EMBRACING SHADOWS

By: Agnieszka Matejko

“If you put frightening things into a picture, then they can’t harm you. In fact, you end up becoming quite fond of them.”—Paula Rego1

Lost in a dark forest, a frightened boy transforms into a stag. A spider crawls on human hands. A reborn Medusa rises from a vulva-shaped clamshell. An emaciated Gaia brings forth new life. These eerie scenes fill Tammy Salzl’s Beautiful Parasites, an exhibition of paintings and mixed-media sculptures bathed in a haunting soundscape by Canadian composer Greg Mulyk.

Many of Salzl’s characters are household names. Countless Disney films and tomes of Greek myth have embedded them deep into children’s lore. Yet Salzl’s take on European folklore startles. There is nothing childlike about a female-headed spider whose open legs reveal a row of breasts, like the ancient sculptures of Artemis of Ephesus. Savage sexuality and danger lurks in the shadows. There are no soothing fairy-tale endings.

Salzl’s unflinching take on childhood stories draws on their origins: the bone-chilling folktales of the European oral traditions passed on around firepits or spinning wheels. These stories started out full of the macabre, but they have been increasingly bowdlerized over the ages. For instance, in the first edition of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s folklore collections, from 1812, Snow White’s mother wants to devour her lungs and liver, Rapunzel has a “merry time” in the tower and is impregnated by the prince, and Hansel and Gretel’s mother abandons them in the forest. By the seventh and final edition, in 1857, the tales have been sanitized, made child-friendly, and filled with Christian references. And modern-day versions, such as Disney’s lovable tearjerkers, are unrecognizable.

But the atrocities in the original tales have a purpose. According to Maria Tatar, a Harvard University professor of folklore and mythology whose scholarship Salzl admires, fairy tales can be therapeutic. As Tatar explains in The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, gruesome stories can transform trauma and pain. “By entering the world of fantasy and imagination, children and adults secure for themselves a safe space where fears can be confronted, mastered, and banished,” she writes.2

Tatar’s words are key to understanding the horror embedded in Salzl’s artworks—some of them based on harrowing childhood experiences. For instance, when Salzl was in elementary school, her mother joined the Pentecostal Church and forced her daughter to attend services and memorize scriptures. As Salzl watched other parishioners speak in tongues and collapse on the floor filled with God’s spirit, she felt only fear of hell and damnation.

Salzl’s painting Sunday Best draws on her memories of those times. It depicts a two-headed prepubescent girl stopping on her way to church. Her feet are shyly turned in, but she looks directly at the viewer. Dressed in a strapless, cleavage-revealing dress, she holds a bouquet of blood-red flowers. One of her two heads, wide-eyed and postcard-beautiful, is serene. The other explodes with fear and rage. “This painting refers to that time,” says Salzl. “The me sitting as a well-behaved little girl and the me on the inside not fitting in.”

This self-portrait exposes our smiling and composed Facebook persona as a mask for inner fears. Salzl dares to face the murky waters of her psyche, and she challenges viewers to do the same. Civilized society, she believes, “is a thin veil for the base creatures we are.” Wartime atrocities prove how quickly ordered existence can collapse.

According to Salzl, fairy-tale characters fearlessly explore humanity’s darkest sides. She cites the stragglyhaired, hook-nosed hag who devours rosy-cheeked, innocent children as a prime example. As her extensive research has uncovered, this misogynistic archetype has a fascinating history. Widespread witch trials coincided with the coldest phases of the Little Ice Age, which took place from about 1300 to 1850. Before this time, women healers and herbalists were valued and coexisted with Christianity. However, harsh weather patterns, followed by famines and plagues, led to widespread accusations of witchcraft. Around 60,000 people, 80% of them older women, were murdered.

“I can’t help but compare that time to our current reality and how the climate crisis is coinciding with the rise of hatred and misinformation towards trans people and other marginalized groups,” says Salzl. “It feels like a new kind of witch hunt to me.”

Her mixed media and ceramic sculpture, Conjuring Time, subverts the evil witch stereotype as it pays tribute to her trans daughter and all those who are othered, feared, and blamed for society’s ills. It depicts a blueskinned young woman dressed only in flashy pink socks. She kneels on all fours in the centre of a massive tree stump and looks down at the destruction that logging has wreaked. She is a nature witch, but instead of inflicting cruelty and devastation like classic fairy-tale witches, she casts a spell to save humanity from environmental collapse. Her long hair cascades like a life-giving waterfall as a new tree of life rises from her body.

Salz’s concern for all the generations of children facing climate change permeates her art. There are many clues embedded in her artworks. For instance, a deformed frog can be found in the bottom corner of the Purity Ball oil on canvas painting. Other works, inspired by ecofeminist writers such as Donna Haraway, focus entirely on environmental issues.

