LAKE COUNTRY ART GALLERY
  • Home
  • About
    • OUR MANDATE
    • OUR TEAM >
      • HIRING Gallery Curator p/t
      • Call for Directors
  • Exhibitions
    • NEXT UP...
    • SUBMIT ARTWORK >
      • CALL FOR ART >
        • 2024 UNDER 200 APPLICATION
        • Artist Resources
      • Apply to Curator for an Exhibition
    • PHOTO GALLERY >
      • Mural Wall
      • Town Wall
      • Art Alley
      • Pop-up Gallery
  • EVENTS
    • ArtShelf Bookshop & Reading Room
  • ART HOUSE
    • WORKSHOPS / CALENDAR
    • CLASS REGISTRATION INQUIRIES
    • ARTIST STUDIOS
  • JOIN US
    • SPONSOR >
      • Supporting Business Members
    • HIRING Gallery Curator p/t
    • VOLUNTEER
    • Call for Directors
    • FILL THE GAP
  • Instagram
    • ART WORDS

ART WORDS

The Lake Country Art Gallery Blog keeps the conversation going with various guest writers on current topics within the local and global art discourse.

Contribute your words. Write a short piece about an exhibition you have seen. Share a story or poem that might relate to a current exhibitions. Send to us for consideration. 

Email Us

Reflection on Byron Johnston’s Anthropocene…

10/22/2024

0 Comments

 
written by Julie Oakes.

There are three difficulties, according to Sigmund Freud's "Civilization and Its Discontents," that stand between man and a life of perfect being – the body, the natural world, and one's fellow man. Each aspect can prevent human ascendancy - the body's pain and eventual disintegration, nature with discontentment from the elements, climate and wild beasts, and societal contumely manifested from various causes, from love denied to property rights to war. But these aspects are also sources of man's pleasure, graces, and fates. The process that had led to advances against these three could be termed 'civilization'. Conversely, civilization can put man back to find himself pitted against the three graces but with the three furies winning. Climate change. This potential message is served without malice, contempt, or didacticism in Byron Johnston's exhibition Anthropocene, a cautionary tale spiced with Johnston wit. It bodes not gloom and doom but hope at mankind's - and nature's - resilience.

A vineyard is an example of man shaping the wild to his own ends as centuries of cultivation turned the grape plant (found naturally and discovered as edible) into the robust varieties of wine, jam, and juice enjoyed today.  Not resting with picking and popping the small fruits into the mouth in place, man figured a way of pressing the berries and making juice, which, in containment and with care, became alcoholic. The ancient Greeks found this accomplishment worthy of a godly crown. Hence, Dionysus (Bacchus) entered the pantheon of gods and goddesses, influencing man and being the cause for festivals, celebrations, nuptial toasts, and a good many mornings in recovering hangovers. The significance of wine endured after Dionysus fell from cultural popularity; table wines flourished, and the Christian tradition saw it as such a staple that wine became a sacrament in their Holy Communion.

This 'wine timeline' took place during the Anthropocene, our current geological age during which man has profoundly impacted the environment, causing climate change. Johnston has taken the slogan, "3 R's - reduce, reuse, recycle” - where each person can counter the trend - and put it into artistic play. The Okanagan is renowned for its vineyards alongside orchards of tree fruits. The vines that Johnston used to create his pieces for the Lake Country Art Gallery exhibition are from the fallout of climate change and this domination of civilization.  An unusual bitter cold snap this winter of 2024 brought down many Okanagan vines. Sadly, man's carefully trained plants died - a fateful morning after. When offered the bulky load of dead vines, Johnston saw it as an invitation to recycle a sculptor's material within the tangled shapes. Then, coming from his practice of creating from a variety of found and invented materials and referencing and then recycling older works, a new and artistic Anthropocene came into being, one that didn't chide as much as wryly acknowledge the downsides of civilization - always more memorable than a scolding.

The exhibition Anthropocene embodies important and timely concerns as Johnston treats his subject matter thoughtfully, providing clues for the viewer to navigate through the installation. He intended orange to symbolize 'alert' as commonly seen in roadwork signage and Hi-Viz vests while yellow is 'safety'. Throughout the exhibition, there are seven eye-scopes or peepholes, small open circles on long stems (six are orange, one a neutral aluminum) through which a perspective can be seen. A proposed pathway through Anthropocene begins outside the gallery where a pile of dead wood (grapevines) surrounds a ballot box, and a wrinkled mirroring surface framed in the same wood detritus reflects the person standing before it. Positioning the viewer in front of the orange peephole placed directly in front of the gallery window reveals the interior with a huge yellow chair, with it’s back to the room, and with it’s front as if looking out the window.

Entering, we are confronted with a shape common to playgrounds which refers to Johnston's concern for ongoing generations, the grandchildren. The teeter-totter that must be passed in order to enter the inner galleries has a great bulk of twisted roots and stems contained neatly in a man-made bundle, but were a man (much less a child) to try, and sit upon the aesthetically considered orange seat, his hands clasping the golden globe to steady himself, he would not be able to budge that bundle. The effect of climate change has proven to be heavy.  

