September 21 – December 1, 2019

Small Arms Inspection Building (2019)

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Chair, 2019, aluminum. Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art. On view at Small Arms Inspection Building as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art (2019). Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid. Courtesy Toronto Biennial of Art.
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Chair, 2019, aluminum. Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art. On view at Small Arms Inspection Building as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art (2019). Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid. Courtesy Toronto Biennial of Art.
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Chair, 2019, aluminum. Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art. On view at Small Arms Inspection Building as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art (2019). Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid. Courtesy Toronto Biennial of Art.

This project was sparked by a single image—an 1830s painting by Johann Friedrich Waldeck—of a man striding up a mountain with a chair strapped to his back, carrying another man who is clothed in white with delicate boots. These chairs, called silleros, were used in colonial-era Guatemala and neighbouring regions to carry explorers, settlers, and even artists quite literally on the backs of Indigenous people. The painting, a self-portrait by the artist being carted up the mountain, reveals a stark division of class and labour. Figueroa’s configuration of cast aluminum versions of the chairs (also reminiscent of 1920s de Stijl design) imply another possible choreography—one that empties the chair of its colonial power.

Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art.

Bio

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa (born and lives in Guatemala City, Guatemala) received a BFA in Media Arts from Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, Vancouver and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Working in drawing, performance, sculpture and video, Naufus explores his displacement during and following the Guatemalan Civil War of 1960–1996. Borrowing from the languages of folklore, science fiction and theatre, he reframes historical events and protagonists in his work.

Exhibition Site

Small Arms Inspection Building (2019)

Small Arms Inspection Building was originally part of a large munitions plant built in 1940 before it was acquired and renovated as an art centre by the City of Mississauga in 2018. With its female dominated workforce, Small Arms Limited manufactured thousands of rifles daily for the Canadian and Allied forces in WWII. In 1990, the TRCA conducted an environmental audit of the site, revealing the presence of polychlorinated biphenyl, volatile organic compounds, and combustible gases across nineteen acres. More than 70,000 tons of contaminated radioactive soil was removed to eventually transform the Arsenal Lands into a park.

1352 Lakeshore Road East
Mississauga ON
L5E 1E9