The Canada Collection in Forestburg

July 6 – August 10, 2013
The Forestburg and District Museum
An Off-Site Project
Reception: July 6, 2 – 5 pm

Curator: David Smith
Artist: Arianna Richardson

Investigations into the construction and propagation of national, provincial and regional identity drive my practice. I am interested in theories of semiotics and hyperreality and how, through the souvenir and tourism industries, they are put to use to build national identity. Signs of Canada are of particular interest because of the unique and fast-paced construction of nationalism that came with the 1967 Centennial, occurring simultaneously with the permeating introduction of television and mass culture in 1960s North America. Because of the firm grip of hyperreality on the Canadian image, it’s orchestrated nature can be discovered writhing beneath a superficial, often humorous veneer.

The Hobbyist project is an ongoing document of investigations into this specific period in Canada’s history and many Hobbyist products appropriate the imagery of discarded items found in thrift stores and garage sales that are reminiscent of the period. In utilizing this particular aesthetic, I aim to question the relevance of the items and the ideas they represent in our increasingly digital and fast-paced society.

As craft and mass production represent another major avenue of interest, The Hobbyist has been working towards the creation of a mail-order catalogue offering DIY craft kits (eg- paint by numbers, embroidery kits, knitting patterns), a variety of Canadian souvenirs, (toques, personalized cigarette holders, flags, apparel, etc.), topical essays, varied sundries and photo-books. All of these items are handmade in a pseudo-mass produced manner and are intended to provoke the viewer out of passivity, engaging them in the active development of a new sort of consumer market aimed at promoting human interaction, creativity and critical thinking.

The series, Frontier, consists of 27 snapshots taken from across Alberta and Saskatchewan in the Summer of 2012. The particularly mythical ideals that are represented by these recreational vehicles: the rugged, wild frontier of the west and the freedom of the wilderness-braving Canadian, reveal themselves as signs made irrelevant by the passage of time. In various states of use and abandonment, these vehicles and their faded facades hearken back to a time not long past when the propagation of identity through consumerism was readily apparent. The series prompts inquiry into current projections of Canadian nationalism, heightening awareness and opening up a critical discourse when it comes to the meaning of contemporary Canadian-ness in a time of utmost ambiguity in the matter.

The Forestburg and District Museum

In My Room: Interior Environments

July 4 – August 15, 2013
Main Gallery
Reception: July 4, 4 – 6 pm
Curator: Jane Edmundson

Works from the UofL Art Collection

There’s a world where I can go
And tell my secrets to
In my room
In my room

In this world I lock out
All my worries and my fears
In my room
In my room

Do my dreaming and my scheming, lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing, laugh at yesterday

Now it’s dark and I’m alone
But I won’t be afraid
In my room
In my room

- Brian Wilson/Gary Usher

The border between public and private space is one that each of us traverses daily. Navigating the codes of conduct required of us by peers and strangers alike requires a performance of sorts, where we act to conform to the expectations of our “public” selves – characters that we play in the production of our external, social lives. Through pressures applied from without and within, the construction of public personhood is an ever-changing, yet inevitable constant of interpersonal reciprocity. Given the amount of effort this endless maneuvering requires, the private sphere becomes, for many of us, a space of refuge, relaxation, and quiet. Our fortresses of solitude, the inner rooms of our homes, are where we can temporarily lay down the mantle of public responsibilities, and exist without pretension or posturing. In this way, our private environments mimic our bodies’ interiors; there can be comfort and protection in being contained inside one’s intimate space. Conversely, while the strain of social norms is relaxed when we are at rest from our public lives, isolation and the opportunity for obsessive interior thoughts can reconfigure private rooms as sinister sites of imprisonment for some.

The artworks selected for In My Room depict rooms where we are often solitary – bathrooms, bedrooms, studios. In most of these representations, the spaces are starkly empty, suggesting they were formed via the artists’ personal, private experiences with seclusion. The few works that do offer peopled environments vacillate from warm, intimate scenes of domesticity (Chamber’s Diego Drawing and Smith’s Woman in Tub) to symbolic examinations of the ominous aspects of psychological withdrawl (evident in Hudson’s Shark diptych, where the secluded figure has only the glow of his televised portrait to fend off the menacing creatures in the dark). The mood here is quiet, introspective, and perhaps reflective of the hushed tones and careful movements we, as viewers, employ in the public-yet-sequestered interior environment of the gallery.

