For the last few years, Mother’s Day for me has become pretty much synonymous with the Contact Festival. Even though I’m hugely pregnant and, in theory, could go into labour at any moment, this year was no exception. I was originally planning to see Somewhere to Disappear, the film that followed Alec Soth while he worked on Broken Manual, on Saturday afternoon, but I didn’t buy advance tickets soon enough. We were even going to wait in line for the possibility of rush tickets, but on Thursday I had a bad fall, so I was feeling a little too broken and rundown to stand in line for an hour plus in the hopes of getting a seat.

(Look: I even got a black eye. Luckily it’s not so visible when my eyes are open and with my glasses on, or I’m sure my husband would have gotten some dirty looks.)

Anyways, we just went to a few exhibitions. I’d pored over the contact site to decide which exhibitions I most wanted to see: Viviane Sassen’s work in the primary exhibition at MOCCA and Guy Tillim’s Avenue Patrice Lumumba.

First, Viviane Sassen’s work. LOVED it. L-O-V-E-D it. I don’t quite understand it, but I love looking at it, and I think that’s part of its appeal, that these images are enigmas. I love work that goes beyond the colonialist cliches of Africa. The work is shown as part of a group show, and I liked some of the other work but not all. Sassen’s work was by far the standout for me.

I will say, however, that I was kind of distracted by the presentation. The images were mounted but not framed, and they were in different sizes AND hung at different heights. I’m sure there was a reason for that, but I just didn’t understand it, and I found myself wondering about that instead of wondering about the images. It looks like her book, Flamboya, uses an analogous technique with little images tucked into half pages, as you can see in this video of flipping the book. I’m beginning to think I’m developing a special taste for out of print photobooks. I would love to buy Flamboya, but it’s no longer available. The work at Contact is newer work than the book but it appears to be along the same vein.

And now, South African photographer Guy Tillim. I have to say, this solo exhibition showed a lot more pieces than I expected. There must have been 40 pieces in the show, maybe even more. And they’re pretty big pieces. Most importantly, they are beautiful.

The only downside of the show is that admission cost $10. If I’d known that in advance, I probably wouldn’t have gone but since we only discovered it when we were already there, we paid. It seems very odd to me to charge admission for an art show. Anyways, I’m glad I went, even if my bank account is smaller as a result. These were my two favourite images from the show:

The show is put on by Wedge Curatorial Projects, which focuses on African and diasporic artists. On May 17, Kenneth Montague, the curator, will be leading a tour of the exhibition and they will be screening a film about Lumumba’s rise to power. If you’re around, you should totally check it out. The show is on until June 14.