Trophy is a new three-channel video installation by Matilda Aslizadeh. A circular screen, stretching from floor to ceiling, depicts a slowly moving cinematic wall constituted by fragments of material culture drawn from the totality of human history: the spoils of a sacked museum repurposed to construct a threshold between inclusion and exclusion. The title makes reference to the Ancient Greek and Roman practice of erecting a Tropaion or monument on the battlefield made from the vanquished army’s weapons. Equal parts national border, barricade, ruin, kitsch and spectacle, Aslizadeh’s installation asserts a relationship between defense, historical culture and entertainment that invites viewers to contemplate the space, time and function of this imagined demarcation:
“Objects become empty vessels of meaning, much in the same way that our obsessive sifting through information on the worldwide web loses much of its depth due to distracted consumption. Our globalized culture serves increasingly as a barricade, a defense against deep thinking or political action.”. Marina Roy, Walls and Towers: Works by Gwenessa Lam and Matilda Aslizadeh (Montreal: SKOL Centre des Arts Actuels, 2014), 3.
Aslizadeh’s recent solo exhibitions include: Matilda Aslizadeh and Gwenessa Lam: Edge State, SKOL Centre des Arts Actuels (Montréal, Canada), Phantom Smile at Simon Fraser University Gallery, curated by Bill Jeffries (Vancouver, Canada) and Hero of Our Time at La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse (Montreal, Canada). One of her major video installations is currently on view at Ontario Science Centre (Toronto, Canada). Recent group exhibitions include: Waiting For at Centre A (Vancouver, Canada), Indivisible at Forman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University (Quebec, Canada), The Stalking of Absence at BTAP/ Tokyo Gallery (Tokyo, Japan) and Art Souterrain 2013, Nuit Blanche Festival (Montréal, Canada). Hero of Our Time, one of Aslizadeh’s major video installations, was included in the travelling exhibition, Diabolique along with the works of artists Jake & Dinos Chapman, Dana Claxton, Douglas Coupland, Jeremy Deller, William Kentridge, and Shirin Neshat

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