EXHIBITION CATALOGUE SEPTEMBER 2018 − JULY 2019
ABOUT THE MNG Established by the Alberta University of the Arts Students’ Association (AUArts SA), formerly Alberta College of Art + Design Students’ Association - ACADSA, the student-run Marion Nicoll Gallery (MNG) is a unique forum for showcasing AUArts student work, inspiring experimentation, and stimulating critical dialogue. This unique gallery is modelled after a not-for-profit gallery, and encourages conceptual freedom and diversity. Directed by students, the MNG provides emerging artists and designers with an opportunity to develop experience in curation, arts administration, jurors, and exhibitors. marionnicollgallery.wordpress.com/
OUR THREE LOCATIONS +15 Window Space The +15 Window Space, located in Arts Commons, was a MNG gallery location until October 2018. Fronted completely by glass, the storefront was suited for small-scale installations or exhibitions. LRT Space The LRT Window is located in the AUArts/Jubilee hallway which acts as a main thoroughfare for the public. The space is enclosed, with three large windows facing the hallway. This space is available to students for one month exhibitions, and aims to present work that transforms the environment by presenting the work in an unusual, engaging and professional manner. Main Space Located in the Main Mall at AUArts, the MNG Main Space provides a setting for large scale installations, group shows and individual bodies of work, for a period of two weeks.
CATALOGUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Exhibition Photos by Laura Pritchard* *Excluding photos by the artists for David Videla – Y debo reconocer mi vida pasada sin consecuencias and Chelsea Yang-Smith – second-sight; and photos by Dan Cardinal McCartney for Toni Cormier, Taylor Harder & Victoria McInnis – Shhhhhhhhhhhhh; Catalogue Layout by Kiah Gutowski
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CATALOGUE CONTENTS PG
MNG Director’s Statement By Laura Pritchard Fiona Couillard – (de)fences August 6 – September 28, 2018 Liam Black – My Father’s Key September 10 – October 12, 2018 Laura Hansen – The Sounding September 11 – October 12, 2018 Ryan Danny Owen – NOCTURNE! October 22 – November 2, 2018 Hannah Neufeld – Water (Flåm) October 15 – November 16, 2018 Nicole Mary – Safety Nets November 5 – 16, 2018 Selina Martineau – in·ter·lop·er November 19 – December 14, 2018 Caroline Araujo & Alice Schoenberg – I don’t know, I just don’t think this is like great for me, I don’t want to do it. I want to go home, like I can’t take the pressure of it. December 3, 2018 – January 11, 2019 David Videla – Y debo reconocer mi vida pasada sin consecuencias
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January 14 – February 15, 2019
Toni Cormier, Taylor Harder & Victoria McInnis – Shhhhhhhhhhhhh
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January 21 – February 1, 2019
Tanner Christmas – Supports: Above and Below, Exhausting the Albatross
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February 7 – 22, 2019
Robyn Mah – Tensions February 18 – March 15, 2019 Jasmine Whiteley-Steel – An attempt to move past an avoidance of vulnerability February 26 – March 8, 2019 Dirty Douks – Spirrrit Wrrrestlerrrs March 11 – 22, 2019 Ana Villanueva – My next door neighbour lives in a little house with weird edges March 18 – April 19, 2019
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Alice Schoenberg, Ana Villanueva, Caroline Araujo, Katelyn Liakos, Olivia Kotani, Ursula Sokol, Winona Julian – Bad Visions from Cyberspace April 8 – 19, 2019
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Daniel Beanmash – El Barrio April 23 – May 3, 2019
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Chelsea Yang-Smith – second-sight April 23 – May 17, 2019 Skylar Eyre & Gabby Coates – Your one & only June 18 – August 16, 2019
MNG DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT “What do artists know? is not the proper question to ask. My argument is that the verb “to know” leads us in wrong directions, away from artistic practice and away from the artwork. I propose to recast this question as, How do artists think?” — Janneke Wesseling, How Do Artists Think 1 How do artists think? This question, posed by Janneke Wesseling, is a good one. However, I suspect that it wouldn’t be long before most reading this text came to decide that artists think through the art object. After all, that’s the form that our ruminations ultimately occupy. But if so, does this position art and art-making as thinking? I’m landing on this question because I believe (Western) art often falls out of thinking and into subservience. By this I mean that some artists seem to find rumination insufficient