Salzl’s Tidal Gifts sculpture, immersed in Mulyk’s soundscape set to the slow beat of waves crashing against a shore, depicts a woman arising from a clamshell. She simultaneously evokes Botticelli’s sublime Birth of Venus and the grisly myth of Medusa, whose decapitated head bled and formed red corals and other creatures. Salzl’s Medusa is white, like the dying coral reefs, but she is magically reborn from the same life forms that her blood once created.

Such flashes of hope, whimsy, and magic make the gut-wrenching topics in this show bearable. Like the surrealist artists whose work she admires, Salzl creates art that allows viewers to enter dreamlike worlds and process harsh realities. In this, her work resonates with the all-male artists who founded the surrealist movement in response to the bloodshed, trauma and insanity of World War 1. They saw their art as alchemical magic that activates the subconscious, liberates the mind from rationalism, and ultimately revolutionizes human experience.

Salzl’s more powerful influences, though, are the post-1930s neo-surrealist feminist women artists. Their work flourished long past World War II—a time when many art historians claim the surrealist movement had ended. Salzl sighs with dismay at the way art historians have ignored the efforts of her female predecessors— until now, that is. In the past decade, surrealist women have re-emerged, with shows in major centres such as Chicago’s 2023 Remedios Varo: Science Fictions exhibition, or Fantastic Women held in Frankfurt in 2020. And in 2022, the 59th Venice Biennale, which Salzl attended, celebrated the feminine surreal, with a majority of artworks created by women and non-binary artists in the Milk of Dreams exhibition.

When Salzl entered the room dedicated to Paula Rego (1935–2022), one of over 200 surrealist artists from 58 countries represented, she was moved beyond words. Rego not only draws on fairy tales to illuminate dark psychological spaces but also bases her art on childhood traumas. For example, in the pastel drawing Snow White and Her Stepmother, Rego depicts a stiletto-heeled stepmother assisting her daughter in putting on white underwear. Is she testing for a torn hymen or loss of virginity? Rego offers no answers but the questions this work poses are alarming.

Similarly disturbing scenes also fill Salzl’s art practice, but her aim is never gratuitous. Like her ancient storyteller predecessors, she knows that fearsome emotions expressed around a fire, between the pages of a book, or in the safe space of an exhibition, can lead to acceptance and transformation. Perhaps Carl Jung, one of the fathers of psychiatry, expressed it best. “To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light,”3 he wrote in a 1959 essay on good and evil. Those words echo amidst the enchanted worlds depicted in Salzl’s show. Each of her artworks embraces darkness and points the way to the light.

Endnotes

1 Paula Rego, qtd. in Matos, Carolina: “Paula Rego: Internationally acclaimed Portuguese artist died age 87 – London, UK.” Portuguese American Journal, 8 June 2022. Obituary. <https://portuguese-american-journal.com/paula-rego-internationallyacclaimed-portuguese-artist-died-age-87-london-uk/>

2 Maria Tatar. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales (New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002), xiv.

3 Carl Jung. “Good and Evil in Analytical Psychology.” Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10: Civilization in Transition (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1970), 872.

Agnieszka Matejko is a freelance writer and community-based artist whose practice focuses on youth and children as well as engaging non-arts groups in public art projects. Her installations include Word on the Street, where poetry by inner-city residents was sandblasted onto sidewalks in Edmonton’s McCauley neighbourhood. She regularly writes for Galleries West, among others.

Artist Statement

My work explores connections between the human psyche, shifting identities and ecological collapse through an otherworldly cast of characters in painting, ceramic sculpture and multi media installation.

As societies evolve to cope in a time of both global crisis and unprecedented technological advancements, we stand at a precipice of hopeful potential and possible disaster. How does this uncertainty shape us? My work draws from feminist ecological fabulations, surrealism, Greek mythologies and traditional tales from my white-settler heritage. I am interested in how our private narratives are deeply rooted in ancient folklore and storytelling, interweaving fabled archetypes into painted and sculptural hybrids in order to examine existential realities.

I see the characters I create as psychological portraits that embody our shifting sense of self in exacting times. Their stories are like ours; at times humorous, at times endearingly tragic, and always edged with possibility. Through them I examine my unease towards my role and place in a complicated world, while proposing space for hope and optimism.

