Holding Place

As the title of the exhibition suggests, it contains depictions of places which hold, such as sheds, garages, and formal or informal dumps. These often ignored, marginal places are the source of much of my recent work.

Holding Place can also be understood as a gesture, the act of holding. In this act, discarded fragments become luminous, tender, even comical at times, brimming with uneasy possibilities.

Yet another meaning for the title is a place where viewers are held: a threshold, a liminal space, neither here nor there. The images ask viewers to leave the familiar, to be curious and open.

The photographs look forward and backward, projecting toward the viewer while also receding. Often there is a mid-point: a pane of glass, a surface of water, an aperture or opening, or a screen of grass or debris which mediates between the two. They ask questions about what we are seeing and why.

The cyanotypes are another attempt to hold the ephemeral, transforming shadows into something tangible. Juxtaposed with the photographs, they offer a contrasting but connected mode of examination.

In this time of unprecedented change, disintegration and loss, opening to ever-shifting possibilities is essential.

Anne Freeman, 2024

Town, 2022, colour photograph

Looking In, 2022, colour photograph

Unkept 3, 2022, cyanotype on watercolour paper

The Laneway Suite was also included in this exhibition.

With thanks for the support of the Province of Ontario through the Ontario Arts Council’s Exhibition Assistance Program.