The significant influence of colonialism on cultures and traditions is well-documented, but what’s often overlooked is the role capitalism has played in dismantling communal ways of life. By prioritizing profit over people, capitalism has systematically eroded the social bonds that once held communities together. In response, people are now embracing their culture and coming together as communities to share responsibilities and care for common resources like land, water, and biodiversity. This shift is reflected in the exhibition Beyond The Commons: From Stardust to Everlasting Sun by artists Eve Tagny and mosquito girlfriend (Gabi Dao and Lou Lou Sainsbury) at A Space Main Gallery. The show explores communal stewardship, challenging narratives and envisioning a world beyond capitalism and colonialism. Through their thought-provoking work, the artists create new narratives from the ruins, embracing multiple truths and sensory experiences.
Eve Tagny, An Eroding Hearth, 2025, multimedia installation
Upon entering the gallery, Tagny’s installation An Eroding Hearth (2025) commands attention. The multimedia work combines video, sculpture, and photography to explore the artist’s family history. The videos showcase Tagny’s ancestral home in Cameroon. In one video, her father guides a tour through the house, highlighting family photographs that weave together threads of history and memory. In another, Tagny herself performs a quiet, ritualistic act, stepping on bricks and arranging family photos around them. The installation’s centerpiece is a low table-like structure adorned with ceramic candlesticks, hand molds, palm kernels, and clay vessels resembling ancient pottery fragments. These elements evoke the hearth as a symbol of connection, sustenance, and transformation.
Eve Tagny, Untitled, 2024, photography works from An Eroding Hearth
Through An Eroding Hearth Tagny reveals the intricate relationships between landscapes, cultural identity, societal values, and collective memory. The work invites viewers to reflect on the ways in which our surroundings shape and are shaped by our experiences, histories, and traditions. Curator Noor Alé notes that Tagny’s earth-made vessels evoke traditional containers, bridging past and present through material memory. This practice aims to reignite planetary care, fostering shared responsibility for the earth’s well-being. By exploring practices from the home to ecological sanctuaries, the work highlights the interconnectedness of personal experiences and broader societal contexts, promoting a deeper connection with the earth.
Eve Tagny, earth-made vessel from An Eroding Hearth
In the other room mosquito girlfriend’s film Resurrect Me as a Parasite (2025) and accompanying artworks such as a ceramic mosquito bust and bat marionettes, reclaim the trope of the parasite to highlight queer ecologies and challenge dominant narratives.
Installation view with mosquito girlfriend’s works, including bat marionettes (in front)
By examining symbiotic relationships and blurring boundaries between life and death, human and environment, the exhibition invites viewers to reconsider their relationships with nature and the marginalized, promoting a shift towards more inclusive thinking. Through a blend of film, sculpture, and performance, the exhibition creates a space for reimagining anticolonial relations with the more-than-human world.
Installation view with mosquito girlfriend, mosquito bust, ceramics
Beyond The Commons: From Stardust to Everlasting Sun conveys a sense of resilience and hope, emphasizing the importance of collective care, shared resources, and social support in the face of systematic challenges to ecological well-being. The artists suggest that communing involves nurturing relationships, resources, and the environment at multiple scales, from the local to the global.
Text and photo: Nusrat Papia
*Exhibition information: Beyond The Commons: From Stardust to Everlasting Sun / Eve Tagny and mosquito girlfriend (Gabi Dao & Lou Lou Sainsbury), April 12 – May 24, 2025, A Space Main Gallery, 401 Richmond St. W. Toronto. Gallery hours: Tuesday to Friday 11am – 5pm, Saturday 12 – 5pm.