Johnston grants opportunities to switch attention away from the artist towards the viewer. The work encourages inspection. Sculptures that use glass cylinders show nature's designs and purposes. The unparalleled perfection of a column of white eggs in the middle of which is a brown egg while crowning the column lays a wild bird's egg, ups quotidian to extraordinary. In another glass tube, purple grapes slump downwards, mulching as the full stack that appeared on opening night impulsively asserts its 'grape nature' and a small puddle of drips appears on the base. Knowing these food products, we are prompted to consider their life cycles as we worry about rot and fruit flies or wonder at the potential, as in the case of the rye seeds trailing through a mini tube into a pyramid, to sprout. Rye, a fast-growing crop, is planted first to prepare the ground for other grains being seeded. Johnston respects nature's ongoing processes and offers a small bow to man's ingenuity. 

The viewer becomes the focus when visiting Byron Johnston's Anthropocene although they do appear somewhat convoluted. Strategically placed stainless steel mirrors on snaking copper arms are set to reflect visitors, not frighteningly or even clearly, but funny, like at a carnival's House of Mirrors. And proportionately, Johnston has portrayed mankind in Lilliputian terms with a chair for a giant (yellow - a safe seat?) or with a tiny aluminum chair mounted near the ceiling where a hole has been cut for a head to poke through to see what is above. There is a piece based on the principle of a periscope for the delight of feeling mystified. Enigmatic assertions like the conveyor belt, now rusted but once used to sort apples, sport a couple of fresh apples that would be stopped in their progress by a dilapidated baby carriage filled with wood shavings - the question as to what this generation is bequeathing to the next is again introduced.

And since Byron Johnston is kind in his delivery, Anthropocene is a wake-up call with a melodic chime. The inventiveness exhibited is testimony to man's potential to find solutions, for art to imagine the limitless forms that our existence and influence can take. Johnston's message isn't necessarily dismal. He has shown that beauty and reason can be summoned when problems are carefully phrased.
 

NOTES:
Civilization and Its Discontents (1930) by Sigmund Freud explores the tension between individual desires and societal norms.

There are around 185 licensed grape wineries and 3,575 hectares (8,830 acres) of vineyards. The long, narrow Okanagan Valley runs for around 210 kilometers (130 miles) from the northern town of Salmon Arm to the border of the United States in the south.

With El Niño in place for the winter of 2023-2024, many growers were hoping for the forecast above-normal temperatures that normally occur with that event. Unfortunately, on January 13th of this year, Kelowna recorded temperatures of –30 degrees Celsius (–22 Fahrenheit).

*Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents, vineyards in the Okanagan and 2023-24 winter temperatures in the Okanagan, Google Search, Google,16 October 2024

Guest Writer: 
Julie Oakes: With a career spanning some 40 years, Julie Oakes is well known as a provocative, culturally critical, multi-dimensional artist who expresses herself through sculpture, painting, drawing, writing, video, and performance. Whether working with feminist, humanist, or spiritual themes, her work flirts with autobiographical elements. Oakes has shown her work extensively in both major Canadian and American collections.

0 Comments

ARTIST AND PHILOSOPHER

8/2/2024

0 Comments

 
Essays by artist Ashley Johnson
Loosening Identity
Boas in Mangroves
Symbiotic Revolution
Resurrection of Looking

Picture
Picture
Picture
A few words about ASHLEY JOHNSON from guest curator Julie Oakes:

Ashley Johnson was inventing alternative ways of exhibiting in a fraught South Africa before he left. Imagery that was shocking or dislocating on first seeing Ashley Johnson's paintings was a result of a personal incomprehension of the narrative's origins. Also a committed writer, the text that accompanied his first exhibition at Headbones Gallery in Toronto was a way into the information behind his unique visual vocabulary and it added to my world view. Ashley Johnson's work became the cornerstone of the NEOPRIEST (New Pop Realists Intellectually Engaged in Storytelling) aesthetic that then reciprocally also defined Headbones Gallery. Almost twenty-five years since he arrived, Ashley Johnson continues to wake up the neighbourhood.

The global village first cited by Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan was less possible in countries with short sighted political calculations where the instrumentalization of identity that imposed restrictions on artistic and intellectual freedom was constricting. Canada has fertile soil for cultural and artistic transformation as the arts are legislated towards acceptance and recognition. Not only does Canada better support the flourishing of artists like these three, but Canadians are given an opportunity for enrichment as inherent insights trickle through and water our own gardens. Moraru, Meraji and Johnson strengthen the gene pool of the visual arts here in Canada, adding to the healthy diversity of our cultural river. 

About the exhibition WHAT TRICKLES THROUGH featuring artwork by Ortansa Moraru, Mahmoud Meraji, and Ashley Johnson. All of the artists respresented here, were artists in their country of origin before they immigrated to Canada. The works presented here were all created in Canada at more than an arms length from the birthplaces of these artists - Ortansa Moraru, born in Romania arrived in Canada in 2002; Mahmoud Meraji, born in Iran in 1998 and Ashley Johnson, born in South Africa moved from Johannesburg to Toronto in 2005. All are now Canadian citizens.
0 Comments

Fish:BOWL words & photographs by Slava Bart

7/10/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
First you notice the objectified “attractive female sleeping” character – flat, like out of a comic book. Then you read the captions: The hardest part / Is waking up alone. And the first thing you think of is the stereotypical, cinematic loneliness of a woman waking up alone. The sun, like a halo, behind her is already up. But is she awake and just keeping her eyes shut – or is she only about to wake up? Not unlike the Mona Lisa who only just begins to smile, this character is in between, in a half dream, which we are beginning to inhabit.
 
