, the museum also houses an artist-in-residence office and studio, dining facilities, event spaces, gift shop, library and archives, theatre and lecture hall, research centre, and a workshop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Burtynsky</span> Canadian photographer and artist

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer and artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. His works depict locations from around the world that represent the increasing development of industrialization and its impacts on nature and the human existence. It is most often connected to the philosophical concept of the sublime, a trait established by the grand scale of the work he creates, though they are equally disturbing in the way they reveal the context of rapid industrialization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Belmore</span> Anishinaabekwe artist

Rebecca Belmore D.F.A. is an interdisciplinary Anishinaabekwe artist who is notable for politically conscious and socially aware performance and installation work. She is Ojibwe and member of Obishikokaang. Belmore currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idris Khan</span> British artist

Idris Khan OBE is a British artist based in London.

Susan Silas is a visual artist working primarily in video, sculpture and photography. Her work, through self-portraiture, examines the meaning of embodiment, the index in representation, and the evolution of our understanding of the self. She is interested in the aging body, gender roles, the fragility of sentient being and the potential outcome of the creation of idealized selves through bio-technology and artificial intelligence.

Jin-Me Yoon is a South Korean-born internationally active Canadian artist, who immigrated to Canada at the age of eight. She is a contemporary visual artist, utilizing performance, photography and video to explore themes of identity as it relates to citizenship, culture, ethnicity, gender, history, nationhood and sexuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzy Lake</span>

Suzy Lake is an American-Canadian artist based in Toronto, Canada, who is known for her work as a photographer, performance artist and video producer. Using a range of media, Lake explores topics including identity, beauty, gender and aging. She is regarded as a pioneering feminist artist and a staunch political activist.

Susan Dobson (born September 19, 1965) is a Canadian artist based in Guelph, Ontario. She is best known for her photographs and installations, many focusing on the theme of urban landscape and suburban culture.

Sanaz Mazinani is an Iranian–born Canadian multidisciplinary visual artist, curator and educator, known for her photography and installation art. She is currently based in San Francisco and Toronto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheba Chhachhi</span> Indian artist

Sheba Chhachhi is a photographer, women's rights activist, writer, film-maker and an installation artist. She is based in New Delhi and has exhibited her works widely in India and internationally.

Sarah Anne Johnson is a Canadian photo-based, multidisciplinary artist working in installation, bronze sculpture, oil paint, video, performance, and dance.

Nicole Collins is a contemporary Canadian artist whose work, which takes the form of painting, performance, video, and sound, explores the effect of time, accumulation, force and heat on visceral materials. She currently teaches at OCAD University.

Deanna Bowen is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes films, video installations, performances, drawing, sculpture and photography. Her work addresses issues of trauma and memory through an investigation of personal and official histories related to American slavery, migration, the Civil Rights Movement and the Ku Klux Klan. Bowen is a dual citizen of the US and Canada. She lives and works in Montreal.

June Clark is a Toronto-based artist working in photography, sculpture and collage. Formerly known as June Clark-Greenberg, her autobiographical works explore issues of history, memory and identity through reflections on her Harlem childhood and subsequent migration to Canada as a young adult.

Carole Condé D.F.A. is a Canadian artist whose practice responds to critical contemporary cultural, social, and political issues through the use of collaboration and dialogue. Condé and long-time collaborator and partner Karl Beveridge challenge concepts of ideology, power, and control. In their career, which spans over thirty years, Condé and Beveridge have had over fifty solo exhibitions at major museums and art spaces across four continents, including: the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, UK; Museum Folkswang in Germany; the George Meany Centre in Washington; Dazibao Gallery in Montréal; Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires; the Art Gallery of Alberta; and the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney.

Karl Beveridge is a Canadian artist. His practice responds to critical contemporary cultural, social, and political issues through the use of collaboration and dialogue. Beveridge and long-time collaborator and partner Carole Condé challenge concepts of ideology, power, and control.

Nadia Huggins was born in 1984 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. She now resides in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Nadia Huggins is a self-taught photographer and graphic designer who has worked extensively throughout the Caribbean. She was awarded the Festival Caribbeen de L'image du Mémorial Acte Jury Prize in Guadeloupe in 2015.

