Co.Lab Gallery presents

Nefarious Film Co.’s

NAANZHE: WATER IS COLOUR

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 4TH, 2022 6-10PM

EXHIBTION CLOSES NOVEMBER 16TH

Nefarious Film is honoured to present Naanzhe: Water is Colour, a collaborative project curated and led by co-founder Sarah McPherson. Funded by the Ontario Arts Council’s Northern Arts Fund, this project brought together eight individuals to create analog image distortion projects based on topics of their choosing. The main process taught and used for this exhibit is ‘film soup’. 

‘Film soup’ is an experimental distortion process widely unexplored by the analog film community. Once a roll of film has been exposed, the artist soaks the roll in a ‘soup’ of their choosing, taking into account the acidity of the ingredients to determine how long it will soak for. Ingredients used for these projects varied immensely, including (but not limited to) rat poison, cigarettes, malted beverages, saline, and dioxin-contaminated water. 

Each of the eight participants for this project chose a topic on which to focus their individual soups. Using 35mm Kodak Gold 200 film, they exposed images pertaining to their topics, then soaked the rolls in their chosen ingredients. From the daughter of a former paper-maker exploring the effects of the mill in Fort Frances to documenting life as a Venezuelan immigrant, this unique exhibition presents the voices, thoughts and stories of various members of our community. Most of the voices presented in this exhibition are BIPOC, LGBTQ+, or living with a disability. Some chose to elaborate their projects by adding other skills they carry, such as other image distortion techniques, collage, and more in-depth photography skills.

Naanzhe: Water is Colour features the voices and skill sets of eight wonderful individuals of our community:

JACK BARTEN

ALLISON FARRISH

SHANNON FAUBERT

MAUREEN GUSTAFSON

MEGAN LANDMAN

DANIEL MARQUEZ

JAMIE PAULUZZO-THOM

GILLIAN WHYBOURNE

Nefarious Film is grateful for the perseverance and tenacity of these individuals in their pursuits to explore and challenge themselves for this project, and is very proud to present their work in this exhibition.

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Nefarious Film Co. is a grassroots film project based in Thunder Bay, ON. Founded by Riley Urquhart and Sarah McPherson, the project’s aim is to bring analog photography practices to new audiences and to bring those who already practice analog techniques together to practice as a collective. Nefarious also offers by-donation film processing and is dedicated to making knowledge about these practices accessible to all who are interested. 

Inquiries can be sent to: nefarious.tbay@gmail.com

SPONSORED BY SHOUT MEDIA

FUNDED BY THE ONTARIO ARTS COUNCIL

images from opening night:

Photos by Sarah McPherson