reason for art-making and insist that art should serve a higher and often identifiable social cause (be it religion, previously, or research, activism and ethics, today). While people’s thirst for creating meaning that can be quickly identified and deemed as such might simply appear the result of the Zeitgeist, this seems to be an enduring theme. And while ethics does provide valid material for making and thinking, do the ethics serve the art or does the art serve the ethics? If the art need always serve a higher cause, why make art in the first place? What does art do? In my opinion, art evokes. It whispers, insinuates, becomes. In an article titled “Digging”, Jeremiah Day recalls a visit to Berlin during which a friend of his was uncovering the ruins of a stairwell long buried beneath the Berlin Wall. Day’s friend, Smith, digs with the hope that what he finds might contribute to a sculptural work he is planning. Day wonders if his friend has any idea what he’s uncovered, “if it was a home, or an office, and if it was bombed or just burned down.” 2 Smith replies, “He has plans to go to the state archive to find out that kind of information, but he keeps delaying the visit.” Day writes that his friend “prefers to sustain the period of this kind of discovery, through digging, attending to the soil and ash, in which a different kind of information is possible, one that is not axiomatic or verifiable.” Smith avoids framing his work as being in the service of history, instead seeking meaning in digging, leveraging layers of history to cultivate a meaning that’s perhaps too nuanced to name. Smith isn’t digging for meaning – he’s digging the meaning. Similarly, while art helps us come to various, often murky, personal, and inconclusive moments of meaning, (the “coming” being often more compelling than the “meaning” itself) art ultimately doesn’t tell – it merely unearths the buried. Like Smith’s digging, art takes the shape of a question, unzipping the present and offering a place “where the past and future are both at stake.” 3 An exquisite corpse in the time-scheme of clouds, art is continuously becoming. Art reorders.
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Art doesn’t lie down – instead it dances, consistently stepping just outside our expectations of what it should be. It asks us to collage, to curiously engage in meaning-making by rethinking what it was we thought we knew. While I don’t think art need always act on behalf of rebellion, rebellion is inherent in art. Art is protest against more imperious modes of knowing that compel us to know without asking questions. Art doesn’t tell us what to think. Instead, art asks us to perceive. Art rethinks. Art affects. A vernacular of intimate impressions, impressions on bodies, on minds, on itself, art asks in a language of whispers. Art becomes a “secret knowledge.” 4 Ultimately, we spend time experiencing art not because we want it to tell us how to enact social change or to fill us with certainty - we look to art because we are curious. Art is known to provoke pleasure, surprises, catharsis, and questions and we are curious as to what these might be and how they will feel as we try them on subjectively. Day writes of his friend: By not knowing the “truth,” Smith’s act can become a kind of “fiction,” − back to the root of that word, a shaping of circumstance, the transformation that gives art its own status, claims, and questions. Perhaps Smith’s decision not to go to the archive (yet) is like what Friedrich Nietzsche called the choice of a “limited horizon,” in which not all questions have to be faced, in which one does not need to be responsible to all perspectives, to preserve the space of “becoming.” 5 Art doesn’t aver or explain. It merely becomes.
- Laura
Pritchard, 2018
Notes and Bibliography 1. Wesseling, Janneke. “How Do Artists Think?” In What Do Artists Know, edited by James Elkins, 206. Vol. III. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania University Press, 2012. 2. Day, Jeremiah. “Digging.” In Art as a Thinking Process: Visual Form of Knowledge Production, edited by Mara Ambrozic and Angela Vettese, 66. Venice: Sternberg Press, 2013. 3. Willis, Gary. “What’s Art Got To Do With It?” In What Do Artists Know, edited by James Elkins, 165. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania University Press, 2012. 4. Vettese, Angela. “How Do We Teach Art?” In Art as a Thinking Process: Visual Form of Knowledge Production, edited by Mara Ambrozic and Angela Vettese, 15. Venice: Sternberg Press, 2013. 5. Day, Jeremiah. “Digging.” In Art as a Thinking Process: Visual Form of Knowledge Production, edited by Mara Ambrozic and Angela Vettese, 66. Venice: Sternberg Press, 2013.