We know what loneliness is like. Loneliness is built into our commodified, mass-marketed bodies. The female character recurs in this artist’s work. Like an Andy Warhol Madonna. It could be someone’s avatar on social media. It could be any one of us. If there was a QR code to scan here, we would be raising our phones prayerfully to inhabit this icon’s digital dimension.
 
In the exquisite lettering around her – EXQS – we discern the hint of a hammer and sickle in the Q. The five-corner stars we noticed before now begin to acquire meaning. The circled anarchist A in one corner is balanced by the heart in the opposite. Arrows suggest movement – the movement of the mind, language, towards alternatives. If we can find a way not to be alone together, perhaps our social system would be different.
 
Waking up to a system of exploitation can be lonely business. To be alone is also a prerequisite for awareness, knowledge. To be aware and alone yet not lonely – perhaps that is the hardest of all. And here in this Lake Country skate park, several artists have come together for the first time to create something new out of highly individualized styles. In a dialogue of style and meaning new possibilities emerge.
Right opposite EXQS is the Eye Factory’s giant eye of surveillance and consciousness. Graffiti abounds in representations of eyes – and so does ancient and modern art, from Egyptian, Buddhist, and Indigenous iconography to Salvador Dali and Stanley Kubrick. Eyes are healing, rebirth, communication. Eyes are mystery, illusion and the afterlife. Eyes are a miracle of nature. They look at us from the wings of butterflies. To represent eyes as consciousness is to become aware of awareness – an ancient practice and a condition for waking up to life, truth, a higher reality.
The hills of Lake Country have eyes now. Look at how graffiti and landscape engage with each other. The hellish skull enjoining us to paint our dreams gestures towards a similar truth and visually echoes the work of the master opposite. At the other end of the park, what seems chaos up close acquires the features of Byzantine mosaics if you step back, step back far enough in time to allow connections.
Working with the manic intensity of a Michelangelo, Doktoer has been up through the night, improvising a dense web of free-form connections.
 
The space now is less a gallery and more a chapel – where you commune with the truth not in still supplication, but through movement. And if you ever stop, you stop midair.
​There is an ensemble here of artists who have previously exhibited along roadsides on the outskirts, under railway bridges, and in remote corners of cities big and small across the Okanagan and BC. An ecosystem of expression emerges in Lake Country where the evolution of art, community and consciousness becomes possible. With their help we may be able to look at art and the world with new eyes.

​Slava Bart is a first-year international MFA student at UBCO. He comes from Israel and enjoys multilingual and collaborative writing with a penchant for venturing deep into the past and far into the future, reaching across borders and disciplines, to promote community and peace. His thesis in poetry reinterprets the books of Genesis and Exodus using multiple languages to tell a personal story of the loss of home after the collapse of the USSR. 
0 Comments

Curatorial Eessay | Fieldwork

10/29/2023

0 Comments

 

FIELDWORK


Annie Briard
Tara Nicholson
Melany Nugent-Noble
prOphecy sun
Andreas Rutkauskas
​Leah Weinstein

September 30 to November 25, 2023


Look after the land and the land will look after you, 
destroy the land and it will destroy you.
-Aboriginal Proverb

Fieldwork: practical work conducted by a researcher in the natural environment rather than in a laboratory or office
Luxury: the state of great comfort and extravagant living *

Because they tend to be rather dry and uneventful I rarely attend the District of Lake Country Council meetings. Yet, on one Tuesday evening (August 15th to be precise) my curiosity got the best of me, and I tuned in to a live stream. The agenda for this particular council meeting revolved around a discussion concerning a new development at what was once a family campground known as Owl's Nest in Oyama (one of the four wards in Lake Country).

An out-of-province company with the motto  'We create the environments for amazing lives to happen' is in the process of transforming the former Owl's Nest property. Their ambitious plan involves the creation of ’38 Net Zero Luxury Homes on the picturesque shores of Kalamalka Lake, which happens to be one of the most breathtaking lakes in the Okanagan Valley.

The highlight of the evening was a presentation by the Chief Operating Officer who sought Council’s approval to install 20 motorized boat slips (down from the initial proposal of 38) on the waterfront for the use of the residents. During the meeting, several Council members voiced concerns about water intake sites, boat traffic, lake preservation, and environmental impact. It was evident, however, that not all councillors shared the same level of concern regarding these matters.

The presentation to Council included a promise to uphold the utmost respect for the lake, with a commitment to do everything they possibly can to ensure that the residents and users of this property have a very keen and clear understanding of their responsibility here. The plan also mentioned placing interpretative signage near the beach to educate the residences about the lake's history, ecological formations, and Indigenous history in the area.

I bring up this council meeting presentation because we are all integral members of our community, and the way we choose to treat our land, lakes, flora, and fauna collectively reflects upon us. What piques my curiosity most is the planned installation of interpretive signs.

Who will be responsible for crafting the code of conduct and accountability?  What are the consequences if the code of conduct is not upheld?

Whose values will serve as the foundation for this code? 

