Lost Homelands: Manuel Piña, Edward Poitras, Jorma Puranen, Jin-me Yoon
November 14, 2000 - January 16, 2001

The Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery of Concordia University was pleased to present the exhibition Lost Homelands: Manuel Piña, Edward Poitras, Jorma Puranen, Jin-me Yoon from November 14, 2000 - January 16, 2001.

Curated by Annette Hurtig, adjunct curator for the Kamloops Art Gallery, British Columbia, the exhibition addressed the ideological function of landscape-based metaphors and myths. Lost Homelands united Canadian artists Edward Poitras and Jin-me Yoon, Manuel Piña (Havana, Cuba) and Jorma Puranen (Helsinki, Finland), each of whom purposely works from a cultural margin in search of a lost or illusive homeland. While hailing from disparate parts of the world and dissimilar cultures, these artists share certain concerns and methods as evidenced through the use of photographic images which uncover/recover lost histories and homelands. Rather than anchoring their work in identity polemics, the artists in the show use implied narratives or performative elements to evoke the specificities and ambiguities of time and place.

The exhibition was organized and circulated by the Kamloops Art Gallery and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery & Museum with the assistance of The Canada Council for the Arts and The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.