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Fiona Couillard
(de)fences August 6 – September 28, 2018 +15 Space
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This work investigates personal, physical, and psychological security and the constructed boundaries we put in place, creating an illusion of safety. Through knitting and abstraction, (de)fences explores a punctured surface – the feelings that arise when boundaries are breached and a woman’s value and agency are disregarded by society. Through (de)fences, I am trying to answer the recurring question of “how did I get here?”, to this place of insecurity – a constant battle between the desire for safety and the need for purposeful human connection. Fiona Couillard is a Calgary based artist. Her artistic practice explores abstraction in a continuous dialogue between conceptualization and the formal aspects of paint and materials.
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“... a constant battle between the desire for safety and the need for purposeful human connection.� Fiona Couillard - (de)fences
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Liam Black
My Father’s Key September 10 – October 12, 2018 LRT Space
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A lazy dog laying under a soft blanket, not concerned with where it resides. Only its existence. When my dad left she was the one to open the door, I feel now that she is braver than I am, was or will ever be. I Hope This Scares Him, I Know It Scares Me. A Tiny Dot. My Father’s Keys revolves around abandoned objects and the emotions associated with the absence of my father figure. Liam Black is a Calgary based artist currently completing their BFA at the Alberta College Of Art And Design. He is currently the director of The Wall Gallery, a student run space within the college. His practice currently explores enlightenment through traumatic experience using religious representations, photography and melancholic imagery.
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“I Hope This Scares Him, I Know It Scares Me.” Liam Black - My Father’s Key 12
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Laura Hansen
The Sounding September 11 – October 12, 2018 Main Space
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Nature. The body. The void. God. The Sounding is a meditation on finding god in the nothingness that exists within nature, the universe, and our bodies. It is about the succumbing to the void. A form of unification – a whole. In order to find god. For god can be found in the nothingness of nature – but also within our own bodies. Our visceral being. Our innermost. The deepest depths. Laura Hansen is a Canadian artist based in Calgary, Alberta. She is an installation and sculptural artist who works with materials that are derived from the earth, her body, and fragments of industrial debris. Scent is an important aspect of her work and, as a perfumer, she crafts her own scent to be used in her installations.
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“It is about the succumbing to the void. A form of unification – a whole. In order to find god.” Laura Hansen - The Sounding
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Ryan Danny Owen
NOCTURNE! October 22 – November 2, 2018 Main Space
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NOCTURNE! is an exploration of cruising as well as an intimate portrait of the absent queer body. Using wood, found pornographic material, and abstraction as an invitation to encounter. Soaked within a kind of pitch black, those men exploring the dark with a desire to encounter another, the duality of pleasure and panic; sex and death; the bodies of men at the edge of disappearing. A looming intimidating form there is nervousness in approaching but a desire to encounter. Arouse and beware. Ryan Danny Owen is an artist and writer based in Calgary, Alberta. His work responds to questions of queer identity, loss, desire, and emotion. Through the use of various media, including music, found photographs, sculpture, and pornography, Owen examines his body existing within the context of queer genealogy and challenges the idea of coming after.
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“Soaked within a kind of pitch black, those men exploring the dark with a desire to encounter another, the duality of pleasure and panic; sex and death; the bodies of men at the edge of disappearing.� Ryan Danny Owen - NOCTURNE! 20
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Hannah Neufeld
Water (Flåm) October 15 – November 16, 2018 LRT Space
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Old skin ’kin ‘kin
You na know me’
You na know me’
- Soucouyant, David Chariandy
“Water (Flåm)”, was created while Neufeld was studying at the University of Bergen in Norway. During the rainy winter, she visited the small village at the end of the Aurlandsfjord, Flåm. Neufeld was captivated by the surrounding natural beauty and incredible patterns being formed in the ocean’s water. Using a photographic background with abstracted forms representing rain and wind, created in bold stylized colours. Each binding was designed specifically for each colour of the weaving. The weaving is made out of Norwegian wool, made at the Innvik A/S Factory in Innvik, Norway. Hannah Neufeld is a textile artist and designer based in Calgary, Alberta. Her work references familiar places and ideas interpreted through line, shape and colour. She is currently in her final year studying at the Alberta College of Art + Design.