When it comes to chronicling the history of Kalamalka Lake, whose narrative will take precedence? Will it encompass Indigenous history, and if so, whose voice and perspective will be represented? 

What about climate change? Will there be commentary on the risks to the lake ecosystem regarding motorized recreation?

In fairness, a company specializing in aquatic biology consulting was mentioned regarding guidance on the proposed signage, but the idea seems perplexing. How does it happen that one develops luxury homes including water access for recreational motorized watercraft, writes a code of conduct on protecting our lakes, includes a note on Indigenous history, and aims to make a profit while considering the environment and future generations? It all seems absurd. Who demands this 'luxury,' and why is it being delivered? And for whom? Does simply saying 'Net Zero' make everything acceptable?

Climate change is no longer a distant concern; it's an undeniable reality. Floods, droughts, forest fires, and unusual seasonal temperatures affect us all. When we also consider our social responsibilities, it becomes evident that charting a course for the future requires strong leadership. Yet, there are moments when looking at our elected officials can leave us feeling disheartened and uncertain about the path ahead.
​

The Owl's Nest development is just one among several in Lake Country. While it's easy to identify flaws in planning and the significant transformations occurring in our landscape, the inexorable march of progress continues.  But is building luxury homes instead of affordable and accessible housing a sign of progress?
However, seeking alternative perspectives remains crucial to enrich our discussions. Turning to the realm of the arts offers us a valuable means to contemplate the questions that confront us in these times.
Being informed and actively engaged in our community is the groundwork we can all do to ensure a healthy future.

Will our local elected officials visit the Lake Country Art Gallery to view this Fieldwork exhibition? Probably not, unfortunately. But you are here, reading this gallery didactic, and that's a start.

Wanda Lock
Curator

* NOTES: 
Aboriginal proverb, from 50 Best Earth Day Quotes 2023, goodhousekeeping.com
Fieldwork definition, from google
Luxury definition, from google
0 Comments

Curatorial Essay | Moored

7/30/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
MOORED

the Davis Road Collective
Jane Everett
Lilly Thorne
Lysle Barmby

​July 22 to September 24, 2023


At the Lake Country Art Gallery we are acutely aware of the significance behind our summer exhibition, Moored. What could be more fitting? Lake Country finds itself enveloped by three prominent lakes: Wood, Kalamalka, and Okanagan. The picturesque Okanagan Valley is adorned with countless smaller mountain lakes dotting the landscape.

When considering the region's tourism history, memories of childhood summer holidays often evoke nostalgic sentiments associated with the Okanagan. The days were long and scorching, filled with camping adventures and refreshing swims in the local lakes. Indulgences in fresh fruit and boat rides, along with cherished family attractions and invigorating hikes, were prevalent. Today, we can add wine tours to the mix.

The concepts and conversations explored in the Moored exhibition unfold right here in Lake Country. We proudly boast about the area's natural beauty, yet a leisurely stroll along the lakeshore in Okanagan Centre exposes an uninterrupted string of moored boats cluttering the water. Instead of a tranquil swim or SUP experience, we find ourselves amidst a traffic jam of privilege. Community requests for waterways to be dredged to accommodate larger watercraft, while more pressing issues like climate change, warming waters, smoke-filled skies, and harmful ash seem to receive less attention and concern from the general populace. Recreation is considered a right rather than a privilege.

We often romanticize nature, exemplified by the sculpture of a mother bear praying for a healing earth, proudly displayed in front of the LC District Municipal Hall. Ironically, just a week prior to the unveiling of this sculpture, a mother bear and her cubs were fatally shot in rural Lake Country. Rather than respecting and preserving wildlife, such creatures are reduced to a diluted, Disneyfied version of themselves.

Lake Country's natural landscape is succumbing to urban development, giving way to opulent wineries and cherry orchards catering to overseas markets. 

During a recent artist talk, Jim Kalnin eloquently highlighted the current reality: our planet now harbours more human beings than ever before, with 267 births occurring every minute. With 8 billion people currently inhabiting Earth, the future remains uncertain for all of us.

This is precisely why we cherish the presence of artists among us, as they possess the power to reveal our true essence and shed light on our ever-evolving nature. They serve as reminders of beauty while simultaneously sounding the alarm. Few question the substantial allocation of tax dollars toward road maintenance and the accommodation of more cars. But where does this lead us? What does the future hold?

It is quite amusing that a community of 16,000 is called Lake Country. With such a name, one would expect a fervent demand for the protection of these vital bodies of water and the lives they support. Instead, many individuals seem fixated on living in the moment, revelling in immediate gratification. The thought of tomorrow or the next fifty years is a concept that eludes them. We occasionally forget about the cycles—the seasons, the water cycle, lifecycles, and moon cycles—while even the slightest disruption (a pothole, perhaps?) alters the idiosyncrasies we cherish.

Moored serves as a poignant reminder of the mystery, beauty, fragility, and power inherent in the natural world.

Wanda Lock
Curator



0 Comments

Curatorial Statement

6/22/2023

0 Comments

 
Two UBCO MFA thesis Exhibitions May-June 2023

ZOORKHANEH_Nasim Pirhadi 

I Died as a Mineral_Heraa Khan

It has been approximately a year since I first met Nasim Pirhadi and Heraa Kahn, two talented artists immersed in
the early stages of their MFA Program. Over time,  I witnessed their artistic processes unfold, filled with inquiries,
contemplations, and extensive research, gradually shaping their works into remarkable presentations.

