Detroit artist bree gant arrived in Sackville to continue work on a multimedia installation nearly 10 years in the making.
But during an interview with CHMA News, the conversation quickly moved beyond the exhibition itself. Instead, gant spoke about photography, cities, dance and the ways people shape the stories they tell about the places around them.
Those ideas come together in Wend, the installation now on display at Struts Gallery as part of the gallery’s five-week Open Studio artist residency.
Wend is a two-channel video installation that brings together years of film, sound and movement. The work draws on recordings gathered over time and reflects many of the ideas gant discussed during the interview.
At the centre of the work is a simple question: can a photograph ever be completely objective?
“We’ve long been told that photography is an index of a moment,” they said. “I think maybe as a journalism person, you could understand this, that there is no such thing as objectivity.”
To gant, every photograph reflects a series of choices. The person behind the camera decides where to stand, what to include and what gets left outside the frame. Those decisions shape the story that image tells.
“So when I say the lens makes myth, I mean that the lens writes a story, and we decide whether that story is reality or myth.”
Photography wasn’t where gant’s artistic practice began.
Gant spent years dancing before studying film at Howard University in Washington, D.C. After graduating, they worked in photojournalism, rarely going anywhere without a camera. Over time, the two practices stopped feeling separate.
“I was always, whether I was at a party or at an interview or at an event, I always had a camera in my hand,” said Gant. “Dance and the lens have long been how I interacted with the world.”
Living in different cities also shaped the questions behind the work.
While studying in Washington, gant watched neighbourhoods change through rapid redevelopment. Returning home after Detroit’s bankruptcy offered another perspective. Looking back, they describe both experiences as moments that reshaped how they understood power and who benefits when cities begin to change.
Gant sees gentrification as more than new buildings or investment. In their view, neighbourhoods are often left to decline before attracting investment aimed at generating profit, frequently at the expense of the people already living there.
“It is this intentional divestment and then flipping an investment of spaces into a way to make a profit,” they said. “Ultimately seeking to profit off of the displacement and dispossession of large groups of people.”
Wend remains on display at Struts Gallery until July 23, when gant’s artist residency comes to an end.