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“During the rainy winter, she visited the small village at the end of the Aurlandsfjord, Flåm. Neufeld was captivated by the surrounding natural beauty and incredible patterns being formed in the ocean’s water. “ Hannah Neufeld - Water (Flåm)
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Nicole Mary – Safety Nets
Safety Nets November 5 – 16, 2018 Main Space
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Large scale arm knitted yarn forms interactive nets of fibre. My hands and arms become the tools of the knitting process. The cumulative weight of yarn, my body, and casted metal causes the nets to sag and stretch. I calculate the patterns of the nets and trap myself within them. The emotional and physical labour involved in my mental illnesses involve repetition through touch that will never result in an absolute truth. Nicole Mary is a local emerging artist working towards her BFA in Drawing at the Alberta College of Art + Design and acts as the current director of The Velvet Tracksuits. She works with themes of mental illness and labour through fibre mediums and performance art.
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“The cumulative weight of yarn, my body, and casted metal causes the nets to sag and stretch. I calculate the patterns of the nets and trap myself within them.� Nicole Mary - Safety Nets
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Selina Martineau
in·ter·lop·er November 19 – December 14, 2018 LRT Space
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in·ter·lop·er noun. a person who becomes involved in a place or situation where they are not wanted or are considered not to belong. There is comfort in routine. There is security in the ritual of repeating an action so many times that you don’t remember why you started. in·ter·lop·er questions a routine of blending in. In the process of simultaneously concealing and revealing, I investigate the experience of feeling alienated in my own country. By painting, I perform a new ritual of reclamation; I mend the severed ties to my cultural history, despite the cost of comfort. Selina Martineau, born in Canmore, Alberta, creates paintings, installations, garments and performances that draw on popular culture and the history of marginalized communities to form a contemporary perspective of intersectional identity. Contrasting real and imaginary, humour and seriousness, Martineau’s constructed imagery examines relationships with familiar imagery and how identity is informed by society’s assumptions about race and gender.
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“There is comfort in routine. There is security in the ritual of repeating an action so many times that you don’t remember why you started.” Selina Martineau - in·ter·lop·er
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Caroline Araujo & Alice Schoenberg
I don’t know, I just don’t think this is like great for me, I don’t want to do it. I want to go home, like I can’t take the pressure of it. December 3, 2018 – January 11, 2019 Main Space
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Through a multi-video and audio installation we present a model of voyeurism based on reality television. Quotes taken from The Inspection House (1791) by Jeremy Bentham are placed in conjunction with footage from the reality television series America’s Next Top Model (2003– ). The space is divided in two parts, that of external and internal space. While the external space presents the performative nature of reality television, theinternal space makes use of segue shots. These shots of contestants in-between anticipated events present a type of performance which embodies the feeling of being seen and not knowing. The work highlights the inherent dependency of the public image to surveillance and punishment. Caroline Araujo is a video artist who participates in rituals of self-care and escapism through re-enacting and altering the behaviour, language, and presentation of female pop singers and YouTubers. Born in Montreal, she currently lives in Calgary where she is a fourth-year student at the Alberta College of Art + Design. Alice Schoenberg is a Canadian video and performance artist in her fourth year at the Alberta College of Art + Design. In her practice, she embodies exaggerated feminine personas that are intended to highlight the ineffective tools prescribed by contemporary feminism to challenge systemic patriarchy.
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“The work highlights the inherent dependency of the public image to surveillance and punishment.” Caroline Araujo & Alice Schoenberg - I don’t know, I just don’t think this is like great for me, I don’t want to do it. I want to go home, like I can’t take the pressure of it. 37
David Videla
Y debo reconocer mi vida pasada sin consecuencias January 14 – February 15, 2019 LRT Space
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Familial patterns of migration and displacement feed in and out of past, current, and future lives. Language and culture follow this flow; present long enough to leave an impression, but disappearing before their effects can be understood. PopocatĂŠpetl, birthplace of the pumice, was once home to Glaciar Norte before it melted and receded. The Bow River is composed partly by runoff from the Bow Glacier, another frozen being in a state of retreat. This documentation is of a ritualistic (re)introduction, performed only in hopes of reacquainting the pumice with certain aspects of their past lives, 4000km from home. Born in Cuernavaca, Mexico, David Videla explores concepts of exile, reincarnation, and multicultural identity through performance and video work. Film photography and documentation within exhibition courtesy of Ethan Peters.