For this year's UBCO MFA Exhibition, the Lake Country Art Gallery has been divided into two distinct exhibition spaces. The first space showcases Heraa Kahn's collection of miniature paintings, delicately arranged on the gallery walls, gently illuminated to highlight each individual piece. Through these paintings, Kahn invites viewers into a contemplative journey exploring themes of the natural world, human interactions, and the ensuing climate crisis. The exhibition, titled 'I Died as a Mineral,' draws inspiration from Rumi's poem of the same name, perhaps symbolizing the cycle of life and incorporating materials that mirror this connection. Kahn's intricate paintings serve as cautionary tales, offering viewers profound insights, meanings, and interpretations of Rumi's poem.

While standing amidst Kahn's exhibition, one's attention is drawn to a small archway that leads to another space at the rear of the gallery. Passing through, visitors enter Nasim Pirhadi's installation titled 'Zoorkhaneh,' which translates to 'House of Strength'—a traditional gymnasium for men. Pirhadi has ingeniously transformed the room into an immersive installation, combining video, photography, sounds, scents, and exercise-related objects. The air is filled with the sweet fragrance of sugar and rose water. Traditionally reserved for men, the wooden equipment within the space is now open to all, as Pirhadi invites diverse participation in this exhibition. Notably, Pirhadi has recreated the apparatuses using sugar, imbuing the piece with a sense of heightened weight and transparency—an innovative reinterpretation of traditional beliefs and values concerning women's rights, human rights, and societal roles.
 
For five days, I observed Heraa Kahn and Nasim Pirhadi meticulously navigate the gallery space, constructing walls, selecting paint colours, contemplating support structures, lighting arrangements, soundscapes, and strategic placement of their works. Every decision was made with utmost care, thoughtfulness, and thorough consideration, leaving no aspect to chance. Their unwavering commitment and hard work was admirable.

In these tumultuous times we find ourselves in, these exhibitions hold tremendous significance, encouraging us to stay informed about global affairs. The gallery has produced two exhibition catalogues, one for each artist, to showcase their thesis works. The presence of Heraa Kahn and Nasim Pirhadi's art within the Lake Country Art Gallery is a true privilege for us—the gallery, the Lake Country community, and all those who have the opportunity to engage with their remarkable work.
​
Wanda Lock
Curator
0 Comments

Bree Apperley

3/18/2023

2 Comments

 
State(s) of Being  

The fact that women are still underrepresented in the art world of today is  such a disappointment. I wish I could say it is also a surprise. Much like the  civil rights movement of the 60s, after the height of the women’s movement  and the institutional respect and acceptance of feminist art during the  1970s, as a culture we had the hand-wiping attitude of a problem that had  been solved. But not so. As with the BLM movement, the COVID pandemic  revealed that not much had really changed within the gendered  expectations and experiences of our society. Although the workforce  included a greater number of women than in decades past, with most  working full-time, women were still, for the most part, responsible for  household and childcare duties. 

The pandemic removed the illusion of independent, self-sufficient, career driven womanhood by revealing the weight of all the myriad home-life  related chores that had been outsourced to other less-privileged women.  The same old sexist framework was still there all along, hidden beneath a  comfy padding of dollar bills. Outwardly, for a couple of decades, it truly  looked as though things had changed. A career and child both! A family and  a fulfilling job! We can have it all. Look how far we have come. The  unfortunate truth was that the mirage of freedom and equality was only  available because of paid additional support from other women. 

It is this hidden skeleton of disparity that the art world too, is built upon. The  social and political framework of capitalism favours a certain type of worker.  A hustler, a grinder, someone who is willing to go big or go home. The  system is built for making money, and the faster the better. Scale up. In  fact, things truly have been scaling up, even material things like houses,  cars, grocery stores, family vacations, post-secondary education. This is  where unregulated capitalism brings us, and it is unsustainable. 

What does this have to do with the art world? Well, like any other industry,  art is attached to a market, and as we know, the free market  prioritizes economic growth above all else. An artist who is also a mother is  in most cases working the ‘second shift’. That is, as detailed above, they  are most likely to be the ones in charge of the domestic sphere, including  the children. This reality does not jive well with a bombastic studio practice  built around a bohemian, foot-loose lifestyle, which is the antiquated myth  that still persists around the creation of artwork.

​Who are the ones who can more readily embody this ideal? Young men, or older men who have  remained in this role throughout their careers. There are exceptions to this  of course, but I am generalizing to make a point. It is a matter of time and focus, and any artist who is also a mother is in  short supply of these two essential ingredients. Who are the artists making  it to all the evening gallery openings and artist talks? The meeting and  greeting? Who are the artists with studio spaces separate from their homes  and stuffed full of work? Who are the artists with mentors? Someone who  looks like them? Where is the shop talk taking place? The evolving artistic  dialogue is not happening at the family dinner table or in bed before  storytime. Or with the other parents at school drop-off and pick-up. How  can you be in two places at once? It is hard to contort oneself to fit a mold  that is not designed for you. It takes extraordinary measures and a will of  steel to climb a man-made mountain. Mercifully, one of the defining  characteristics of an artist is someone who finds a way to be truly  themselves, bending the world to their inner compass, letting the world in  on how they see things, how things feel in their skin. This caveat to the  chimerical role in society of the capital ‘A’ artist may be the saving grace of  the profession.  