Jane Edmundson,
Preparator/Assistant Curator

Helen Christou Gallery Closed

June 5 – TBA
Flood Damage Repair

Due to the devastating flood of June 5th the Helen Christou Gallery sustained major damage to cabinets and walls. Luckily, none of the objects or art work currently on display were effected. However, the gallery is currently closed until further notice and repairs are complete.

The Cardiff/Miller House

Thursday, May 16, 9am – 6pm
Friday, May 17, 9am – 12pm
Andy’s Place Terrace
Reception: May 16, 4 – 6 pm, Andy’s Place Terrace (AH100), U of L

Artists: Emily Luce with Major Collaborators Rodney Sayers and Alan Maten

Featuring the work of:
Taylor Ackerman, Leila Armstrong, Cindy Baker, Victoria Baster, Karen Campbell, Christine Clark, Adrian Cooke, Dana Cooley, Jennifer Crane, Dagmar Dahle, Annelaure Djaballah, Chai Duncan, Jane Edmundson, Leanne Elias, Mandy Espezel, Denton Fredrickson, Don Gill, Marianne Gerlinger, Fred Greene, David Hoffos, Patricia Horrocks, Andrew Jensen, Emily Luce, Jared Klok, Glen MacKinnon, Petra Mala Miller, Billy McCarroll, Mary-Anne McTrowe, Greg Moody, Christopher Moore, Monica Nobert, Chad Patterson, Taras Polatiako, Beth Porter, Arianna Richardson, Catherine Ross, John Savill, Rodney Sayers, Jeff Spalding, Melinda Spooner, Corinne Thiessen Hepher

Domesticity in the Art World, Sustainable Architecture (and Living), Community/Collaborative Aspects, and the Pleasure of Tiny

The Cardiff/Miller House is a miniaturized but inhabitable replica on wheels of an infamous art house in Lethbridge Alberta. Exploring notions of domesticity in the art world, the line between the art life and art history, and sustainability and the tiny house movement, the house is a transitive portrait containing tiny work by over 40 artists who have ties to the house.

Artist Statement:
I live in a suite in a house owned by the artists Janet Cardiff and George Burres-Miller in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. At one time, they lived here, as have a slew of other Canadian artists who invited people in, made their work, and were a part of the arts community over the years. Throughout the house one can find a collection of ‘artist repairs,’ slightly left of center solutions to problems. The storage spaces are goldmines, collections of discarded art projects, furniture finds from the thrift store (mostly broken, alot orange,) and usable, random art supplies. The house has started to establish somewhat of a mythic quality for itself. Locals are curious about who is living in the suites; everyone has an opinion about how it should be repaired. It’s a place that’s right on the brink of a certain history—someday it could become a significant art site. Then again, it could be sold and renovated by someone who wants to take advantage of its large footprint and strategic location.

I am interested in this tipping point. Through the construction of a miniature portrait of the Cardiff-Miller house, I aim to explore the qualities of this building in the present moment, and its domestic presence in Canadian art history.

The work presented is an 8 x 16′ replica on a trailer of the Cardiff/Miller House. Inside, the house is furnished with tiny works by over 40 artists with ties to the house, in addition to a sleeping loft, a tiny kitchen area, and a waterless bathroom. Both interior and exterior architectural details refer to the original house, creating a miniature, interactive portrait of the complex life of an art house.

The Cardiff-Miller House is the first stage in a multi-part project to develop tiny but inhabitable replicas of significant art houses across Canada. Future houses in the series include the Agnes Martin Family Homestead, located in Macklin, Saskatchewan, the Emily Carr House in Victoria, BC, and the Maud Lewis House in Halifax/Digby, Nova Scotia.

With Assistance From:
Jeld-Wen Windows and Doors, Storage Town, Savill Group Architects, Duane’s Drywall, The Nikkei Cultural Society of Lethbridge, Davis GMC Buick, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, The Canada Council for the Arts
 

Drawing the Canada-Wide Science Fair

Monday, May 13, 9am – 12pm
Thursday, May 16, 9am – 12pm
Friday, May 17, 9am – 12pm
U of L Centre for Sport and Wellness
Reception: May 16, 4 – 6 pm, Andy’s Place Terrace (AH100), U of L

Drawing the Canada-Wide Science Fair is a collective of fifteen artists who have come together to interpret and play with the spectacle of a national science fair through visual language. By drawing on-site during the Canada-Wide Science Fair, the artists will create and immediately broadcast drawings of selected projects on display. The idea is to expand the notion of drawing around science themes to include the potentials of visual priority, cross-disciplinary work, collaborative drawing, multi-perspectival drawing, non-precious drawing, interactions with people, live tweeting, 5-second-delay blogging, and other unexpected possibilities. #drawingscience #cwsf2013 #ulethimpact

For more information on the project and the participating artists, visit Search & Research.