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“This documentation is of a ritualistic (re) introduction, performed only in hopes of reacquainting the pumice with certain aspects of their past lives, 4000km from home.� David Videla - Y debo reconocer mi vida pasada sin consecuencias
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Toni Cormier, Taylor Harder & Victoria McInnis
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh January 21 – February 1, 2019 Main Space
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Ideas of whose experiences are deemed ‘real’ lead to an interest in science fiction and its role in shaping the future, an interest in redefining how we interact with the world and how it interacts back. Something about mystery and magic is grounded in reality, but how can we investigate these moments of exchange? Tools, toys, and machines have been created in an attempt to communicate with unseen and hidden things, to access a renegade navigation through possibilities of the future. Toni Cormier concerns herself with the aftermath of unveiled secrets. To move productively forward from this point of no return, she uses watery premonitions to access speculative futures. Taylor Harder is of mixed MĂŠtis and Mennonite heritage. They utilize soundscapes alongside sculptures to contact their origins. Interested in heretical forms of knowing, Harder calls upon occult methodologies to speak to both past and future. Victoria McInnis is an inventor, building machines that harness and channel unseen energies within the world. The machines hybridize science and mysticism, a pseudo-scientific pairing which engages non-verbal communication.
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“Something about mystery and magic is grounded in reality, but how can we investigate these moments of exchange?” Toni Cormier, Taylor Harder & Victoria McInnis Shhhhhhhhhhhhh
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Tanner Christmas
Supports: Above and Below, Exhausting the Albatross February 7 – 22, 2019 Main Space
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INVESTIGATE THE UNKNOWN, ATTACK YOUR ARTWORK, SPEED, VELOCITY, SOUND, DOOM, LISTEN TO METAL AND THRASH AROUND, LISTEN TO EVERYTHING AND NOTHING, TRANSFER SONIC EXPERIENCE INTO VISUAL EXPERIENCE, DISSECT PARALYSIS, INVESTIGATE PANIC ATTACKS, COUNTER EDUCATE, LIVE IN FLUX, FALL IN LOVE, LIVE IN THE CLOUDS, GROUND YOURSELF, DESTROY IDEAS, BUILD THEM UP WITH FRIENDS, WEAR A UNIFORM, CONFUSE YOURSELF, DO SOMETHING UN-RELATABLE, DEPRIVE YOUR SENSES, CONFRONT TRAUMAS, QUESTION YOURSELF, EXPLORE NEW PARTS OF THE CITY, BREAK THE LAW, MINIMIZE EXISTENTIALISM, MERGE ART AND LIFE. Tanner Christmas draws on the critique of artistic and social conventions through the disruption and redistribution of material, narrative and processes. The artist employs opposition while progressively creating order and disorder in rearrangement of narrative by destroying the old. Through the process of making, autonomous entities diverge from established reality, sequentially creating alternate timelines in a state of flux. Message from the artist: I would like to thank everyone who has helped me along the way. Showcard image courtesy of Ryley Williams.
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“...TRANSFER SONIC EXPERIENCE INTO VISUAL EXPERIENCE, DISSECT PARALYSIS, INVESTIGATE PANIC ATTACKS, COUNTER EDUCATE, LIVE IN FLUX, FALL IN LOVE...” Tanner Christmas - Supports: Above and Below, Exhausting the Albatross
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Robyn Mah
Tensions February 18 – March 15, 2019 LRT Space
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Indulging in the viscous mixtures, spirals of pigment disperse across the hydrophobic paper, creating a reflective surface during the process that enables ideas of tension and displacement. These are the beginnings of a metaphorical space for the artist’s identity to exist. Tensions is an assemblage of paintings made of latex and high-gloss mediums that reflect the strain between the artist’s cultural identities of Chinese-European descent. By questioning her own ideas of identity, she investigates further and begins to reconcile the feelings of disassociation and of being an imposter, through finding solitude within these ambiguous paintings. Robyn Mah is a Calgary based artist; she is completing her painting degree at the AUarts. She is currently the co-director of The Wall Gallery, a student run space within the university. Trapped between cultural identities, she is interested in creating metaphorical spaces to understand the contrasting narratives of Chinese-European histories.