Thank goodness (goddess?) for the progressive thinking of those mothers  and artists who are able to find a way to create and be visible in the art  scene by bending the social strictures, shattering outdated myths, finding  loopholes and forging new paths. It takes exceptional strength of  determination and motivation to keep in the game and succeed. The  women chosen for the exhibition The State(s) of Being at the Lake Country  Art Gallery - Janine Hall, Joice M. Hall, Lindsay Lorraine, Mary Smith  McCulloch, and Rhonda Neufeld - have proven themselves to be artists  and mothers who are supernaturally spirited. They have decided to want  something for themselves and they are not afraid to take it. Culture and  society benefit from these women. We need their voices and their vision.  They are wanted and needed, not only by their children and family but by  their art community at large, and the world beyond. 

Bree Apperley is a Canadian mother, artist, designer and writer based in Syilx territory (Okanagan, B.C.). She holds degrees in both Fine Art and Design Art, from the Alberta College of Art + Design and Concordia University respectively. For more information about the author visit https://breeapperley.com/ and on instagram @fwuitbowl.

2 Comments

School students respond to the Artworks in Mother(load)

3/17/2023

1 Comment

 
Grade 6-7-8 Middle School students visited the exhibition Mother(load) this week - and this is what they had to say about the artworks that they enjoyed or connected to most ...

All of the artworks...
... have their own message behind them. They [artists] didn't stop doing what they love. The artwork speaks to you.
-grade 8


the Archaeology of Motherhood, mixed media by Devon L. Muhlert.
... is my favourite piece because it is made of pins and quilt pieces, paper, and other mixed media. It is very interesting to look at and I think it is my favourite piece in this art gallery. It makes me feel happy to look at it.          -age 13 

Cradling Hope, mixed media on canvas by Jacqueline Rieger .    
... is my fav art piece. I like that one because the colours are really cool and it's a really pretty painting, and I like how it pops out at you.
-grade 7  

Cradling Hope, mixed media on canvas by Jacqueline Rieger. 
- I really like it because it looks like a lady at night Standing in front of the moon and because there's lots of colour it makes me feel happy.
-grade 6

Cradling Hope, mixed media on canvas by Jacqueline Rieger. 
- Interesting colours makes me feel like I'm in another world. Sparks curiosity. I really liked it.
-grade 6

Cradling Hope, mixed media on canvas by Jacqueline Rieger .
- It’s just vibrant                                                                                                              
-grade 7

Do Your Dream, mixed media by Lynette Stebner.
- I really like this art piece. Feels similar to my life; all the things I have to do. Makes me happy!
-grade 6 

Embrace the Thunder, mixed media by Jill Meredith. 
- I was drawn to the title - since our move from Ontario I feel we've been forced to embrace the noise and vibration of a new home / city / province. I like the word EMBRACE - it gives me permission to feel all the feels. 
-grade unknown


Embrace the Thunder, mixed media by Jill Meredith.  
- I enjoyed how the colours were mixed. The colour choices have a feeling of Happiness and creativity.                           
​-grade 6

Embrace the Thunder, mixed media by Jill Meredith.    
- I like because it looks really beautiful and the colors really pop out
-grade 6

Eve’s Garden, fabric/acrylic oil by Karen Stewart.
... lots to look at and you could never get bored
-grade 6

Family, oil by Denise Patrick.
- I liked this piece of art because I really liked all of the colours that the artist chose and I wonder what the artist was thinking/feeling when they made it.
-grade 7 

Family, acrylic by Denise Patrick.
- Lots of Colors. The planets reminded me of a family.
-grade 6

Family, acrylic by Denise Patrick.
- I felt a Strong Connection with this Art because of the hue, value and the way it looks.. -I really enjoyed the Art. The Art made me feel happy and understood.
-grade: 7

is there TIME for both motherhood and art?, acrylic, pen + ink on textured wood panel by Pamela Cinnamon.
- All the different times using different symbols for showing how the time fits eg. butterfly, flowers, clocks.
-grade unknown 

Mixed and Unmatched, mixed media by Sara Wiens.
…I also thought that the one with the laundry was cool too. 
-grade 8

Mom, oil painting by Denise Patrick.
- The beauty of this piece is indescribable, so natural, so real. Real as you could see the mother-in-law not in the painting but just in reality moving, breathing, laughing, smiling. You don't just see the painting, you see her. You see the flowers, You see life, reality, beauty.
-grade 7

Mother(load), drawings by Roberta Sutherland.
- I love how it just explains the beauty of pregnancy and fertility and how mothers are willing to give up their bodies and even their life for this unique and amazing experiment. It represents "bounce back" culture in a way and how all our bodies are different after childbirth whether they bounce back or not and it should not be expected of us. I think that because there's Stretch marks it looks like, around her body from pregnancy and you cannot get rid of those and it's natural but people still get ridiculed for it.
-grade 7

