Curtis Talwst Santiago: worlds, worlds, worlds

worlds, worlds, worlds explores how stories are held and carried across the vestiges of history and memory. Rooted in a form of world-building where inherited imagination meets critical fabulation¹, the exhibition celebrates polyphonic identities that negotiate different geographies across time, weaving the material, the fragmentary, and the ever-evolving within storytelling.
Central to the Contemporary Calgary presentation is a focused survey of Santiago’s dioramas. Begun in 2008 and collectively known as the Infinity Series, these intimate works move fluidly between personal memories of Caribbean community life: basement dance parties, the quintessential barbershop, figures dreaming in the grass, and broader collective histories such as migration crises and the rise of territorialism in its many forms. These scenes are portrayed as something precious and deliberately sheltered, worlds that can be held in the palm of a hand, inviting careful observation of details often overlooked.