Tammy Salzl

Beautiful Parasites

ARTWORK IN THE EXHIBITION

Tammy Salzl

Education

Curriculum Vitae

2014 Concordia University, Montréal, QC. Master of Fine Arts, Painting and Drawing

2000 University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta. Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Select Solo And Two Person Exhibitions

2024 Beautiful Parasites, Vernon Public Art Gallery, BC.

2023 Beautiful Parasites, Art Gallery of St. Albert, AB.

Emerald Queendom (relaunch), Harcourt House Artist Run Centre, Edmonton, Alberta.

2021 Tales From the In Between, Gallery @501, Sherwood Park, Alberta. Solo exhibition.

Emerald Queendom, Harcourt House Artist Run Centre, Edmonton, Alberta.

2019 Broken Walls, White Water Gallery, North Bay, ON.

2019 Unfamiliar Selves, Two person exhibition with Jude Griebel. Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery, AB.

Beauty and Folly, Ottawa School of Art Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario.

2017 Into the Woods, Two Rivers Gallery, Prince George, BC.

VOLTA NY, Invitational Solo Project Art Fair, New York NY, represented by dc3 Art Projects

Unfamiliar Selves, Two person exhibition with Jude Griebel. Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, AB. 2016 simplest of gestures, dc3 Art Projects, Edmonton, AB. tell-tales, Sur la Montagne (SlaM), Berlin, Germany.

Storyland, dc3 Art Projects, Edmonton, AB.

Un/Natural, Gallery 101, Ottawa, Ontario.

Unfamiliar Selves, Two person exhibition with Jude Griebel, Touchstones Gallery, Nelson, BC.

2015 Tammy Salzl, Solo section, dc3 Art Projects. Art Toronto International Art Fair, Toronto, ON.

The Cleansing, CIRCA/POPOP Galerie, Montreal, QC.

2014 simplest of gestures, Warren G. Flowers Gallery, Dawson College, Montreal, QC.

Falling Through the Mirror, Two Person Exhibition. Latitude 53 Gallery, Edmonton, AB.

2013 tell-tales, Union Gallery, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON.

Into the Woods, AKA Gallery, Saskatoon, SK.

Falling Through the Mirror, Two Person Exhibition. FOFA Gallery, Main Space, Montreal, QC.

2010 Prospective Portraits. The New Gallery, +15 Window Project. Calgary, AB.

2009 Entitlement. ODD Gallery. Dawson City, YT.

Inherent Truths. Les Territoires. Montréal, QC.

Select Group Exhibitions

2022 Scrappy. International group exhibition, dc3 Art Projects, Edmonton, AB.

2021 Flux Constant Flux. La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC.

2019 - July 2021 Women X Women, Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition, Program, TREX).

2019 The Dollhouse at the End of the World, La Central Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC.

Salt Spring National Art Prize 2019/20; Finalists’ Exhibition, Salt Spring Island, BC.

Dyscorpia, Enterprise Square Galleries, Edmonton AB.

2019 Le Vrai du Faux, Art Souterrain 2019, Montreal. International Art Festival, QC.

2018 Grow Op 2018, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON.

Dollhouse at the End of the World, IFPP Collective, Ymuno Galerie, Montreal, QCc.

2017 Mythologies, Ann Street Gallery. Newburgh, New York, NY.

2016 Other Spaces. dc3 Art Projects Pop Up exhibition, LA.

2015 The Cleansing, Art Toronto International Art Fair, TO. (Featured Artist Project) exxxvotos: Montreal + Mexico, White Spider Projects, Mexico, DF.

Monstrous? dc3 Art Projects, Edmonton AB.

2014 Ok Ok Ok, an MFA thesis exhibition, Les Ateliers Jean Brillant, Montreal, QC.

2013 Our Families: The Impact of Contemporary Family on Art. dc3 Art Projects, Edmonton, AB.

Papier 13 Contemporary Art Fair of works on paper, Montreal, QC.

2012 Just Draw, dc3 Art Projects, Edmonton, AB.

2011 The Kingston Prize, Canada’s National Portrait Competition. Royal Ontario Museum, TO.

Select Film Festivals

2023 Love & Hope International Film Festival, Barcelona, Spain.

SUBURBINALE Film Fest, Vienna, Austria.

2022 Skiptown Playhouse International Film Festival, Hollywood, LA.

Tennessee International Independant Film Festival, Franklin, Tennessee.

Reelheart International Film Festival, Toronto July 2020 New Filmmakers New York, NY.

2019 Oaxaca Filmfest X; Oaxaca, Mexico.

Edmonton International Film Festival; Edmonton, AB.

AWARDS/ GRANTS

2023 Edmonton Artist Trust Fund Recipient, Edmonton Arts Council, AB.

Explore and Create - Research and Creation, Canada Council for the Arts

Winner Best Experimental Short Film, The North Film Fest, New York, NY.