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“These are the beginnings of a metaphorical space for the artist’s identity to exist.” Robyn Mah - Tensions
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Jasmine Whiteley-Steel
An attempt to move past an avoidance of vulnerability February 26 – March 8, 2019 Main Space
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Standing in a home Compared to in a graveyard At a funeral dated prior to our deaths, Follow the instructions And let go of your own dead flowers Let them pass into memory Even though we are afraid Poised to run, sensing danger of oncoming thoughts Language capacitating our dread Fear telling us to listen Dread telling us to read closer to see dead Losing that which we are close to Bringing forth perpetuating anxieties, but also hopes Be witness to your own. Jasmine Whiteley-Steel is a Calgary based artist working through thoughts on the strengths of human vulnerability and how we cope with and react to feeling dread. They are interdisciplinary in their work, using jewelry, drawing, photography, text and performance to explore their interests. They have shown work solo and in groups at spaces in Calgary, and alongside visual art is looking to expand into poetry and published writings. Jasmine has participated on multiple juries, in the mental health residency: Hear/d through ACAD in 2018, and is currently involved in an internship with The New Gallery in Calgary.
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“Follow the instructions And let go of your own dead flowers Let them pass into memory Even though we are afraid� Jasmine Whiteley-Steel - An attempt to move past an avoidance of vulnerability
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Dirty Douks
Spirrrit Wrrrestlerrrs March 11 – 22, 2019 Main Space
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Dirty Douks negotiates the parallels within their queer and Doukhobor identities as resistive. Clumsy translations, tender dialogues and bright pink beet stains attempt to find the in-between of these identities. Using knowledge well known and unknown, Dirty Douks examines simultaneously the recalibration of history as well as the futility (or failure) of the passing on of generational history. Dirty Douks fumbles through the history of actions, failing to properly translate or neatly fit their queer bodies within the framework of Doukhobor(ness). Through the investigation of Doukhobor history and generational trauma within the lens of queerness and a tilted perspective, Dirty Douks creates an emotionally informed recalibration and reformation of Doukhobor history. Dirty Douks is a collaboration between Alexa Bunnell and Skylar Eyre, both of Doukhobor descent, based on Treaty 7 Territory. Dirty Douks is primarily concerned with the intersection of queerness and Doukhobor identity, manifesting itself through performative works, video and photo.
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“Dirty Douks fumbles through the history of actions, failing to properly translate or neatly fit their queer bodies within the framework of Doukhobor(ness).� Dirty Douks - Spirrrit Wrrrestlerrrs
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Ana Villanueva
My next door neighbour lives in a little house with weird edges March 18 – April 19, 2019 LRT Space
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Two neighbours reside here. One knows too much about the other. And other wants to borrow a whisk. The door stands in the way of these beings. Because of this, they leave letters for each other. They sometimes make love this way. They know each other through words, symbols and only that. Letters and symbols are powerful entities in relation to architectural proximity and its effect on interpersonal relationships amongst creatures, mostly human. The words hold the spaces together. The doors within create an understanding of the other. Ana Villanueva is a Mexican-Canadian multidisciplinary artist currently based in Calgary, Alberta. She creates narratives through the utilization of both symbols and sounds in relation to the dynamics that happen between her immigrant identity, personal stories, and the domestic space. She is currently completing her BFA at the Alberta University of the Arts, majoring in media arts.
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“Letters and symbols are powerful entities in relation to architectural proximity and its effect on interpersonal relationships amongst creatures, mostly human.� Ana Villanueva - My next door neighbour lives in a little house with weird edges
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Alice Schoenberg, Ana Villanueva, Caroline Araujo, Katelyn Liakos, Olivia Kotani, Ursula Sokol, Winona Julian
Bad Visions from Cyberspace April 8 – 19, 2019 Main Space
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Bad Visions from Cyberspace is a group show of experimental video art curated by Winona Julian. It explores contemporary issues and visual memes of everyday cyber culture. This exhibition brings together a group of emerging artists, all of whom are members of a generation where an understanding of new media is innate. These artists share a fascination with the repurposing of cultural themes and ideology. The resulting video work surveys the bizarre and intuitive relationships between ideology and modern media. Although these video works pull from many different cultural references, they emerge through the creative process as new, hybridized, but truly original entities unto themselves. The often humorous scenes parallel those disseminated online through social media and streaming services in order to tap into the collective subconscious of a digital generation. The result is an image-based critical self-awareness, that confronts, interrogates, and explores with the audience these expressive, and enigmatic new cultural artefacts. Winona Julian is an emerging artist based in Calgary who is completing her BFA at Alberta University of the Arts with a major in Media Arts. Her artwork functions as a parallel representation of normalized online behaviours. Through performance and video, she is able to use the same patterns that are commonly linked with social media, such as camera angles, filters, distorted effects, and the implication of an ever present audience to examine the relationship between her simulated online self and her non-simulated self.
