Rick Carroll showcases his photographs.
Photographs of Centretown streets hang in the westend gallery. They paint a stark portrait of Ottawa’s diverse population: the young and busy on Albert Street, a man of colour on Queen Street, and a homeless person on Wellington Street – a reminder of the people who make the city what it is today.
These images by Rick Carroll are part of the Crossing Borders Contemporary Art Exhibition, which features fine art from four cultural perspectives. The exhibition aims to promote multiculturalism and artistic diversity in Ottawa by uniting the works of Canadian-born and new Canadian artists.
Carroll is one of five artists and provides a local perspective. The Canadian-born photographer features six images in the exhibit, with a focus primarily on people on the streets of Centretown’s business district. Carroll says he is recognizing the stigma attached to new Canadians and the view that the local job market is under threat from immigration.
“Art is like time stamp on life and how people think,” he says. “It has a very powerful bonding effect because it is also geographical in that it is unique to an area but there may be similarities between countries and cultures.”
Carroll says he saw how appreciative both the artists and the audience were to have a showcase of art that provides recognition and appreciation for cultural convergence and how it shapes the modern Canadian way of life.
A second Canadian-born artist along with artists from Lebanon, the Netherlands and Brazil also came together for the exhibition.
Exhibition curator Julia Yakobi says she developed the concept as an outlet for artists to flaunt the international flavour of the Canadian population today and show that a Canadian essence can be found in all Canadian art regardless of the artist’s cultural background.
Shows like this are important to demonstrate how cultures can combine and interact, especially in the nation’s capital, Yakobi says.
“Because Canada is a very multicultural country, it is important to show that we not only see a multicultural representation from a business point-of-view, but from a fine art point-of-view,” she says. “We have to do a lot more about artistic diversity and cultural representation.”
Supported by the Coalition of New Canadians for Arts and Culture (CNCAC) and hosted by the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO), the exhibit debuted to a crowd of around 150 people on Oct. 1.
Lebanese immigrant Rola Bleik also features eight works in the exhibition and says that while she thinks of herself as Canadian, she appreciates how this exhibition allows her to express her heritage to a wide audience. Her art reflects the warmth and contradictions she identifies with her native country, she says.
Bleik says she is humbled by the opportunity to share her heritage and the positive feedback she has received for her work. She credits immigration services from OCISO and the CNCAC for providing a support system and an outlet for her to reflect her cultural background.
“There are a lot of artists other than Canadians here in Ottawa,” she says. “It is always good for an artist to start with an organization because it gives them a lot of opportunities to start with exhibitions.”
The exhibition runs until Oct. 31.