EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE
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Freda Guttman

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Freda Guttman
 "Silent Movie/Film Muet" video 1994
Freda Guttman is a native of Montreal and she has worked as a printmaker, photographer and  laterally, as an installation artist. In more than forty years of active research and practice, her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States and internationally. Guttman has over the years made her art practice and her political activism come together in a series of installations, in particular, one about the genocide of the Mayan people, Guatemala! The Road of War,  and an installation concerning the global system of food production and distribution, The Global Menu, both of which travelled widely in Canada. In each venue she worked with solidarity, church and interested organizations to reach audiences other than art ones.

She has produced two installations having to do with Palestine/Israel: Diminish Your Cup and Two Family Albums: Canada Park. From 1994 to 2004, she worked on a continuum of five installations about the 20th century called, Notes From the 20th. The writings and the life of Walter Benjamin have served as a template for these works, in particular his theories of the phantasmagoric myths we hold of history as progress.

In recent years she has mainly worked outside the gallery system, making posters, pop-ups, lino prints, and embossments that she sells at book fairs. She is a member of POPIR, an organization that works on housing issues in south west Montreal. She does a column for their publication called "A People's History of Montreal". She is involved as a foot soldier in the doings of many activist groups in Montreal such as Solidarity Across Borders.  Freda participated in two Embassy Cultural House: International Women's Day Exhibition  March 3 - March 21, 1984; and the Silent Auction: A Benefit Exhibition, May 11 - June 3, 1989. Please visit her website for more information. 

Banner image caption: "What is She Looking at? What Does She See?" Photo etching, 1972

DISAPPEARANCE works: Embossments

Embossments are untitled, 2017, 2018

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"Bodies of Water" silkscreen, embossment, 2017
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​Embossed Text for Bodies of Water (from 
article by Jenna Brager)

​“The oceans are full of bodies. This is nothing new; the currents are imbricated with centuries-old ghosts of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the genocide of millions of Africans, the acceptable loss in the conversion of people into commodities. At Cape Horn, the particles of African ghosts mingle with the fragments of Chilean and Argentinean disappeared and whisper together of endemic violence. They are joined by the bodies of refugees turned away from shore, taken by the sea at the behest of state policy. The waters speak of the necro-political creation of disposable classes that are subject to vanishing. Disappearance is not just a euphemism for state murder; it’s intrinsic to capitalism’s need for disposable classes.”

Work by Freda

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Poster for Exhibition "Guatemala! The Road of War" 1980's
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"In Memoriam" still from a series of multimedia installations, globally entitled "Notes From the 20th", 1990-2003
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Drawing for a graphic novel in progress
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"Reading in the Ruins", a Pop-up, paper, 2017
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The People's History posters were first published in Le Canal, a small newspaper produced by POPIR between 2015-2018. In all 12 of them were published and then made into posters. POPIR is an organization that deals with housing issues in South West Montreal.
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The People's History posters were first published in Le Canal, a small newspaper produced by POPIR between 2015-2018. In all 12 of them were published and then made into posters. POPIR is an organization that deals with housing issues in South West Montreal.


EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou and Dan Smoke,  and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

WEB DESIGN & SOCIAL MEDIA 
Tariq Hassan Gordon, Ira Kazi, Olivia Mossuto, Niloufar Salimi,  JoAnna Weil 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Blessy Augustine, Shelley Kopp, 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Andreas Buchwaldt, Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Ira Kazi, ​Shelley Kopp, Ashar Mobeen, Niloufar Salimi,  Jenna Rose Sands, JoAnna Weil & Michelle Wilson. 

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OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. Other former members of the board were: Debrann Eastabrook, Henry Eastabrook, Sharron Forrest, Wyn Geleynse, Janice Gurney, Jean Hay (1929 - 2008), Doug Mitchell, Kim Moodie, Gerard Pas, Peter Rist, Wanda Sawicki, Jean Spence and Jennie White. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

This project is supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
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Thank you to our partners

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E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

​London, Ontario is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties.

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  • Home
    • ECH News
  • Community
  • Exhibitions
  • Projects
  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About