Alejandro A. Barbosa, Knowledge of Weapon, 2024, inkjet print, 142.24 x 106.68 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Alejandro A. Barbosa, Cues, 2024, laser engraved inkjet print, 41.91 x 55.88 cm. Courtesy of the Artist
Alejandro A. Barbosa, Twilight (Mural), 2021, modular inkjet print on adhesive synthetic paper, 335.28 x 571.5 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Alejandro A. Barbosa, They Walked along the Seawall..., 2024, laser engraved inkjet print, 106.68 x 142.24 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Alejandro A. Barbosa, A Man [redacted], 2024, cut-out inkjet print, 147.32 x 111.76 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Alejandro A. Barbosa, [redacted]: Panel 2/8, 2024, laser engraved inkjet print, 27.94 x 41.91 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Alejandro A. Barbosa, His Intention..., 2024, laser engraved inkjet print, 106.68 x 142.24 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Alejandro A. Barbosa, Knowledge of Weapon, 2024, inkjet print, 142.24 x 106.68 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Alejandro A. Barbosa, Cues, 2024, laser engraved inkjet print, 41.91 x 55.88 cm. Courtesy of the Artist
Alejandro A. Barbosa, Twilight (Mural), 2021, modular inkjet print on adhesive synthetic paper, 335.28 x 571.5 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Alejandro A. Barbosa, They Walked along the Seawall..., 2024, laser engraved inkjet print, 106.68 x 142.24 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Alejandro A. Barbosa, A Man [redacted], 2024, cut-out inkjet print, 147.32 x 111.76 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Alejandro A. Barbosa, [redacted]: Panel 2/8, 2024, laser engraved inkjet print, 27.94 x 41.91 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Alejandro A. Barbosa, His Intention..., 2024, laser engraved inkjet print, 106.68 x 142.24 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.
Unsavoury Witness
Unsavoury Witness is a photo-based installation that includes laser-engraved photographs, photographic murals, intermedia, print media, and court transcripts from the Supreme Court of British Columbia on the 2001 murder of Aaron Webster in Stanley Park. This immersive exhibition foregrounds homophobia’s intimate connections with public spaces, institutionalized systems, societal responses, queer bodies, and desire.
Alejandro A. Barbosa engages photography through subtractive operations such as excerpt, redaction, and framing to conceptualize pause as an agency of justice. By working from official documents and media archives surrounding a pivotal case in the history of homophobic violence in Canada, they complicate the certainties of queer pleasure and integrate the inconsistencies of justice when prejudice, silence, and risk intersect desire.
Within the safety of SUM gallery, the exhibition is crafted as a diorama where artist and viewer intersect the public figure of the witness toward a queer ethics of placemaking and memorialization. Unsavoury Witness is Barbosa’s debut solo presentation in Canada and their first with SUM gallery, and is curated by long-time mentor Patryk Stasieczek.
Unsavoury Witness is generously supported by the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Parachute Fund.