For more information on the science fair visit Canada-Wide Science Fair.

Participating Artists:

Leila Armstrong
Cindy Baker – (U of L MFA Art Candidate)
Christine Clark – (U of L MFA New Media Candidate)
Kelaine Devine
Leanne Elias – (U of L New Media Instructor)
Mandy Espezel – (U of L MFA Art 2012)
Denton Fredrickson – (U of L, Art Instructor, BFA Multidisciplinary 2001)
David Hoffos – (U of L BFA 1994)
Emily Luce
Glen MacKinnon – (U of L Art instructor)
Petra Mala Miller
Mary-Anne McTrowe – (U of L Art Technician, BFA 1998)
Megan Mormon
Shanell Papp – (U of L BFA 2006)
Rod Sayers
Corinne Thiessen Hepher – (BFA 2009, MFA candidate)

Images of Drawings by participating artists:

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Images of Drawings by Visitors from Lethbridge Area Schools:

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Nicholas de Grandmaison: Recent Acquisitions

May 2 – June 27, 2013
Main Gallery
Reception: May 2, 6 – 8 pm
Extended viewing hours: Saturdays 10 am – 5 pm

Information concerning the de Grandmaison Oral History Project.

Curator: Josephine Mills

Drawn from the 67 artworks donated by BMO Financial Group, this exhibition features 28 pastel portraits that provide a range of the Aboriginal subjects represented in the gift. The works demonstrate de Grandmaison’s deep respect for the people whom he painted and his exceptional skill at capturing the individual character of his sitters. The exhibition will include a resource area focused on a newly launched oral history project. The U of L Art Gallery and the University Archives are partnering to gather stories on the artist and on the subjects of his paintings. These oral histories will be added to the existing research holdings of archival material on the artist and will help provide context for future audiences attending exhibitions of his works. Information on the oral history project will be provided and people can contact the research team if they wish to participate.

Check the U of L Art Gallery’s website — ulag.ca – for details on a planned informal series of presentations “Conversations about Nicholas de Grandmaison”. These will occur on select Thursday evenings throughout the exhibition. As well, the gallery has extended hours for the run of the exhibition and is open every Saturday along with being open until 8:30 pm on Thursdays in addition to the regular 9 am – 4:30 weekday hours.

Closing Reception & Hoop Dance Performance
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Main Gallery

The closing reception featured a hoop dance performance as well as information about the U of L Art Gallery’s ongoing Nicholas de Grandmaison Oral History Project. Through this project we are collecting stories from First Nations people about their relatives portrayed in de Grandmaison’s work. The art gallery hopes to bring past and present generations together by discovering the story behind the subjects in the portraits. The hoop dance performance showed that First Nations’ cultures are still as proud and strong as they were when de Grandmaison first captured his visual documentation of the subjects.

Saving the World from Boredom

April 12 – May 31, 2013
Helen Christou Gallery

Curator: Bianca Elke, Museum Studies Intern
Works from the Galt Museum & Archives, Faculty of Fine Arts Theatre and Dramatic Arts Costume Collection and the U of L Art Collection

In conjunction with Historic Lethbridge Festival
May 3 – 10, 2013

During the 1960s, an inspiring and visible counterculture was born. Referring to themselves as hippies, this movement triggered dramatic cultural changes due to the rejection of conventional social norms from the 1940s and ‘50s as well as opposition to powerful institutions. The youth wanted to become more involved in decision making and were determined to speak up about social issues, such as supporting the civil rights movement and objecting to the war in Vietnam. This was an era when new forms of political activism appeared that included “love-ins” and other peaceful protests as well as harsh responses from government and police.

Along with taking a stand on political issues, people were exploring unconventional personal appearance, music, art, drugs and sexual liberation. New forms of music and festivals like Woodstock played a key role in spreading the counter cultural ideas and spirit. Communal living and other alternatives to Capitalist social structures were explored. Artists were moving away from traditional high art forms, such as painting and sculpture, and began producing a profusion of prints and other types of multiples. Influenced by the changes in society, artists drew their inspiration from Life magazine and other aspects of popular culture and embraced unexpected materials, performances and chance. The work shown in this exhibition contain elements of Pop Art, Fluxus, Postmodern and Abstract Expressionist art, movements that were all going on simultaneously during the 1960s.