Winner Best Silent Film, Skiptown Playhouse International Film Festival, Hollywood, LA.

2022 Eldon + Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize: Shortlist recipient

Winner Best Short Film, Reelheart International Film Festival, Toronto, ON.

2020 Creative Reserve Grant, Edmonton Arts Council 2019 Merit Award, Canada Shorts Film Festival

2019 Visual Arts Production Grant. Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Artist Merit Grant, Vermont Studio Center Residency, Johnson VT, USA.

2018 OALA / GROUND Magazine Award for best project, Grow Op 2018.

Travel Grant. Conseil des arts et des lettres, QC.

2015 Production Grant.. Conseil des arts et des lettres, QC.

2013 Travel Grant. Conseil des arts et des lettres, QC.

2011 Honorable Mention. The Kingston Prize, Canada’s National Portrait Competition

2010/11 Dale & Nick Tedeschi Studio Arts Fellowship, Montreal, QC.

2008 Visual Arts Project Grant. Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Artist Residencies

2019 Artist Residency, Vermont Studio Center Residency, Johnson VT, USA.

2018 Artist in Residence, KH Messen International Artist Residency, Ålvik, Norway.

2016 Artist in Residence, I-Park International Artist in Residence, East Haddam, Connecticut, U.S.A.

2013 Exhibition and Residency, SlaM, Sur la Montagne, Berlin, Germany.

2008 Exhibition Creation Residency, 2009. Klondike Institute of Art and Culture, Dawson City, YT. Creative Residency, Visual Arts.The Banff Centre. Banff, AB.

Select Bibliography

Leah Collins, CBC Arts National News, A tiny fairy world was hidden in an Edmonton gallery during lockdown. Now, it’s yours to explore, Jan. 11, 2023

Emily Fitzpatrick, CBC Edmonton News, Fantastical Landscapes Inspired by Edmonton Ravine, Feb. 5, 2023.

Travis Dosser, The Sherwood Park News, New exhibition offers multi-sensory experience. July 23, 2021

Agnieszka Matejko, Galleries West, Emerald Queendom: Salzl’s playful installation addresses adult truths. May 2021

Lana Michelin, Red Deer Advocate, Artists Jude Griebel and Tammy Salzl create psychological portraits, Jul. 5, 2019 INPA 8, Manifest International Painting Annual, pg. 129 Chief Curator Jason Franz

Micheal Turner, Preview Gallery Guide Magazine, Tammy Salzl: Into the Woods

Leah Sandals, Canadian Art, Canadian Artists Out in Force at New York’s Armory Week.

Luc Rinaldi, Toronto Life, Floating French buildings, a self-playing piano and eight other must-see works at Art Toronto

Robert Enright. Border Crossings Magazine, Borderviews Issue 133, Beautiful Parasites, pg. 21, 2015

Céline Escouteloup, NIGHTLIFE.CA, 5 artistes à ne pas manquer pendant l’incontournable foire Papier15

Megan Clark. “The Dark Side of Fairytales” CKUA Radio Network, ArtBeat Feature Story, April 5, 2014

Marcus Miller. “Janet Werner, Melanie Rocan, Tammy Salzl” Bordercrossings Magazine, Crossovers pg. 84-

85, 2013

Margaret Bessai, “Tammy Salzl, Into the Woods”, Galleries West, Preview, Summer 2013

Bart Gazzola. “The Woods are Lovely... Salzl’s exhibit is dark and deep.” Planet S Weekly Magazine, Vol.11 #19

Amanda Edmond. “The Nature of a Child”, Where Magazine, Calgary, May/June 2010, pg. 22

Lance Blomgren. “Artists in Dawson: Tammy Salzl”, The Klondike Sun, Sept. 23, 2009

Select Artist Talks

2023 SSNAP Ceramics Finalist Panel, Moderated by Alexandra Montgomery, BC.

2021 Artist Talk. Gallery @501, Sherwood Park, Alberta.

2019 Artist Talk. Ottawa School of Art, Ottawa, ON.

2017 Panel Discussion: Gender & Identity; Two Rivers Gallery, Prince George, BC. Moderated by Maryna Romanets

2017 Artist Talk, Art Gallery of Grand Prairie, AB.

2016 Visiting Artist Talk. MacEwen University, Edmonton AB.

Artist Talk. Touchstones Nelson Museum, Nelson BC.

2015 Panel Talk, SOLO Salon at Art Toronto, Moderated by Benjamin Bruneau

2013 Dreaming Painting: panel discussion with Janet Werner, Mélanie Rocan, Allyson Glenn. Mendel Art Gallery, SK.

Collections

Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Senvest Collection of New Canadian Art

Private Collections