EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE
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MARK KASUMOVIC

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Mark Kasumovic is a Hamilton, Ontario born artist currently sharing his time between Canada and the UK. His work revolves around the inherent truth-value of the photograph and the many limitations within the medium. His most recent work investigates the relationships between technology and knowledge production within the context of scientific research. Other projects include: Picture/Perfect, which uses the tourist as a backdrop to explore the explosion of digital images as data in the information age, An American Landscape, which explores the multiplicity of meaning possible through the process of picture making with a camera, and Ideal Landscapes, which challenges the value of traditional landscape photography by turning the natural landscape into an artificially lit stage.  
In 2008, Mark was selected as the Ontario winner of the BMO Art First National Competition along with being credited best in show of his graduating class exhibition at Ryerson University, and receiving the Snap! Stars art award sponsored by TD Canada Trust. The following two years, Mark was featured in Magenta Foundation's annual publication, Flash Forward: Emerging Photographers. Since then, Mark has received grants and honours from the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Culture Nova Scotia, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Recently, Mark was awarded Junior Visiting Research Fellowship at the University of New South Wales School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (Faculty of Science). His recent exhibitions include commissions to photograph the Ontario Greenbelt for Canada's largest outdoor exhibition space at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, and three new installations at the Harbourfront Centre's Ontario Square from onwards. Please visit his Website.

​Earth Day 2021: Stop Extinction! Restore the Earth

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Mark Kasumovic, " Vault #3" [From series: A Human Laboratory], Photography, 2015
Mark Kasumovic,  Vault #3 [From series: A Human Laboratory], 2015

​Artist Statement: Using extensive links with the international scientific community, A Human Laboratory explores the settings of many of the most significant and mysterious scientific experiments happening around the world. From a seed storage vault tucked away in polar Svalbard, to the remote Experimental Lakes Area hidden within rural Canada, this body of work focuses on the great variety of sites and apparatus’ that we collectively use to understand our contemporary world. Focusing on experiments whose outcomes are often not predetermined nor fully understood, it invites viewers to consider the ramifications of such discoveries as quantum communication, genetic engineering and particle physics. It also raises questions concerning the role of conservation and preservation within the act of discovery. 
 
Apart from the beauty of such intricate man-made spaces, the photographs in this body of work also seek to question the inherent relationships between the apparatus of scientific inquiry and the humble photographic camera. As spaces such as laboratories become more visually cryptic with the onset of advanced and often invisible technologies, the camera can highlight a new burden of photographic representation: the difficulty all instruments of knowledge production have in representing some of the world’s most hidden phenomena. It can also entice thoughtful reflection upon how reliant we are on the function of images; how intermingled images are within the culture of knowledge production, and how relationships can be constructed if the two are analyzed in tandem. 
 
Vault #3 was a photograph taken at the Global Seed Vault embedded within a massive arctic cliff in polar Svalbard. The seed vault was constructed in 2008 to house “spare” copies of seeds held within international gene banks to avoid the loss of native species during a regional or global crisis. Most photographs representing the seed vault focus on the stunning landscape surrounding its entrance; the frozen doors that need to be thawed to access the vault’s interior; or perhaps Vault #1, which was rapidly filling to capacity during my initial visit. Vault #3, however, was empty and quiet. It provided a peaceful space to contemplate the long journey every seed has made to wait together, quietly, to be called to action. 

Recent work by Mark

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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