Bianca Elke
Museum Studies Intern

Annual Curated Student Exhibition 2013

March 8 – April 18, 2013
Main Gallery
Reception: March 8, 8 – 10 pm

Guest Curator: Richard William Hill
Selected artwork from Senior and Advanced Studio Students

The Annual Curated Student Exhibition provides an exceptional opportunity for the professional development of Art Studio majors as they near completion of their degree. The exhibition gives students a realistic experience with the process of submitting their work and receiving feedback from an established curator. The exhibition is only open to Senior and Advanced Studio students in order to focus attention on those with the goal of becoming professional artists. In applying for this exhibition, the students follow the same process and standards for documenting, describing and proposing their art work as they will when applying to public art galleries, artist run-centres, or for government grants. Staff from the Art Gallery provide advice on preparing the proposals and share insights into what curators look for when deciding to book a studio visit and choose art work for an exhibition.

An established curator from outside of Lethbridge is invited to create the exhibition. The curator views the proposals and selects a short-list of students for follow-up meetings during a visit to Lethbridge. From these studio visits, the curator makes the final selection and works with the Art Gallery staff to lay-out and install the exhibition.

The Annual Curated Student Exhibition provides a showcase of excellent work by Art Studio majors in that year and gives the students a valuable achievement to list on their résumés. As well, the students who are not selected receive feedback on their proposals and can learn how to improve as they prepare to begin their careers.

Visit the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Artists (click image to enlarge)

Neysa Hale
Separation, Clay, liner, fishing line, 2013

Kara Henry
a living document, Mixed media installation, 2013
I must make the call, and they must end it., Blue pen on paper, 2012

Derrick Hoekstra
My self portrait Of anybody, Routered drawing on plywood, 2013

Jamie McKeague
Polyps, Drift wood, bullet shell, human hair, bumble bee, nylon, cotton, red potatoes, thread, lace, walnut shell, 2013

Claire Reid
Self Expression, Self Portrait, 89 shirts, 54 pants, 40 skirts, 22 dresses, 41 leggings/tights, 30 sweaters/blazers, some socks, ties, scarves and things, and 250 pins, 2013

Kasia Sosnowski
Shaped By Ghosts, Mixed media installation, 2013
Void, Acrylic on canvas, 2012
Broken Hymns, Video, 1:30, 2013

Lisa Spinelli
Journals Unveiled, Digital prints, 2013

Meghan Verkerk
Organic Growth, Paper towel and pen, 2013
Mixed Torso, Plaster, cloth, sawdust, felt, dirt, 2013

Kala Walton
My Embrace is My Teacher, Documented performance, 2012

Curatorial Statement

Formed & Formless

From one point of view the history of art can be read as one of a series of projects for bringing the sensible world into order and giving it form. Out of the unity of undifferentiated sense data distinctions are made, and categories created, named and organized. From this process language emerges, the symbolic order is established and ideal shapes and forms are identified and privileged. We become able to talk about and manage our world. At the same time the forms we institute also manage us, dictating—at least in part—our relationship to the sensorium.

Yet as art historians in the 1990s pointed out, this history of form and meaning-making has been haunted by the question of formlessness. This includes both those elements of materiality and experience that exist prior to the individualization of form and those that are necessarily excluded as particular forms are defined. This may include, for example, all the shapes that elude idealization: the ones that are not quite circles, or not quite rectangles. The millions of colour variations that go unnamed. All the mounds, clumps, blobs and messy strands. All the things that are disintegrating or decomposing, that are coming into or losing form. The things that lack names and fit no categories.

As a precondition of form, the formless exists as potential. And although the formless resists and exceeds language, you will see that for students at the University of Lethbridge, it remains wide-open to dynamic artistic exploration.

