Camille Turner

Camille Turner
Born

1960 (age 55–56)


Kingston, Jamaica

Nationality Canadian
Alma mater York University
OCAD University
Known for Performance, video, new media, interactive art
Notable work Miss Canadiana (2002–present)
The Final Frontier (2007)
TimeWarp (2014)
Movement Afrofuturism, feminism, Black Canadians, new media art
Awards Chalmers Art Fellowship
Website camilleturner.com

Camille Turner (born 1960) is a Canadian media and performance artist, curator, and educator.

Early life

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Turner immigrated to Canada when she was nine, first to Sarnia, and then Hamilton, Ontario.[1] Her childhood experience of living in Canada was marked by a feeling of otherness; other kids' racial taunts created a sense that she didn't belong. Turner has said, "no matter how long I live in Canada, no matter that I've lived here most of my life, when will I ever be Canadian? The feeling of otherness is so common."[1] Simultaneously, Canada was the place where she and her mother and sister became reunited with her father, a boilermaker who made his living working in Hamilton's steel industry.[2] Turner notes, "for me, my father was always somewhere else. And so home was always this mythical place that was going to happen when he would get settled. Then he would send for us, and we would be a family together. That's why a lot of the work that I do is about belonging and home, because it has always been this thing that was out there."[1]

Education

Turner is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, and has also attended McMaster University and Sheridan College.[3] She earned a Master of Environmental Studies from York University.

Artistic career

Turner's work investigates diasporic identity and intercultural exchange through interventions, installations, and public engagements, and her most recent work investigates hidden or erased histories through place-based exploration.[4] She is best known for her glamorous alter-ego Miss Canadiana, a hometown beauty queen on an ambassadorial Red, White, and Beautiful Tour, who has been calling out contradictions in the Canadian mythology of multiculturalism across the globe since 2002.[5][6] Turner was Artist in Residence at the Art Gallery of Missisauga, 2012–2014.[7] In the summer of 2015, her interactive project "Big Up Barton" focused on a neglected neighbourhood in Hamilton, Ontario. Mounted in a neglected storefront on Barton Street, the work presented recorded audio narratives of local residents' memories and invited visitors to share written responses.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Beauty Queen with an Edge" Globe and Mail
  2. ↑ "THE BOILERMAKERS & IRON WORKERS UNION"
  3. 1 2 Green, Jeff (6 July 2015). "Pan Am pop up art shifting the spotlight on Barton's decline". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  4. ↑ "camille turner". camilleturner.com. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  5. ↑ .
  6. ↑ Miller, Earl (2015). "Camille Turner: Hometown Queen". Hamilton Arts & Letters. 8 (1). Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  7. ↑ "Art Gallery of Mississauga Media Centre". Art Gallery of Mississauga. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
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