Artist Researcher Jahmal Nugent (aka ninjahmal) is a visual media artist, focused on digital photography and videography. Born and based in Toronto, Jahmal’s works explore the ordinary as extraordinary, and remind us how beautiful and amazing elements we take for granted can be.
Jahmal led Making With Place through observations and articulations of the sudden emptiness and surrealism in the streets during the Covid-19 lockdown. His photography and video enliven intimate connections, reflecting his/our aloneness in the middle of enduring life-energies of built and natural worlds.
Jahmal continually reconnects with land, decompressing from the experience of the city to ground his practice and sense of self, in pursuit of what Robin Kimmerer describes as “botanical belonging”. Reminding us of how interrelated mental, physical and emotional health is with the natural world.
Jahmal’s making moves through perspective-seeking on multiple scales, from intimate focus to soaring heights, using powerful drone cinematography.
Jahmal compiled his vast collection into three short films that were projected onto the walls of Fort York at The Bentway, offering a visual moving narrative journey from calmness to intensity to balance – rich perspective for the times we are in – through sharply contrasting and yet cohesive imagery enhanced by sound.
In a potential next iteration, Jahmal would recut the videos in connection with the walls they were projected onto. This would create an interplay between recorded images of places, mapped into another space, putting them into dialogue with each other.
Jahmal’s cinematography aims to create a relatable experience, in and out of the city, transporting while grounding in real viewpoints and perspectives of place.
Follow Jahmal’s work at https://beacons.page/ninjahmal
Listen to the Jahmal speak about his work
Follow Jahmal’s work here