- Richard William Hill, Guest Curator

About the Artists

Neysa Hale
In my artwork I focus on social issues and human conditions. To explore such issues I use videos, photographs, installations, textiles, and sculpture work. My most current works focus on death and social understanding by creating environments with visual and audio stimulations.
My most recent work, Separation, focuses on death to invite inner reflection. What is our mark in the world, in the lives of people surrounding us? Death is something that is
common and yet powerful where it marks the beginning of something unknown for some, a spiritual journey for others, or a beginning of rebirth. It is the moment of separation from the physical into the unknown.
As I pound, press, stretch and mould each figure I surround myself with those I lost, and others I never knew, sustaining them through memory and reflection. Who were they and what was their story? Each clay figure is fragile and vulnerable. As clay comes from the earth, so we return. We are held together by a sheer covering, an identity. Individual and yet unified, together presenting a history.
My second work is a video installation titled Op-Lish. In this work I investigate social communication by using sounds and body language in order to create a new language that invites interpretation. I hope to encourage the thought of language and its effects on us when we encounter different languages or speech patterns. The differences can create misunderstandings or labels that are damaging and hurtful. With the three personalities represented on the globes, we see the same person and yet three different personalities.
As such, the work seeks to celebrate unity and uniqueness with a creative approach.

Kara Henry
It’s difficult to separate what I do as an artist from who I am as a person. As a result, work I produce carries with its idiosyncrasies left by the trace of my hand. I would argue that people make connections with a work, not because of the trace of the personal, but rather something ambiguously familiar that they relate back to themselves. How many ways then can a work be read or experienced? Does the artists intent translate across to the viewer and their interpretations? Who creates the meaning or narrative in an artwork? What does the formation of the meaning we take say about who we are? Perhaps we both receive information from a work and project our own information onto it. We don’t just read a work of art, but ourselves. How does the dynamic between the viewer and the artist in putting information into and taking information from something, influence both making and reading ambiguously personal work?

Derrick Hoekstra
So many times when I talk to peers, or other colleagues I hear the fallowing words. I wish I could do that. Which is exactly why I refuse to work with one particular discipline over another. A larger artistic lexicon increases my chances of articulating my thoughts, and feelings. I fearlessly leap into new mediums and projects thrilled with the prospect of the unknown. My process is a just as much intuitive as it is contemplative; A work will come from my heart but be refined by my mind as it comes to maturity. My inspiration comes from my family, my children in particular, other artists around me as well as every day occurrences that go by unnoticed. My current work comes from my interest in line and relationships.

Jamie McKeague
I began and continue my process, with a love for shape, form and unrelenting interest in the intersection of pictorial looking (and thinking) and the physical relations to space. I have always been fascinated by microbiology, cells and bacteria, which are reoccurring influences in my practice. The senses are very important in my works, both in the creation process and also in the final product. I appreciate forms that do not conform to the standard of beauty our society holds, such as blisters, clusters, growths and imperfections.
Ambiguity, formlessness and shape are all attributes I take great care in when considering my works.

Claire Reid
I am a fine art studio major this is my 5th and final year of my degree.
I am a multidisciplinary artist my work includes installation, photography and sculpture.
In my work I focus on themes of visual culture, identity and social constructions /paradigms.
I am concerned with the way in which people change or hide themselves in order to fit into society, find love, a job or even feel safe. Social constructs are reinforced by the media in which continually depicts unrealistic concepts of identity and reinforce concepts of normality. Current events influence my work; I am inspired by the social cultural, political and media environment.

Kasia Sosnowski
My current work explores relationships between the viewer, object and language within an installation format. I work in a wide range of media, allowing the materials to speak and guide me. I create environments for my objects to live in and create narratives and conversations within. I make forms that are ambiguous and indistinct allowing the viewer to make subjective associations. I use watercolour, paint, pencil, felt, found objects, and photography to communicate.

When I make work, I only feel I do not think. I like to throw myself into the present, and make work that comes from a space inside my body. I live in a land of materiality and immediacy. This is my favorite place, where everything can be touched and felt out. Impulse is the place I live in, it is where I reside, and it is where my work resides.

To create I must be empty, I must be a vessel for these forms. Read my soul, my guts, my teeth: this is where they come from, from the language of my body. My body is a language.

We forget to look, to breathe, we remind ourselves not to lose our bodies. I hope that the objects I make, the moments I construct give pause to the viewer and take them to a quiet place of contemplation: allowing them to engage with their body and explore their mind. I am interested in the separation between the realm of memory and the realm of experience by integrating language’s inability to visualize reality.

I am compelled to create. It provides an escape for me. I want to return to a place that I trust and find comfort in, make objects and forms there, then pull myself out of that space and present my creations to the world. I am interested in creating quiet moments, moments of pause that gently rest upon language’s spine. Creating a space of refuge, a safe restorative space.

