DEAR SCARBOROUGH & THE READING ROOM

Excerpt from Tiffany Schofield’s curatorial essay, It can only be this place:

In recent years, the literary art that surrounds Scarborough has sought to give voice to the myriad of intersecting narratives embedded in this place. Authors like David Chariandy, Catherine Hernandez, and Carrianne Leung offer reflections on identity, memory, and trauma that are often omitted from dominant narratives of suburban life. They are, in the words of Sneja Gunew, the inventors of community, forming invisible bonds with readers who have shared similar experiences. They make space for past, present, and future versions of Scarborough previously untold.

Abdallah has gathered some of these novels into a reading room, which acts as a companion to Dear Scarborough, a participatory collection of open letters addressed to Scarborough. The project is an invitation to share desires and memories of this place, an extended archive generated by and for future visitors. Acknowledging that every story is intrinsically incomplete, Dear Scarborough creates space to build on – or contest – the narratives presented in this exhibition.

*photos by Toni Hafkenscheid