THE GROTTO 

February 10 – April 6, 2024  

Xpace Cultural Centre. Toronto ON Canada

Curated by Avalon Mott

Featuring Abby Kettner, Danan Lake, RamolenLaruan, and Ghislan Sutherland-Timm

Somewhere between here and there, nearand far, north and south, east andwest, nowhere and somewhere, The Grottoexists. It is elusive, relying entirelyon soft architecture to gesture towardselements of life that feel familiar. Amovement or form or sound or visual.The Grotto begs to engage tension, thefeeling of the uncanny that revealsitself when the intersection of wakinglife and a dreamed world is held inparalysis. On view at Xpace CulturalCentre from February 9 – April 6 2024this exhibition engages the works offour artists; Abby Kettner, Danan Lake,Ghisland Sutherland-Timm and RamolenLaruan to provide a latticed network ofanchor points that usher the viewer intheir experience of the Grotto ondisplay. Curated by Avalon Mott. 

Essay by Avalon Mott

Featured works from the series your presence isn't here:

Ingraining the tactility of image-making twelve analog collages emulsify within organic ingredients and beings through salt, moss, sugar, and earth. Activated through the participant’s touch, your presence isn’t here is a series of ephemeral works highlighting fragmentations of identity, fractured placement, and the search for being here. Through diaristic documentation of collaged bodies touch becomes an intimate contribution to the emulsions performance of decay. In letting go of what we initially see, memory, in time passing, forms a space to become an unreliable narrator. your presence isn’t here prompts the creation of an adaptation when the origins of stillness cannot remain.