Lisa Spinelli
My work is about process: the process of making art, the process of discovery, and the process of unveiling one’s identity. In the past I have often worked with various forms of self-portraiture, including watered down portraits in acrylic paint meant to portray an emotion as opposed to a “realistic” representation. The following direction of my work was to paint in pure abstraction, also using watered down acrylic paint. This time I used large stretched canvases and placed them on the floor for an effect of large, pooling puddles, combined with dripped lines, which I created by tilting the canvases. In these pure abstract paintings, I was aiming to reveal a subconscious self-portrait that was more about intuitive mark making than portraying anything from physical reality.

Currently, I am exploring a new approach to the self-portrait and individualities in general: the object of the journal and/or diary. I view the journal as a physically simple but elegant object that is more complex beneath its surface. My aim is to examine in depth the significance of a journal as an object, as well as the meaning and history of the act of journaling itself. In this process I am currently using scanners as cameras to document journals, and I am looking into exploring video and installation as well.

Meghan Verkerk
Everywhere we look there are an abundance of gadgets and products surrounding us, from the clothing we wear to the cell phones in our hands. Whenever we open our eyes, there is a product. We cannot hide from mass production – but how does this affect us emotionally and how does it affect our artwork? In my work, I try to experiment with the idea of mass production within the fashion industry, by using plastic manikins.
Recently, I have been teaching art and fashion studies at various high schools, as my practicum towards my Bachelor of Education degree. Teaching has left little time for creating my own art; however, upon returning to the U of L in January, I have been exploring and creating new fashion inspirations, which has led me to start making white plastered figures.
My artwork investigates the interaction of the basic elements of art, in particular, colour and shape. I have been drawn to the simplicity of manikins and how they are ready-made objects that are considered disposable. I want to understand how mass produced fashion is represented, how it impacts people and what influence it has in our modern society.
I am currently interested in the interaction between sculpture and fashion and in trying to find a balance between them. My fascination with mass production has lead me to think about juxtaposition- of making something simple yet different, causing the viewer to have a second glance at my artwork. I am working on a series of plaster casts of baby shirt forms which are a little odd. I enjoy the repetition of the simple forms and the relationship they have with each other.

Kala Walton

I sat on the edge of her small single bed; the bedding was a light green with a large pink floral pattern, a pattern not easily suited to her character, though she had a soft side. I selected my words carefully, despising the feeling of being weak, refusing to cry, even with someone who had seen me at my most vulnerable. I slowly spoke each word, visualizing them in my mind before they escaped my lips. I waited. The blow of honesty didn’t come. I felt her arms reaching for me, her body gently pulling me into hers and I felt the warmth of her soak through me like a dry sponge, expanding as I allowed myself to be immersed in her scent. I did let myself cry then, my whole body sighed with relief, this needed touch, this longing to be held, to be held in such a tender way soothed me to my core. The embrace of another had granted me an understanding of myself. This simple but beautiful gesture of embrace fanned a small spark deep inside me that grew into a small flame of hope.

My art practice encompasses sculpture, installation and video. My current project focuses on human intimacy, the embrace, and the personal experience of coming to self.
The idea of the other in the caress is central to my artistic exploration. Temple Grandin is an American doctor of animal science and a consultant to the livestock industry whose understanding of the importance of being embraced has driven her success in the livestock industry. She has constructed her own hugging machine that allows her to feel the comfort of an embrace without being enveloped by another. Grandin has allowed her life experiences to inform her work. Diagnosed with autism at a young age Grandin has written many books about her experiences as an autistic woman including, Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World. Her understanding of self has allowed her to succeed, not despite but because of her autism.
I’m going through a period of intense self-discovery, which has led to an evolution in my artistic practice from an attempt to understand identity through childhood memory into a focus on the present. In my current work I’ve chosen to closely align my exploration of identity with my artistic practice, allowing personal discoveries to inform my work as they arise, thus creating a dynamic and shifting artistic terrain. Understanding my sexuality is an essential element of this process of discovery; the impact of the embodied self being enveloped by the body of another is an experience that has brought further understanding of my own identity.
My most recent art work involves the pairing of the bodies of women lying in positions of repose and embrace, and draping their bodies with wet plaster gauze. The resultant sculptural traces reference time, commemorate and are quietly attentive to intimate exchange. The embrace is represented as a beautiful interaction between two people that can hold many different layers of intention. The intention of the embrace can be admiration, celebration, greeting, formality, kinship, friendship, passion, love, loneliness, despair, fear, support, and condolence. I am most interested in the caress of the lover, and my work focuses specifically on the intimate exchange of lesbian lovers.

