For more than 30 years, Toronto-based artists Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge have been producing socially engaged photographic work. Collaboration lies at the heart of the two artists’ practice, not only in their co-authoring of the work, but also in the dialogue with community groups, unions, disenfranchised persons and activists that is woven through the photographs from pre-production through to exhibition. Condé and Beveridge’s work lends itself to many contexts, and whether it is viewed in an exhibition at a museum or gallery or in a public awareness campaign at union halls, transit shelters and on billboards, their work repeatedly calls for reflection, accountability and social justice.
“Open Conversations: The Art Practice of Carole Condé & Karl Beveridge,” currently on at the Richmond Art Gallery and curated by Scott Marsden, functions both as a retrospective and as a catalyst for new work. Marsden has included production notes, stage props, drawings and storyboards from the artists to help unpack the dialogical process leading to a variety of photographs and explain some of the symbolism intended therein.
Condé and Beveridge’s new work Public Matters was produced directly in dialogue with staff working for agencies within the Richmond Cultural Centre, including the Richmond Art Gallery itself. The narrative-driven photomontage reflects on the definition and value of public-sector intellectual and cultural work and its role within the city of Richmond.
Condé and Beveridge continue to demonstrate that it is possible to have a critical and socially engaged participatory art practice that produces a physical product—whether that product, in their case, ranges from a single photograph to a 30-year archive.
