Dual exhibitions focus on essential nature at Sechelt’s Sunshine Coast Arts Centre

BOWEN ARTIST JEAN BRADBURY FEATURED

MICHAEL GURNEY Coast Reporter

Imposing artworks by two artists now exhibited at Sechelt’s Sunshine Coast Arts Centre examine the meaning of inheritance, in both genealogical and ecological terms

An opening reception on March 17 attracted dozens of visitors to meet Gibsons-based multidisciplinary artist Nadina Tandy and painter Jean Bradbury, from Bowen Island.

Tandy’s collage-style prints compose Generational Imprints, a fully-realized exhibition of the series she previewed at the Gumboot Café in Roberts Creek in September Meanwhile, Bradbury’s Stewards and Defenders presents monumental paintings on cut plywood that address the relationship between humans and wooded landscapes

“When it comes to matching concurrent exhibitions, these two were a natural,” said Sadira Rodrigues, curator and director of the Sunshine Coast Arts Council, “considering their focus on portraiture, relationships, and history.”

The bulk of Tandy’s works are large-scale unframed prints, each featuring a composite face that confronts viewers with its arresting gaze. The images are a combination of five photographs of Tandy’s mother, grandmother and herself at different ages.

“I think what I want is connection,” said Tandy. “The material I use is personal, but there’s also more archetypal imagery in here So when you look at it, I don’t want you to question, oh, who’s that? Instead, I want you to have your own experience, and truly feel what you’re feeling”

The notion of transformation across successive generations is reinforced by Tandy’s use of repeated floral motifs, as in her Reclamation with repeat pattern in violet In works like Study with Scissors and Octopus Dreaming, foreground faces are accompanied by enigmatic artifacts Recurrent apple blossoms and flailing cephalopods form a distinctive iconography that reinforce Tandy’s emphasis on transformation and heterogeneity.

“I loved experimenting with faces,” said Tandy. She works and reworks her composite images until they reach aesthetic apotheosis and achieve a comfortable