Glorious and Free

March 1 – April 5, 2013
Helen Christou Gallery

Curator: David Smith, Museum Studies Intern
Works from the U of L Art Collection

Objects for this exhibition were selected on the basis of their distinctly Canadian visual aesthetics. Each work of Canadiana evokes a sense of place within the viewer. National identity is complicated and problematic to define as it is constructed from multiple sources including language, history, music, food, media and symbols. Relations between France, Britain, the United States and the Aborigional Peoples are ones that have historically formed and continue to shape current Canadian culture. As an intricate and delicate device it would take a thick instruction manual to comprehend in all its complexity.

Representing Canadian national identity through imagery is a difficult task because of the nation’s intermittently contentious history. The pieces of iconography included in this exhibition are highly charged works infused with politics and ideology. In some cases, decades have passed between the creation of the work and the present exhibition, but the works remain powerful images nonetheless.

An exploration of Canadiana in art would not be complete without a consideration of the landscape. The rugged terrain has been a significant factor influencing Canadian identity. Harsh winters threaten survival and act as a collective obstacle which has brought Canadians together while the dramatic landscape from coast to coast is something on which we continue to capitalize through the tourism industry.

It may be difficult to define what Canadian identity is, but it is not difficult to explain the way we market our identity to tourists. One need only look at a standard Canadian gift shop to see the wildlife shirts, bottles of maple syrup, plastic totem poles and postcards of Mounties to understand that the lighthearted approach to representing Canadian culture is a position that is occupied with great pride.

- David Smith
Museum Studies Intern

Tracing the Elusive Past of the Chinarians

January 10 – February 22, 2013
Helen Christou Gallery
Reception: January 10, 4 – 6pm

Curator: Josephine Mills

Works from the Collection of Lana Gabor
Courtesy of Museum of Chinarian Art & Artifact (MOCAA)

Current research focuses on synthesizing available evidence of different kinds, to try to find the answer to one of the oldest and most exciting questions of all time: Where do Chinarians come from? The roots of Chinarian culture may be traced to the little-known, but documented, history of the Huns (Xiongnu): a tribe of nomads that emerged from ancient Tongwancheng and whose descendents are said to be Hungarians and Turks.

In 1993, the discovery of relics inside the caves of Tongwancheng (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3) led to much speculation about the origin of the Chinarians, as it was the only documented settlement ever found. Previously, the elusive Chinarians were identified as primarily nomadic. The reason for the abandonment of Tongwancheng has been theorized by several scholars but with little conclusive evidence.
 

 
This revolutionary discovery inspired Gabor Elizalde’s film Tracing Chinaria, an epic historical drama set against the spectacular backdrop of the Steppes. The movie tells the tale of the mythic figure Ki Nai as she makes her way through the Steppes after being left by her husband. The plotline twists around the Chinarians’ mysterious desertion of the Tongwancheng caves. Elizalde is rumored to have spent one year wandering the vast Steppes to gain knowledge for Tracing Chinaria.
 

Many of the props used in Tracing Chinaria are reproductions of the relics found in the caves of Tongwancheng. On display is an array of photographic film stills, movie props and memorabilia from Elizalde’s film, from the private collection of his distant niece Lana Gabor, courtesy of the Museum of Chinarian Art and Artifacts (MOCAA). Accompanying this exhibition is an original Chinarian dance (musical composition by Ivan Tucakov, choreography and performance by MOCAA’s Lana Gabor), presented for the first time at the opening reception.

Museum of Chinarian Art & Artifacts (MOCAA)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to partner with the Museum of Chinarian Art and Artifacts (MOCAA) and present this exciting exhibition about the relatively unknown Chinarian culture.  It has been a pleasure working with Lana Gabor on developing the first presentation about the Chinarians in Lethbridge. I am sure few have heard of this culture and will have many questions. Hopefully this exhibition will help support further research and develop a broadening of knowledge about these people.  For those seeking more information, MOCAA is the primary site for information, although there could well be hitherto misidentified artifacts in other museum collections.  I am sure that Lana Gabor and the experts at MOCAA will welcome any questions and further discussion.

Josephine Mills
Director/Curator, U of L Art Gallery