Evolving Montreal – Andrew Jackson to document Little Burgundy for the McCord Stewart Museum’s series of photographic commissions

Montreal, May 14, 2024 – The McCord Stewart Museum is pleased to announce the selection of Andrew Jackson for Evolving Montreal’s third photographic commission. After Griffintown (2019–2020) and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve (2020–2023), the Little Burgundy neighbourhood will be the focus of the Montreal-based British-Canadian artist’s research-creation project. Building on his interest in the themes of family, transnational migration, displacement, trauma, war and collective memory, Andrew Jackson will explore the urban, social and cultural transformations of the neighbourhood known as the cradle of Montreal’s Black Anglophone community. Andrew Jackson has a noteworthy career as an artist working in documentary photography. His works have appeared in many major publications, including the LA Times, The Guardian and Stern Magazine, and are held in prestigious collections in the UK and the USA. This project will be the subject of an exhibition at the Museum in winter 2025.

“I’m immensely proud and honoured to have been commissioned by the McCord Stewart Museum to make this new photographic work. This commission provides an exciting opportunity to create a work that directly responds to the ways in which urban renewal has impacted and continues to impact the citizens of our evolving city. As scholar and public intellectual Christina Sharpe has articulated, ‘the past that is not past reappears, always, to rupture the present.’ In this light, locating my work in Little Burgundy is significant as it allows me to explore that past that is not past and how the intergenerational ruptures of displacement and erasure affect notions of belonging to both community and space, whether this space is real and tangible or imagined and only ever a concept,” says Andrew Jackson.

“I’m thrilled that Andrew accepted our invitation to contribute to Evolving Montreal. For this third edition, the notion of neighbourhood is being interpreted in a more conceptual sense, to investigate the role that Little Burgundy plays in the hearts and minds of Montrealers. Through documentary photographs of people and places, Andrew’s project will explore the idea that a neighbourhood can be symbolic as well as physical,” explains Zoë Tousignant, Curator, Photography.

Evolving Montreal – Photographic commission series

Launched by the McCord Stewart Museum in 2019, the Evolving Montreal series of photographic commissions supports documentary projects that capture the transformation of Montreal’s various neighbourhoods through unique points of view.

“The idea behind Evolving Montreal was born from the conviction that the Museum should play a more active role, both in supporting the local photographic community and in building its own photography collection. The remarkable creativity and documentary value of the projects produced so far in the series are eloquent proof that encouraging contemporary photographers to capture the continuous transformation of the city is a fruitful undertaking,” says Zoë Tousignant, Curator, Photography.

Projects in the Evolving Montreal series:

• Hochelaga by Joannie Lafrenière
• Griffintown by Robert Walker

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson is a British-Canadian photographer and artist who has worked primarily in Montreal, Canada and the UK. He is an associate lecturer at the London College of Communication, teaching in the MA Documentary & Photojournalism program and has previously served on the advisory board of the Photo Ethics Centre.

He has been a Light Work / Autograph ABP artist-in-residence in Syracuse, New York and graduated from the MA Documentary Photography program at Newport in Wales, UK.

His practice is developed at the intersection of photography and text and, most recently, focuses on notions of family, transnational migration, displacement, trauma, war, and collective memory.

His works are held in the United Kingdom Government Art Collection, The Permanent Collection New Walsall Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Rugby Museum & Art Gallery, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Autograph ABP, and Light Work Collection, New York, besides in other public and private collections of art.

https://www.andrewjackson.photography/

Images de presse

Object photographs
Portrait of Andrew Jackson