Calgarians now have the privilege of seeing the largest survey of contemporary Canadian art ever undertaken outside of Canada. The Oh Canada exhibition was created by Denise Markonish curator at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA) where it was first shown in 2012. Every province is represented and the exhibition encompasses 60 artists and more than 100 works. In Calgary Oh Canada is divided across four galleries: Esker Foundation Glenbow Illingworth Kerr and Nickle Galleries. Only two of the artists have work in each of the four galleries. The first Michael Fernandes is a conceptual artist whose installation is titled “In Between.” With the help of an archer arrows were shot into the walls around each of the galleries (my favourite is the one that went right past the head of Terrance Houle’s bison “Iiniiwahkiimah” at Glenbow). The other is Micah Lexier who minted coins for his work titled “A Coin in the Corner.” He told Michael Snow in an interview for the Oh Canada book that he loves puzzles and games so in that spirit you have to have to find the coins yourself — there are five at each gallery. But that is not the only reason to visit each venue during the exhibition which runs until April 26. Read on for a gallery by gallery breakdown of this massive exhibition.
GLENBOW
There is a feeling at Glenbow of periodically looking back over one’s shoulder — back at Europe colonization industrialization and the formation of a national identity.
“The Thief of Mirrors” by Daniel Barrows is a fantastical theatrical installation made from projected light and the artist’s drawings. It captures the extravagance of Versailles at the height of its decadence and the drama and bloodshed of its inevitable downfall. It shimmers like the past but it sings like a prophecy. David Harper’s “Finding Yourself in Someone Else’s Utopia” draws on a Dutch painting of a wild boar hunt and the use of the classic Delft pottery pattern. The beauty sophistication and intellectualism of European culture is evident but so is the violence greed and destruction.
The brutal history of the Acadians as shown in paintings by Mario Doucette strips away any notion of heroism or romanticism as portrayed in earlier historical paintings by artists such as Henri Beau. Kent Monkman’s “Reincarceration” looks just like a late 19th century classical landscape but it couldn’t be more different. The building in the distance is a penitentiary and the composition suggests what could be called a vicious circle. “The Exhausted Landscape” by Douglas Coupland references Lawren Harris of The Group of Seven but whereas Harris’ icy landscapes gleamed Coupland’s is flatter and darker and bleaker. Wanda Koop’s painting “Power Plant (No News Series)” is a nightscape where the electric lights have replaced the stars. We could be there soon. And from there it is a short step to Wally Dion’s “Game Over” a nightmare-scape where hyper-intelligent robots have surpassed human brainpower and where circuit boards batteries and neon wire are the new fields mountains and rivers.
“Vermont” by Shary Boyle is a beautiful oil painting of a girl’s face enveloped in a tartan collar with a jewel brooch under her chin. It is luminous due to the layers of translucent paint. It speaks of a bygone age and suggests that the history of a single person is different than the history of a people. Personal history is the subject in many of the drawings by Annie Pootoogook and Shuvinai Ashoona from Cape Dorset Nunavut. There is a narrative that moves on from one picture to another though it is not necessarily chronological. For example Ashoona’s “Self-Portrait” and “The Beautiful Brand New Water Truck” are deeply connected to her intense and mournful “Carrying Suicidal People.” Darker still is a beautifully made and unsettlingly absorbing short film by Patrick Bernatchez — Glenbow built a showing room for this film and it was worth it.
Eric Cameron’s “Thanatos” was made by dipping Remembrance Day poppies in paint hundreds of times and they hang above your head. This work imparts the importance of remembering the past no matter how layered or unrecognizable it may have become.
NICKLE GALLERIES
The Nickle exhibition takes place in the dark the only light coming from the exhibits themselves. The result is quite delicious.
The least light is emitted by David Hoffos’ multimedia installation which uses video projection and miniature dioramas. Ergo it is eerie and spooky and dark. And while there is a great deal of mystery and suspense in his work the connection to the domestic always leaves me with the uneasy feeling that I forgot something quite important — like I left the stove on or forgot to lock the front door. So it becomes all about me and my own petty anxieties.
Emitting hues of soft pink and green Ed Pien’s multimedia installation “Suspension” is a tall rack with thin gauze draped down the front and sides. Shadows and lights dance randomly across it. What is interesting about this work is the positioning — it was pointed out to me that it sits in the middle of the floor so that we can see the box of tricks all the projectors and lights and discs and everything else that creates the illusion. Although I know exactly how he did it Pien’s work is still magical.
“Range Light Borden-Carleton PEI” by Kim Morgan looks like an illusion but it comes from a sad reality of modern life and what we call progress. A range light is like a lighthouse except it is one of a pair. Boats like the Marine Atlantic ferry that used to run in between Borden and Carleton on Prince Edward Island use them to navigate through narrow passages of water. Their light guides the boats at night. Then one day a bridge was built between Borden and Carleton and after 70 years the ferry sailed no more. Kim Morgan and her team made a soft sculpture of one of the range lights by making casts of its inside and outside. They salvaged an imprint of every square inch and with it lifted old paint and graffiti and any other debris that would stick. The voluminous skin is held up by a nautical arrangement of ropes and pulleys and sandbag ballasts all of which appear to be holding the structure down as much as they are holding it up. It is lit from the inside and is the colour of golden syrup and toast. It is extraordinarily beautiful this shell of its former self. But it cries for its other and the old ways of life. “Do not go gentle into that good night but rage rage against the dying of the light.” (Dylan Thomas).