Janice Gurney is a Canadian contemporary artist born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She graduated University of Manitoba in 1973 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours degree and later received a Master of Visual Studies degree from University of Toronto in 2007 with a collaborative degree in Book History and Print Culture. She went on to get a PhD in Art and Visual Culture at Western University in 2012.

Maia-Mari Sutnik, was the first Curator of the Curatorial Department of Photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.

References

  1. 1 2 "APRIL HICKOX | Biography". aprilhickox.com. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Art Gallery of Windsor presents: April Hickox" . Retrieved 5 April 2017– via Vimeo.
  3. ↑ Now Staff (16 October 2020). "How you can shape the future of Toronto Island". NOW Magazine. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "cv" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 August 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Hickox, April. "April Hickox – With in Dialogue". LensCulture. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  6. ↑ Hickox, April. "April Hickox – Toronto Island Homes". LensCulture. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  7. ↑ "APRIL HICKOX | Gather". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 25 March 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 "APRIL HICKOX | Memento". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  9. ↑ "APRIL HICKOX | Landscape + Memory: An Island History, 2003". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "APRIL HICKOX | Point Pelee: Landscape and Memory, 2004". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "APRIL HICKOX | Can You Hear Flowers?". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 18 March 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  12. 1 2 "APRIL HICKOX | Within Dialogue". aprilhickox.com. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Dault, Gary Michael (22 January 2000). "Hickox's photographs speak eloquently from silence". The Globe and Mail.
  14. ↑ "APRIL HICKOX | Feminist Objects". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 25 March 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  15. 1 2 3 4 "APRIL HICKOX | Lives of Girls and Women". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "APRIL HICKOX | Women". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 9 December 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  17. 1 2 3 "APRIL HICKOX | Echo". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  18. ↑ "APRIL HICKOX | Dialogue". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  19. 1 2 "APRIL HICKOX | 10x10". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 6 May 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  20. 1 2 "APRIL HICKOX | Workers". aprilhickox.com. Archived from the original on 6 May 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  21. 1 2 3 4 "CBC interview – April Hickox" . Retrieved 5 April 2017– via Vimeo.
  22. ↑ Goddard, Peter (1 April 2006). "AT THE GALLERIES; From playground to prison". Toronto Star . p. H11 – via ProQuest.
  23. ↑ "Galleries". Toronto Star . 13 January 2000 – via ProQuest.
  24. ↑ "April Hickox," Travelling Light: Views of Ontario. Retrieved 6 February 2017, http://www.viewsofontario.ca/april_hickox/index.html.
  25. ↑ "April Hickox". 15 February 2017.
  26. ↑ "APRIL HICKOX Resume 2015," Accessed 5 February 2017, http://aprilhickox.com/_assets/cv.pdf
  27. ↑ "April Hickox," Travelling Light: Views of Ontario. Retrieved 6 February 2017, http://www.viewsofontario.ca/april_hickox/index.html.
  28. ↑ "April Hickox," G44 Centre for Contemporary Photography. Retrieved 7 February 2017, https://gallery44.org/about-gallery-44.
  29. ↑ "April Hickox," Travelling Light: Views of Ontario. Retrieved 6 February 2017, http://www.viewsofontario.ca/april_hickox/index.html
  30. ↑ "Gibraltar Point," Artscape Inc.. Retrieved 12 March 2017, http://artscapegibraltarpoint.ca.
  31. ↑ "LGBT Youth Line's Line Art Auction," Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved 15 March 2017, http://www.ago.net/lgbt-youth-lines-line-art-auction
  32. ↑ "Project 31 Auction," OCAD University. Retrieved 15 March 2017, https://www2.ocadu.ca/news/project-31-auction
  33. ↑ Casey House," Accessed 12 March 2017, https://www.caseyhouse.com/suspendisse-lacus-dolor-luctus-ut-imperdiet-sit-amet-valar-morghulis-2/
  34. ↑ Sarah Jae Leiber, "International Dawn Chorus Day Premieres April 29". Broadway World , March 29, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.