Ground

Land Matters series
Artists: Allyson Clay, Patricia Deadman, and M.N. Hutchinson
Curator: Josephine Mills

Main Gallery

reception: Nov. 7, 4 – 6 pm

Ground is the final component in the Land Matters series. With this trio of exhibitions, my goal was to present some of the diverse approaches to the rich area of contemporary representation of landscape. The series began last summer with Location, which presented work from the 1980s and 1990s drawn from the University of Lethbridge Art Collection. This was a key period for the development of critical landscape practices in Canada during which artists developed attention to landscape as a means of addressing the connection between space and socially produced identity.
The three artists in Ground – Allyson Clay, Patricia Deadman and M.N. Hutchinson – all work from a foundation of in-depth research and then produce stunningly beautiful final photographs. Deadman starts with images of landscapes that are laden with historical and social meaning, formal gardens in Paris and the ‘wilderness’ in Banff National Park, and then works that imagery into patterns from aboriginal sources, such as wampum belts, pottery and blanket designs. Hutchinson explores landscapes that relate to his family history. Using classically composed images of urban and rural scenes in Norway, Sweden and Southern Alberta taken with his panoramic camera, Hutchinson works the scenes into playful, compelling final works. Recently Clay has been using the imagery of books out of place, such as underwater or sailing through the air, to explore the relationship between the ethereal and the material. This series builds on her earlier work addressing concepts of self and space, some of which were included in Location. By bringing new work by these three artists together, I hope that the result is an exhibition that is a pleasure to view but which also inspires engagement with the complexity of the ideas involved in these works.

Reference

Land Matters series
Artists: Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan
Curator: Josephine Mills

Helen Christou Gallery

reception: Nov. 7, 4 – 6 pm

Check out the Lesbian Ranger tour-of-duty and Blog!

*November 17 – 21: tour-of-duty by Lesbian Rangers Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan including a Scintillating Slide show, Tuesday November 18,12:15 to 1:00, room W731.
*Public talk, “Piercing the Thin Skin of Normal: Art and Activism” by Dempsey and Millan, Tuesday November 18, 3:00 – 5:00 pm, SUB Ballroom A. Co-sponsored by the Women Scholars Speakers Series.

Feminist performance artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan talk about their artistic practice, specifically their use of humour to communicate radical politics to a wide and often unsuspecting audience. Illustrated with excerpts from their video and performance works, this duo’s presentation boldly asserts the power of laughter to change the world.

Reference features work by artists who use playful and performative strategies to address the social aspects of landscape through guidebooks, maps, tours, postcards and other forms of conveying official information about parks, historic sites and landmarks. The exhibition includes a one week tour-of-duty in Lethbridge by the Lesbian Rangers (Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan) as well as a selection of informative brochures and other documents from the archives of the Lesbian National Parks and Services. Part of the Land Matters series, Reference also includes work from the U of L Art Collection.

Location

Land Matters series
Main Gallery June 20 – September 5, 2008
Helen Christou Gallery – June 6 – August 31, 2008
June 6 – August 31, 2008

Curator: Josephine Mills

There is a powerful connection between Canadian identity and landscape. That bond is economic, political, and experiential; it has lasted from the development of Canada as an independent nation to the present; and it is fundamentally based on visual representation. In the 19th century artists like Lucius O’Brien and Homer Watson focused on the range of Canadian landscape as they created the first stages of artistic production based in this country. They laid the foundation for the home-grown, specifically Canadian art practice developed in the early 20th century by artists such as the members of the Group of Seven and Emily Carr. The importance of landscape continues today with many of Canada’s leading artists working primarily in this area. Jeff Wall and other Vancouver photographers have established international reputations for their critical attention to urban and suburban landscapes.

For many people, the idea of landscape art brings to mind beautiful paintings of serene wilderness or gentle rural scenes. Recent work, which frequently focuses on less aesthetically pleasing subjects such as the devastation left after industrial activity, may not have the same immediate appeal. However, the contemporary artists are very much informed by their historical counterparts and are linked by an attention to identity. Previously, identity was not overtly present in the works themselves, but more so in the discourses which enabled the success of the landscape genre. The members of the Group of Seven and their supporters stated that they were aiming to establish a truly Canadian approach to art. They had clear nationalistic goals and the choice of landscape for their subject was crucial to their plan. In critical contemporary approaches, artists seek to deconstruct myths such as the association of Canada with untouched wilderness and to address the diversity of Canadian identity.

The exhibition Location is the first part of the Land Matters series – a trio of exhibitions which will continue in November in both the Main Gallery and the Helen Christou Gallery. Drawn from the University of Lethbridge Art Collection, Location focuses on the key period for the development of critical landscape practices in Canada and presents work from the 1980s and 1990s. The component in the Main Gallery (June 20 – September 5, 2008) includes work by many of these leading artists including Allyson Clay, Jeff Wall, Ian Wallace and Jin-me Yoon.

The Helen Christou Gallery contains a selection from “the Lethbridge Project,” a series by Ontario artist Geoffrey James. In 1998, James created a portrait of Lethbridge by photographing older sections of the city, new developments and the adjacent rural landscape. Like the work of his 19th century predecessors, the images are beautifully composed, expertly produced and often use classic landscape perspective. However, these are not simply documents of a place at a specific time nor just visually interesting objects. The most traditional image, a river winding through the countryside, is a photograph of the Blood reserve – land that is loaded with history, meaning and a strong sense of identity. In others, James turns the cookie-cutter houses of suburbia into fascinating images by showing the stark edges of development or by capturing the incongruity between a sand trap on a golf course and the surrounding terrain.

Josephine Mills
Director/Curator, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery