By: Niki Wickramasinghe
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“Very few family stories, few personal stories have survived among the millions of descendants of the trade. Africa is therefore a place strictly of the imagination–what is imagined therefore is a gauzy, elliptical, generalized, vague narrative of a place. Many in the Diaspora have visited the Door of No Return at slave castles in Ghana or Gorée Island. They tell of the overwhelming sense of grief and pain these visits give. One does not return to the Diaspora with good news from the door… .”
- Dionne Brand, The Door of No Return
Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid, courtesy of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto.
Introduction
Otherworld at the Art Museum, University of Toronto marks the first major solo exhibition by multimedia artist Camille Turner. Otherworld is an immersive experience that extends Turner's long-standing exploration of Canada's involvement in the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans. The exhibition draws from Turner’s “...afronautic research methodology, which focuses on journeys by water and space that bring together Afrofuturism, critical storytelling, and Black radical imagination”[1]. Many of the works were inspired by her visit to an archaeological site in Senegal, where she witnessed a former detention center that once held captured Africans before they were sold into slavery. Turner describes this deeply emotional experience as a profound journey, one she sought to translate into a creative form, allowing others to feel and reflect on the same historical weight [2].
Drawing heavily from Afrofuturism and sci-fi, Otherworld tells the story of a Senegalese woman—portrayed by Turner herself in video installations—who travels through time to a future where she encounters the “Afronauts,” a nation of Black people who fled to outer space during the Transatlantic slave trade when Earth became inhospitable for Black life. The exhibition delves into her arrival aboard the Afronautic spaceship and the vast knowledge she gains from this futuristic society.
The Afronautic Research Lab
Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid, courtesy of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto.
A visitor to the Otherworld exhibition comes up to the front desk attendant and asks, “So what are the numbers?” to which the attendant confusedly responds, “... Of what?”
“Well, you know, of slaves in Canada.”
“I’m not sure.”
This brief conversation amusingly sums up the knowledge (or lack thereof) of Canada’s role in the transatlantic slave trade across history classrooms in the country. This is, of course, largely in part because of the lack of research on the topic.
Conversations about Black history and identity in Canada are often framed in comparison to those in the United States. As a result, Black experiences in Canada are frequently overlooked or distorted to support a narrative of nation-building. You might have heard statements like, "there was no slavery in Canada," "Black people were always welcomed in Canada," or even, "there were historically no Black people in Canada." All of these are false. Increasingly, scholars like Turner are working to bring Canada’s Black history to light and correct these misconceptions.
The Afronautic Research Lab is an art installation that highlights the critical role of archival research in this process. Here, you are invited to sit and engage with various documents laid out on a table in the “Afronauts’” research lab. It is also part of a participatory performance piece that Camille does in conjunction with a collective called Outterregion where they actually play the characters of the Afronauts. During the performance, participants are equipped with sparkly silver notebooks and guided through the process of archival research. A board of chart paper behind the Afronauts reads as follows:
Blackness is Central.
Time has no beginning or end.
Silence offers information and direction.
Imagination and dreaming are tools for building worlds.
Amongst the archival materials splayed out on the table you will find various articles about screenings of the 1915 silent film Birth of a Nation, adapted from the novel and play The Clansman. Despite being widely regarded as “the most racist film ever made,” it was extremely popular amongst white Americans; so much so that it was the first movie to be screened at the White House.[3] The film sparked controversy due to its racist portrayal of Black Americans and its glorification of segregation. It also idealized the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), who were the ‘heroes’ of the movie which depicted them as defenders of the white race.
Birth of a Nation made its Canadian debut in 1915 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, followed by a screening at Massey Hall. The film quickly developed a cult following—its "cult" being the KKK, who traveled with the film, spreading their racist ideology. This coincided with the rise of Canadian KKK factions in the 1920s and 30s, who were notorious for terrorizing Black, Asian, Jewish, and Catholic communities across the country.
Another historical aspect that Turner seeks to bring to light is Canada's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. In this exhibition, she portrays the archetypal character of the “wise traveler” who appears in many pieces in the exhibition and is symbolically connected to knowledge drawn from the ocean. Part of this knowledge is shared with the audience in ARL Newfoundland which is the culmination of research Turner conducted in Atlantic Canada, highlighting the construction of 19 purpose-built slave ships in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Through this work, Turner uncovers the "hidden" history of Canada's participation in slavery, specifically through the building of these slave ships. Some of these ships included the Sarah, the Maria, and Fly, all of which are titles of pieces in this exhibition that either directly or indirectly engage with the history of slave ships in Canada.
Archival Activation as Truth-Telling
Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid, courtesy of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto.
A question that emerges when experiencing Turner’s Otherworld is, “Who is this exhibition for?” For non-Black audiences like myself, with little to no knowledge of Canadian Black history, installations such as the Afronautic Research Lab serves a deeply pedagogical purpose. However, for Black visitors, the experience carries an additional emotional weight. The sentiment of emotional difficulty is palpable. One visitor standing near the entrance, comments in slight discomfort, “she takes us right to the Door of No Return…”
Despite the emotional heaviness and difficulty inherent in engaging with the work, Turner’s Afronautic Research Lab holds significant value because it disrupts and challenges the traditional notion of archives as static, often colonial, repositories of knowledge. By creating a participatory installation, Turner transforms the exhibition space from one that is passively consumed—where knowledge is observed (or gawked at) from a distance—into one where the audience becomes an active participant in the process of knowledge production. This dynamic not only decentralizes the authority of the archive but also implicates the viewer in the ongoing dialogue surrounding history, memory, and the construction of knowledge, urging them to consider their role in these narratives rather than remaining detached observers. Through this interactive format, Turner dismantles the idea of the archive as a neutral or unchangeable space, instead presenting it as a site of contestation, reinterpretation, and lived experience.
Otherworld will be on at the University of Toronto Art Centre until March 22, 2025.
[1]Art Museum at the University of Toronto. 2024. Press Release. https://artmuseum.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ArtMuseumUofT_Otherworld_PressRelease_Aug2024.pdf.
[2] Camille Turner 2024, Personal Communication.
[3] Ed Rampell. ““The Birth of a Nation”: The Most Racist Movie Ever Made.” The Washington Post, 3 Mar. 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/03/03/the-birth-of-a-nation/.
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