Todmorden Mills Heritage Museum and Arts Centre
67 Pottery Road
todmorden@toronto.ca
416-396-2819
Todmorden Mills is a beautiful Gallery and the perfect location for this show. Situated on Pottery Road, just off the Bayview Extension. These historic houses have been converted into an inviting space.
High vaulted ceilings and large wall space do justice to the 17 Imposing Sepia toned banners that comprise this presentation.
All of the Images depict a woman. They are unique and diverse, and yet each of them emits a powerful energy and yet a calmness. Something Artist and Story Teller, Nora Camps refers to as Sarayu.
This idea came to her in a dream. She describes Sarayu as a notion of gentleness and serendipity. It happens when u feel alone or your having a terrible day or u feel that you’ve screwed up so badly that u cant even go on and all of a sudden like a breeze that refreshes you and gives you a different perspective on life its there, a Sarayu moment.
An online story catcher is an important part of this show. The stories collected reflect the Sarayu notion and compliment the photographs.
The name Sarayu is actually a river in India and in other cultures Sarayu is a spirit. For Nora it’s the idea of the Holy Spirit, not in the religious context a female spirit, who can comfort and embrace you.
“The women who I photographed portray the spirit and its not just one spirit there is an infinite number. They don’t look one way they don’t feel one way. What Sarayu becomes is up to each individual”
“I want everyone to see the stories, I invited 17 women to be my Sarayu in this exhibition but there are 48 more women waiting to be Sarayu so over the next few years I’m going to shoot every two months. We envisage that this will be a larger traveling show and we purposely designed this show so that it could be transported quite easily.”
Nora Camps Online gallery:
http://www.gallerynora.com/node/472
By Alison Brown
I had to write in and tell you how much this show moved me. I just stood in the middle of the gallery and cried. The Images had so much impact on me. I was so excited to find this review of the show.Thank you for posting the address for the online story catcher now I know where to send in my story.