Phantom Monuments of Waterloo

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Phantom Monuments of Waterloo

Phantom Monuments of Waterloo

Phantom Monuments of Waterloo is a participatory art installation that reanimates archival images of the city through vivid colourization and imagination. Audience members select historical 35mm film slides that they then add colours, drawings, or textures. These slides are then projected for all to see, and through the use of polarized-light effects, create a shifting reimagination of local memory.
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About the Artist

Paige Smith is an interdisciplinary artist whose work examines how bodies are shaped by place, institutional power, and historical memory. Working across moving-image, photography, installation, performance, and archival intervention, she investigates systems of containment, bodily regulation, and experiences of being othered through materially driven and self-reflexive processes.

Her recent projects focus on the intertwined histories of labour, disability, sexuality, and eugenics in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, combining archival research with installation and experimental documentary practices. Smith's work has been exhibited in Canada, France, and the United States, including presentations with the University of Waterloo Art Gallery and the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Smith received her MFA (Studio Art) from the University of Waterloo, and BFA (Film) and Post Baccalaureate Diploma (Contemporary Art) from Simon Fraser University. Her work has been supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the BC Arts Council, and the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund.

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Paige Smith
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PHARMAKON

Waterloo is situated on the land traditionally cared for by the Haudenosaunee, Anishnaabe, and Chonnonton Peoples. We acknowledge the enduring presence and deep traditional knowledge and philosophies of the Indigenous People with whom we share this land today.
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