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“The result is an image-based critical self-awareness, that confronts, interrogates, and explores with the audience these expressive, and enigmatic new cultural artefacts.� Alice Schoenberg, Ana Villanueva, Caroline Araujo, Katelyn Liakos, Olivia Kotani, Ursula Sokol, Winona Julian - Bad Visions from Cyberspace
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Daniel Beanmash
El Barrio April 23 – May 3, 2019 Main Space
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Daniel Beanmash’s El Barrio is an installation exploring the political realities of life in Nicaragua. El Barrio is an interior space constructed to resemble aspects of the artist’s familial home in Managua, Nicaragua. All of the objects within the installation—old furniture, rocking chairs, a television set, small Christian icons, etc.—have been covered in layers of graffiti. Displayed on the television is footage from the 2018 protests in Nicaragua that left at least 317 dead, paired with the song Me Voy Pa’l Pueblo (I’m Going Into Town) by Trio Los Panchos. The protests began in April 2018 as a response to President Daniel Ortega’s social security reforms that proposed a decrease in pension payments and an increase in taxes, but have since become widespread demonstrations calling for the resignation of Ortega. – Declan Hoy 2019 Daniel Beanmash is a Canadian artist of Nicaraguan dissent. His work often tackles subjects such as corruption within social structures, religious history, internalized racism, and the technological advancements of the natural world and societies within it. These concepts are delivered through drawings, silkscreen prints, found object sculptures and video/projection work.
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“The protests began in April 2018 as a response to President Daniel Ortega’s social security reforms that proposed a decrease in pension payments and an increase in taxes, but have since become widespread demonstrations calling for the resignation of Ortega.” Daniel Beanmash - El Barrio
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Chelsea Yang-Smith
second-sight April 23 – May 17, 2019 LRT Space
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sec·ond sight [noun]—the power of discerning what is not visible to the physical eye. To gain the ability of second sight an individual must meet the following conditions: 1. They must be actively aware of distinct socioeconomic factors in place that grant advantage to certain dominant groups while simultaneously alienating those at its margins. 2. They must understand and embrace the position as the “other” and use their differences to challenge the status quo. 3. They must manipulate their discerning power to strategically topple current systems of oppression that suppress marginalized communities. Chelsea Yang-Smith is a visual artist and photographer currently based in Calgary, Alberta. Using analogue photography, Yang-Smith’s body of work, second-sight, examines the segregation of racially ambiguous individuals from their contemporaries. Her current research investigates the parallels between intersectional feminism and intimacy within the digital landscape. Yang-Smith holds a Bachelor of Design in Photography from the Alberta University of the Arts (2016) and is a former Photography Practicum of the Banff Centre for Arts + Creativity (2017).
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“They must manipulate their discerning power to strategically topple current systems of oppression that suppress marginalized communities.� Chelsea Yang-Smith - second-sight 77
Skylar Eyre & Gabby Coates
Your one & only June 18 – August 16, 2019 Main Space
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Drawing on gospels, hymns, dancing, ideas of worship Eyre and Coates remove the boundary between religion and queerness while situating the commonalities of these two groups as humorous and transcendent. The church has never existed as a pure entity and has always pertained elements of corruption, but it is not our goal to alienate, as it is to revitalize a culture of a communal understanding of radical love, acceptance and understanding. Eyre and Coates’ particular form of worship is radical sex, indulgence, sweat induced dancing, validation in perverted thoughts and disco music. For this project we plan to use the iconography of the white pony to signify inaccessibility and myth drawing reference to queer dance culture, christianity, mysticism, and transcendent states to shatter the barrier of queerness and organized religion. Our intention is to realize a white pony in a life-size sculptural form, using fabric to best suspend viewers disbelief of what they are seeing. Skylar Eyre and Gabby Coates are interdisciplinary artists based on Treaty 7 Territory in the Southern Alberta region. Their collaborative practice focuses on queering their surroundings, drawing on iconography of the religious institution + collapsing the boundaries between the church and dance culture — particularly the gay male disco circuit that gained rapid-ďŹ re popularization and faced an imminent death in the early 1980s. Presented in partnership with Sled Island Music & Arts Festival.
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“Drawing on gospels, hymns, dancing, ideas of worship Eyre and Coates remove the boundary between religion and queerness while situating the commonalities of these two groups as humorous and transcendent.” Skylar Eyre & Gabby Coates - Your one & only
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