ESKER FOUNDATION
Many of the works exhibited at the Esker Foundation are delicate and gentle. The artists have manipulated light and material to question reality.
“Optic Nerve” by Kim Adams is a white van with bright white light emanating from holes drilled into its body. When we look at it we see beauty but we are not looking at what is physically there; the white van itself is positively ugly so the beauty is created by the empty spaces. Michel de Broin’s “Tortoise” is a gargantuan construction made from 12 picnic tables bolted together. Once you get over the shock that someone had to build this it is best appreciated by walking around it slowly — think “tortoise.” The structure remains the same more or less but all the negative spaces will change. It’s like being inside a kaleidoscope.
“Clay Slab” and “Paper #2” are large watercolours by Hans Wendt. The subject in each case is exactly what the title says it is — so far so good. There is no background or composition. The painted picture looks exactly like the object but it is not exactly photorealistic. There is a calm and reflective mood that comes from the work. So what’s the big deal? Basically it’s a painting that doesn’t look like a painting; it defies that it is made with paint on paper. But we know it is not a real slab of clay or a crumpled piece of jotter paper. It’s like reality has been turned on its head.
Diane Landry’s “Knight of the Infinite Resignation” is a machine built from old plastic water bottles bicycle wheels electric light bulbs and rotors. Like windmills or Ferris wheels they turn some fast some slow but always steady. In some the lights come on and the lights go off one by one. It is achingly simple almost medieval and unbelievably beautiful. It is a machine but it serves no master save our imaginations.
BGL made “wrought iron railings with fleur-de lis” out of Styrofoam. For me it evoked Great Expectations namely Miss Havisham’s uneaten wedding cake and the railings around her aristocratic pile. It also triggered a strange disappointment because I wanted snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes and silver white winters that melt into springs. BGL’s work occupies a space between reality and somewhere else — and for a few minutes so did I.
Marcel Dzama’s film A Game of Chess is part ballet part avant-garde theatre and part early cinema. The costumes are über chic and also recall ancient civilizations. If none of this is making any sense that’s because in reality it’s difficult to express in words something so wonderfully imaginative that I had to drag myself out of the room. The same is true for Graeme Patterson’s multimedia work Secret Citadel. The main characters are a cougar and a bison and it’s out of this world — you have to see it to believe it. And as for Dean Baldwin’s cabin well it’s more like a tree house and it smells of fresh cedar. It’s full of home comforts and he even brewed his own beer. It’s almost too good to be true.
ILLINGWORTH KERR
Any material scientist worth his salt will tell you that felt is for hats and porcelain is for afternoon tea. But many of the artists whose works are exhibited at Illingworth Kerr Gallery have thrown the conventional use of materials out the window.
Clint Neufeld casts engines in porcelain. They are exquisite right down to the nuts and bolts manifolds gaskets tappets and switches. A real engine has a life but in porcelain there is angst between subject and material. An engine can break down at the drop of a hat; Neufeld’s engine will break if you drop it.
In a revolutionary departure from the traditional Ruth Cuthand used beadwork to make images of viruses — Hanta H5N1 avian flu Hepatitis C and West Nile. In any other medium they would be no more than medical illustrations but the association of beads with trade for fur recalls the spread of smallpox measles and influenza from European traders to North American indigenous peoples. By beading images of a new wave of viruses Cuthand makes connections between 21st century globalization the threat of a pandemic and the real cost of trade.
Janice Wright Cheney’s “Widow” is a life-size sculpture of a grizzly bear covered in red pink and purple felt roses. Its scale and claws would suggest it’s more than capable of looking after itself. But the medium begs to differ. The association of roses with love fills the room with pathos. The glass eyes are so full of longing and despair it nearly broke my heart.
The mind-bogglingly complex paintings made with acrylic paint and resin by DaveandJenn are supported by skeletal bird legs cast in bronze. The works are so organic they look like they formed themselves in a cycle of decay osmosis and mutation at the bottom of the local landfill. In spite of having picked the wrong legs they still managed to stagger out of the mire complete with party hats ready to take over the world.
Michael Snow is an installation artist painter sculptor photographer and professional jazz musician who is universally considered one of the most influential artists in experimental and avant-garde filmmaking since the 1960s. Internationally he holds numerous honourary degrees has won several art prizes including the Iskowitz prize in 2011 and amongst other honours is a companion of the Order of Canada. His film Solar Breath (Northern Caryatids) is at Illingworth Kerr. Need I say more?
In keeping with the innovative use of media Charles Stankievech’s “Loveland” is a large-scale video installation that includes objects placed in mirror vitrines producing reflections ad infinitum. Amalie Atkins’ video “Three Minute Miracle: Tracking the Wolf” is viewed from inside a felt tent sitting on an upturned log on a floor of fake snow. Felt boots are available for those who want to enhance the experience.
Works by Sarah Anne Johnson (“Cheerleader”; “Arctic Circle Banner”) feature incongruous scenes of ridiculously happy people who are apparently celebrating being abandoned in the vast emptiness of the North. She took the photographs up North and later painted in what was missing. It’s magic. Ned Pratt also photographed the North but his work is clean and crisp and beautiful in its sense of isolation — the only sign of life is a dead herring.
Oh Canada: Contemporary Art from North North America runs until April 26.
