Megan Kammerer
Curator / Writer /Researcher


Exhibitions
  1. To our reunited future
  2. Memories of the Mountain
  3. Shadow Games
  4. Spoiled Milk
  5. Every Beloved Object
  6. Prelude / Requiem
  7. Anoxic Memory
  8. Sutures
  9. Yesterday is Melting


Writing


Info

Megan Kammerer (she/her) is a curator and writer based in Toronto, Canada. She has held various positions with the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, The Bentway, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Blackwood Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Guelph where she worked to support critically engaged exhibition programmes across Southern Ontario.



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6. Prelude / Requiem






Prelude / Requiem
Visual Arts Centre of Clarington
May 13 - August 27, 2023

Curated by: Megan Kammerer
Artist: Heather Nicol
Installation: David Wigley
Production Support:  Rocky Dobey, Peg Evans, Mikael Kangas, Rich Sachs, and Marvin Schlichting
Photo Documentation: Toni Hafkenscheid


Toronto-based artist Heather Nicol's new audio work positions itself at both extremes of the human life cycle. Built upon songs for lulling infants to sleep or easing passage into a final resting place, this immersive sound installation uses multichannel audio and light to encourage introspection across oral cultures.

Prelude/Requiem emerges from a twelve-year research practice in which the artist collected audio recordings that she made during encounters with her family members, fellow creatives,  newcomers, travellers, migrant youth, and friends. Some were professional musicians, but most were not. A fifteen-year-old Nigerian refugee shares melodies from home while displaced in Berlin. A new mother sings Bulgarian lullabies to her unborn child. An aging Holocaust survivor recalls Hebrew cradle songs with assistance from his wife. A Turkish conductor leads their choir in Minhrpa/Banff.

Fragments of Manuel Cardosa’s 1624 polyphonic Requiem build upon layers of sighs, whispers, and drums. They signal the passage of time—a breath, a movement, or a procession. Every fragment is a capsule of connection. Its inflections preserve the sensitivity, vulnerability, and generosity of each encounter to celebrate the power of aural gathering.

Every encounter comes together in this sheltered listening space to reflect on how our individual experiences overlap. Its peaceful environment encourages introspection, remembrance, and attention through generous acts of listening. Visitors are encouraged to slow down, recline, and rest in the installation’s soft setting. Together we can navigate the sounds that console us and commemorate the aural stories that ease us through fundamental transitions. We can practice communal listening as a radical act of care.

Prelude/Requiem is organized by the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington with the support of the Municipality of Clarington.