In this talk, Luis Jacob explores the literary idea of 'double voice' in a speculative consideration of the work of artists in Toronto. Margaret Atwood wrote “The Double Voice” as part of her cycle of poems “The Journals of Susanna Moodie” (1970). Atwood’s ‘double voice’ suggests the divided worldview of Moodie, a 19th-century British settler in North America coming to terms with her new environment. As well, it points to Atwood’s own literary act of ventriloquism – projected through the voice of Susanna Moodie – at play in her book. Atwood’s writings emerged in the years following the centennial of Canada’s Confederation in 1967. They provide a starting-point for a speculative consideration artists in Toronto, considered within the discourses of anti-imperialism and cultural nationalism that circulated in Central Canada during that time.

Luis Jacob is a Toronto-based artist and curator.  Using painting, video, installation and photography, as well as actions in the public sphere, his work invites a collision of meanings that destabilizes conventions of viewing.  Jacob has achieved an international reputation, with his work exhibitied at the Taipei Biennial 2012; Generali Foundation, Vienna (2011); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010); The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (2008); and Documenta12, Kassel (2007).  In 2015 he co-curated the conference “This is Paradise: Art and Artists in Toronto” with Barbara Fischer, in collaboration with Kitty Scott.