Mother, Matrix, Maatrikaa, acrylic, fabric + glass on hardboard by Rena Warren + Larkin Dunn Warren.
- The Flower to me was special because it reminded me of my grandma who loved flowers and when her mom passed away her last word was please take care of my flower garden and that is what my grandmother did. All the flowers are still there to this day. The little mirror reminded me of how a little sentence means big work because the flower [form] was smaller to bigger.                                                                             
-grade 6

Mother, Matrix, Maatrikaa, acrylic, fabric + glass on hardboard by Rena Warren + Larkin Dunn Warren.
... another piece that I liked was the big flower because it was pretty, I liked all the detail on it and the mirror in the middle was cool.
-grade 8

Mother Urge, acrylic, ink, collage by Tess Letailleur.
- I liked the bird's nest with the feather because it was pretty and creative. I really liked how the string was placed and how detailed it was. This piece of art was really pretty.
-grade 8 

My Mother and I, fibre art/embroidery by Alice Pallett.
... is my favourite piece. This is my favourite because my great grandma makes stuff like this.
-grade

My Mother and I, fibre art/embroidery by Alice Pallett.
I don't really know why but it was really pretty and you could tell how much time it took to make.
-grade 7

Re Surfacing, acrylic + mixed medium by Kate Brown.
Brush stocks showing movement, showing no matter how you can be tangled you can get up.
-grade unknown 

Through Rose - Coloured Glasses, acrylic on canvas  by Lisa Figueroa.
- I love all the colours and how clean it was, it really stood out from the other art
-grade 7
1 Comment

Principles of Enclosure

12/13/2022

0 Comments

 
the principles of object obsession and our undoing

Hyperobject in A Quake in Beingis "things that are massively distributed in time and space relative to humans." The relativity of 'our' existence—the 'human' existence—rests upon our innate compulsion to build tools to respond to our ever-changing environments. This is the human condition1. Timothy Morton continues to describe this object-making response through the term hyperobject as "long-lasting product['s] of direct human manufactur[ing]. […] a sum of all the whirring machinery of capitalism." So how do we curate our spaces with equipment, gear, goods, and junk? Are these relics of innovation everlasting or short-lived? Do these mass-produced materials contribute to the earth’s ecology positively? Can there be ways we can reassess our relationship with these materials’adaptability?

Principles of Enclosure looks to address these questions under the theme “functional obsolescence.” Artists Gambletron, Johnny Forever and zevtiefenback specifically engage with various objects,“usefulness” or “desirability” based on their outdated design feature that is difficult to alter.In this way, you get an overall sense that the artists are critiquing capitalist consumption by incorporating their relationships to production and distribution to its impossibility of being equitably sustainable. By engaging with object-making in the industrial realm, they reveal those objects' precarity.

Objects such as:

 plastic columns: a contention to the contemporary depiction from classic historical architecture. Alabaster in       material and embellished by a Corinthian top are redefined by a mass-produced plastic form that becomes             figurative once a latex sheet is draped on top.

        antennas are dismembered from their radio bodies while their bellies are dissected and reconnected to other           parts to form a new way of relevance.

               noise: the voices of these objects speak through static utterances. A sort of nostalgic way of listening                          where one used to scan radio waves for other signs of life.

                     discarded wood is repurposed in a self-reflexive way to stimulate our relationship with trees and                                   extractive pursuits with Land.

                           Photographic documents of property ownership become memories of bygone eras where security                                  was somewhat obtainable yet unsustainable.

To come across these objects, equipment, gear, goods, and junk within a gallery space forces the viewer to reintroduce themselves. The artwork’s technology or representation can be nostalgic for some or maybe totally unfamiliar. A pendulum swing between relativity to irrelevance. It is arguable to say that Principles of Enclosure is time-based and ephemeral. It is also arguablethat these works assert life on their own—beyond a human focus perspective that usually projects object relevance based on sharing space. However, these objects, equipment, gear, goods, and junk continue to exist when we are gone. When ‘we’ are gone forever, these works will remain here. Some can erode. Some will not.

Michaela Bridgemohan Guest Writer

1 This is in reference to the human history of constructing objects and tools to our social spaces. However, I want to acknowledge that other animals such as crows, ravens, and other birds also make tools as to strategize hunting and foraging. .
0 Comments

The Relativity of Time and Space

4/23/2022

0 Comments

 
Catalogue essay by Carin Covin

The Lake Country Art Gallery is presenting “The Relativity of Time and Space”, an exhibition pairing two painters, Diane Feught and Lindsay Kirker, by the gallery’s curator Wanda Lock. 

Painting is a two dimensional visual language, and as a means of art production has had a long, contested and interesting history.  Beginning in the Lascaux Caves, the discourse has travelled through various patronages; of the Church, of the State, of the wealthy, through the Patriarchy, and on through to a place of constant critique within modernism, feminism, humanism, and structuralism.   Within these and other “isms”, many scholars continue to add to this location – a place of thinking and making a mark upon a surface.  There are different types of surfaces to paint on, and in this exhibition, the artists have chosen rag paper and canvas.

Diane Feught is a poet and a painter.  In her published work, “The Pillow Book of Monsters – Mechanics of the Sublime” we, the viewers and the readers, have access to her written poems to help us gain entry into the ideas she has embedded in her painted works.  Interestingly, in this exhibition we only have her titles to point us in a direction of meaning.

