On May 15, 5-8 pm, everyone is invited to the Opening Reception of the second of three thesis exhibitions by Master of Fine Arts (MFA) candidates from the graduate program in Fine Arts at the University of ݮƵ. The MFA Thesis exhibitions, presented by the Department and,give the campus and community-at-large an opportunity to see the end result of two years of intensive research and studio production by emerging visual artists.
The exhibition runs from May 15-31.
Paige Smith
I Saw You in the Archive
I Saw You in the Archiveis a multidisciplinary exhibition that reveals the history of eugenic practices in Kitchener-ݮƵ in the mid 20th century, and questions how the framing of history impacts our personal understandings of each other’s identities. Mixing visuals associated with institutional archives and rubber factories, the artworks examine the former Kaufman Rubber Company and its owner A. R. Kaufman’s attempts to contain certain types of people, particularly those deemed ‘feeble-minded’. The exhibition embodies my experience parsing through this complicated history as a queer and neurodiverse woman—digging through a cacophony of propaganda pamphlets, shoe sale reports, instruction manuals for birth control use, blueprints of the factory, and photography of the workers. Through video documentation, I reintroduce remnants from the archive to the contemporary condominium that was formerly the rubber factory, connecting past rhetoric to today’s circumstances. The complicated layers of eugenics, birth control access, disability rights, and feminism seep into each other and spill into the gallery. Through use of performance and site-specific interventions, I challenge the internal shame many who have been othered experience and resist systems of containment that aim to erase our identities.
Paige Smithis an interdisciplinary artist whose work investigates felt experiences of being othered through moving-image, installation, performance, and print material. Smith holds a BFA in Film and PBD in Contemporary Art from Simon Fraser University. Her artwork has exhibited internationally in France, the United States, and Canada, including recently with the Vancouver International Film Festival. Her research-creation has been supported by the Social Science and Humanity Research Council of Canada and the British Columbia Art Council. Her work can be found in the permanent collection of Video Out Distribution.
Image credit: Paige Smith,Tie the Knot Tight(film still), 2025, 16mm film and digital video superimposition. Image courtesy of the artist.
Azadeh Pirazimian
The Story of Tiles and Ropes In-Between /داستانسفالاوطنابا
The Story of Tiles and Ropes In-Between/داستانسفالاوطناباmoves through the fragile space of migration, where memory, material, and motion intertwine. It is about swinging: swinging between two roofs, swinging between two landscapes. It is about the fragility of a roof, the fragility of a memory. Suspended between Northern Iran and Canada, the work reflects gestures to find belonging—the stitching, the carrying, the quiet resistance of the body as it navigates cultural displacement. Caught between two systems—an oppressive regime and a colonial legacy—the female body is constantly policed, rendered visible and invisible, resilient and vulnerable. The work traces this tension as a lived condition. Terracotta clay and braided jute, materials rooted in the architecture and agriculture of Gilan, a northern province of Iran, anchor the installation in tactile memory. Jute, once wrapped around saplings or woven into sacks, carries the textures of land, labor, and time. Walking, stitching, dragging: these repeated gestures mirror the rhythms of adaptation, building presence through movement. The body becomes a bridge across geographies, bearing fragile weight, mending distance, and echoing with sonic traces of resilience. Through fragmented form and sound, the exhibition invites viewers into a shifting emotional geography, where home is not fixed, but carried and reassembled. Each step, knot, and stitch becomes part of an ongoing narrative of displacement, repair, and becoming.
Azadeh Pirazimianis an Iranian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist whose practice delves into themes of migration, displacement, and embodied memory. At the core of her work is the body—both a site of resistance and vulnerability—as it navigates oppressive systems. Pirazimian has a Bachelor of Painting and a Master of Art from Iran, and works across installation, performance, and material-based practices to examine the fragility of belonging and the resilience of the female body. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and has taught in both academic and community contexts in Iran and Canada.
Image credit:Azadeh Pirazimian,The Roof I Stitch(detail), 2025, jute and clay. Photo: Elsa Hashemi.
