We cast Spells on the Mothers of our Daughters and Daughters of our Mothers

Mitra Mahmoodi, Aftabeh, 2018, earthenware clay, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.

We cast Spells on the Mothers of our Daughters and Daughters of our Mothers

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August 14 – October 17, 2020

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View the exhibition in the gallery and online at

centrea.org/we-cast-spells-online

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Online Opening Reception: 

August 14, 2020, 6 – 8 PM PST via Zoom 

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Current Gallery Hours:

Wednesday to Saturday, 12 PM – 6 PM*

We have made changes to ensure physical distancing, including limited occupancy and implementing enhanced cleaning procedures. We encourage you to wear a mask while in the gallery, and that you sanitize your hands before and after visiting. Masks and hand sanitizers are available for you as needed.

Due to Sun Wah Centre’s security measures, please locate the security guard posted at the front gate to be let into the building. Otherwise, please call us at (604) 683-8326. Thank you for your understanding and patience. We look forward to seeing you in the gallery!

*Due to uncertainties imposed by the global pandemic, please refer to our website or social media in case of any changes to our gallery hours.

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Public Program:

The Spirit Keepers of Makuta’ay: An Artist Talk with Yen-Chao Lin

September 25, 2020, 6 – 7:30 PM PST via Zoom

Presented in partnership with Cinevolution Media Arts Society

Register HERE.

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This exhibition, We cast Spells on the Mothers of our Daughters and Daughters of our Mothers, brings together works by artists Yen-Chao Lin, Mitra Mahmoodi, Parvin Peivandi, Denisa Rahma, and Fiona Yujie Zhao. It centres on inherited cultural memories, magic, and rituals, and how they are complicated, and in turn reiterated in a contemporary context over time and through the diasporas.

It navigates diverse concepts and an array of cultural perspectives and locations, such as the filming of spaces that were once sacred and occupied by the Indigenous Amis sorcerers off the eastern coast of Taiwan, only to be disrupted and reconstituted by the colonization of the Spanish; the utilization, texturing and dissection of Persian carpets and weaving as a means of contemplating rituals of death, memory and analysis of the lives and reflections of women carpet weavers; the critiquing of themes of ritual, spirituality, and ostentation through calligraphy and ceramics in Iran. Furthermore, it explores themes of the occult, magic, and melancholy through staged photography and the play of iconography and traditional textiles from Jakarta as well as the speculation of inherited magic and spirituality that retains and transforms in the unconscious mind and body, through the medium of paint.

To rethink and contextualize these abstract understandings of identity through inherited memory, the artists connect through cultural material, place, and objects, to reimagine it in terms of modern dialogues and new identities.

Curated by Hana Amani, Curatorial Skills Development Intern

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Sponsor:

Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies at Simon Fraser University

Lead Patrons:

Anonymous, Anonymous, Anonymous

Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected].

Centre A is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.