Whispers in the Air

Thursday, April 25, 2023
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Curated by Jaclyn Quaresma
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Work by Dianne Ouellette, Alana Bartol and Bryce Krynski,
Hyeseon Jeong, Seongmin Yuk
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all roses sleep (inviolate light) is an olfactory video. Please arrive early to the cinema in order to receive your scratch-and-sniff card. Pre-registration is recommended. See imagesfestival.com for details.
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Images Festival, Toronto
Co-presented with Goethe Institut
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This program was presented online with closed captions

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According to the Smithsonian, the practice of testing the safety of a coal mine for human labourers by deploying a canary first began in Britain in 1911 and was quickly adopted in North America thereafter. For 75 years, canaries were brought to coal mines in cages and urged into the shafts. There they would live, keeping those working underground company with their song. But the birds were not there for companionship. They were deployed as detectors of carbon monoxide and other airborne toxins. When the whistling stopped, those working the mine knew the birds had died. Silence was their alarm.

Since then, a “canary in the coal mine” has become shorthand to describe early warning signs of danger. It is increasingly used when speaking about the endangerment of keystone species in response to dwindling habitats and protections. With the loss of a keystone species, an entire ecosystem radically changes, as no other species can fill the gap it has left.

This program presents the work of four filmmakers who foreground the lives of keystone species during the current mass extinction event. If canaries were silent alarms, these films act as whispers in the air. all roses sleep (inviolatelight), lii bufloo aen loo kishkishiw (Buffalo Wolf Memory) and The Backpack of Wings: Modern Mythology consider our shared futures alongside our more-than-human kin.

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List of Works