Camille Turner, The Resistance of Peggy Pompadour, 2013. Sonic walk performed by Ophilia Davis, Meghan Swaby, Camille Turner and Ross Turnbull. Composed and engineered by Ravi Naimpally, it was commissioned and co-presented by Women’s Art Resource Centre in Toronto in partnership with the Queen West BIA as a solo exhibition curated by Earl Miller for Nuit Blanche.
The Resistance of Peggy Pompadour combines archival research and speculative fiction to bring to life a silenced piece of Toronto’s history. It tells the story of Peggy Pompadour, an enslaved woman who arrived in the town of York (old Toronto) in 1793. Peggy, who was owned by Peter Russell, administrator of Upper Canada, is jailed for resisting slavery. Ironically, the location of the jail is the current site of Toronto’s posh King Edward Hotel. The story features Gloria Smith, a young Black woman who is brought to the hotel by her mother to celebrate her 21st birthday. Gloria finds herself involuntarily travelling back to the past where she encounters Peggy in a jail cell. When Gloria returns to the present she is determined to tell Peggy’s story.
”Told through the time-defying travels of protagonist, Gloria Smith – who is able to access and re-spatialize the geographies of both 21st-century metropolitan Toronto and the 18th-century town of York, the story is experienced as a sonic journey in which characters from the future open a portal into the past that is experienced in the present.”
(Edmonds, Pamela)
Written and Directed by: Camille Turner
Music composed by: Ravi Naimpally
Guitars performed by: Tim Posgate
Production coordinated by: Jounghwa No
Voice over by: Ophilia Davis, Meghan Swaby, and Ross Turnbull
Model of prison cell constructed by: Patrick Ellard
Photography by: Andrejs Rubenis
Social Media by: Aisha Simpson
Many thanks to Linda Abrahams and Earl Miller