There is a measure of intimacy in the scale and the choice of using paper in the works; issues that can be placed within early feminism.  However, I would suggest that this intimacy is extremely complicated; veiled.  These painted collages of ideas are confounding in their compositional groupings, challenging the viewer to interpret Feught’s trifurcation of ideas, and often, when we reassemble these ideas, we realize that Feught has suggested the unexpected to us. 

Conceptualism has taught us that the idea is as important, if not more important than the finished work.  And semiotics has taught us that we, as individuals, have an innate ability to read images, or to decode a meaning or meanings that is inserted within a complicated image. However, even with these tools, I, as a viewer, am left with emotional responses to these works, as opposed to an intellectual understanding or a comfortable resolve.  Which means I have more to contemplate.

When studying these works, I was never far from my dictionary, as I needed to be sure of my understanding of the titles; some are based in the biblical, some are based in the political, some based in science, and then there are some titles that are simply placed within the human heart.  Many of the works are bracketed by areas of pattern, specifically mapped out, with an intentional palette, colours chosen to soothe and colours chosen to visually excite. As a viewer, I am left with the impression that Diane Feught is interested in the logistics of a paradox, both intellectual and visual, and in her painted and written investigations, she has presented an arena of glorious ambiguity.  And maybe that is what a lifetime is all about.

Lindsay Kirker has challenged herself with a considerable task.  Simply put, Kirker is rethinking of what it is to be a human in our natural environment.  Her visual thesis is an interesting intertwining of a collective of disciplines.  I immediately think of post humanism and post feminism; entry points for me into her reasoning and approach to her visual work. By this I mean that I can understand that we, as people, are just one of many intelligent living organism on the earth, and we, as women, have graduated to encompassing all the many differences within the lens of an individual. However, Kirker’s research is polyphonic in nature: her MFA Thesis is titled “Creating Structures: The Complexity of Making, Dwelling and Being” is evidence of her intellectual and personal journeys. 

Kirker has travelled to regional and international destinations in the world to aide in her quest for understanding what it is to be human in our natural environment.  She creates painted dreamscapes that she suggests is couched in the politics of the everyday, a philosophical trope of early feminism. Within this framework, Kirker has placed herself amongst scientists, environmentalists, and in doing so, has moved through many conversations of traditional and untraditional ways of knowing.  She has come to understand that the natural environment, which has been here for known time, carries memory. Within this memory, are sites of the sacred, which often go unnoticed by our societal push for economic development. A family member suggested to Kirker that her questions were not based in physics anymore, or even science, but have moved into a place of spirituality.  A location within the human heart.

Her methodology of painting begins in a vortex of chaos.  She has stated that she begins in an activity of throwing many things at the raw canvas – often unstapled to any support, however for this exhibition the canvas was traditionally stretched.  Her substrate is not archival in nature as she combines gesso and house paint and sections of untreated canvas together as she builds towards an image.  The house paint, with its higher water content, will, over time, be unable to hold its integrity, allowing for cracking and flaking.  For me, this is an interesting metaphor for the many disrupted foundations that are visible in her bodies of work. These foundations are based in traditional Western perspective, something that Kirker understands as a reproduction of truth, not necessarily a truth in itself.  This can also reflect the rapid expansion that Kirker witnesses, as we continue to build over nature in an effort to frame the social environments of our city spaces.

Kirker’s choice of scale provides a visual impact, a choice that will catch our attention, and then invites us to engage with the multiple perspectives that she presents to us. She reminds us to question how we have arrived here, now; and to remember that our past and future on the earth are connected.

I am interested in how this exhibition, “The Relativity of Time and Space”, juxtaposes ideas focused on our inner landscape alongside ideas that reflect a gaze outward to the natural world.  These ideas are timely in nature and acknowledge the complexity of this curious moment in time.

Obviously, there is much more that could be said about the works of these two artists.  And it is also understood that Diane Feught and Lindsay Kirker are in an active and ongoing relationship with their ideas; a continuing that builds upon their responses to the world around them.

Carin Covin

Exhibition, The Relativity of Time and Space features artwork by Diane Feught and Lindsay Kirker, curated by Wanda Lock and available to see at the Lake Country Art Gallery until May 28th, 2022

0 Comments
<<Previous

    Archives

    October 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    October 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    March 2023
    December 2022
    April 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    September 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    January 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

​
​
Picture

OPEN HOURS
Tuesday - Sunday
9:00am to 3:00pm*
Admission by donation


*check Exhibition dates for temporary closure during installations
​*extended hours for the Under 200 
exhibition

Contact Us

[email protected]
[email protected]
​250-766-1299

Lake Country Art Gallery
​10356A Bottom Wood Lake Rd, Lake Country

We respectfully acknowledge that the 
Lake Country Art Gallery and Art House are
located on the traditional and unceded territory
​of the Syilx/Okanagan people.

Join our Newsletter 
​for free updates, resources & reminders on all things LCAG!

* indicates required

Picture
HOME   |   ABOUT  |   EXHIBITIONS   |   EVENTS   |   WORKSHOPS 

VOLUNTEER WITH US
BECOME A MEMBER
CALL FOR ART