Author Archives: jogervai

Young

Young artists make their mark at the Alternator

The work of up and coming art students will be on show at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art from November 4 – 12.

Part of the Intermission series, Young 2016 is a visual reflection of youth undefined by age. It features the work of UBCO Visual Arts students exploring themes of memory, nostalgia, and adolescence. Visitors can expect to see painting, sculpture and photography in this exhibition curated by fellow UBCO students Shayla Ritchie, Victoria Moore and Addison Oberg.

In a unique twist, the foundation for Young 2016 was laid three years ago as an exhibition at the French Cultural Centre designed show off the works of then-freshman UBCO students. Now in their final year of studies at UBCO, some of those same artists will be on show at the Alternator, giving the public an opportunity to see the growth these students have achieved in the past three years of their studies.

This exhibition is co-presented by the UBCO Visual Arts Course Union who act as a liaison between students and the vibrant Okanagan community. The Visual Arts Course Union organizes events such as art markets, artist talks, and the annual Art on the Line gala.

Curatorial Statement
Victoria Moore, Addison Oberg, and Shayla Ritchie

Three years ago, in a Salmon Arm coffee shop, Young was born as idea between two UBCO freshman. Their goal was to merge UBCO’s visual arts program with the growing Kelowna art community. Young was held at the French Cultural Centre where artwork covered the building floor to ceiling. It was astounding to see so many youthful emerging artists take part in such a hugely successful event. The show was well received and gave a taste of the talent that UBCO had to offer.

Young 2016 follows the success of the original event, curated by one of its original instigators along with her peers. This exhibit has evolved past its predecessor into a professional gallery setting with juried submissions. The students of UBCO brought forth a fantastic roster of artwork exploring themes of youth, nostalgia, and innocence. The curators of Young 2016 are honored to bring new works from the talented artists at UBCO into the downtown core of the Kelowna art community.

Young 2016 focuses on youth as concept, free from the constraints of time and age. In the future, the concept of youth presented in this show can only expand and grow, as the artists understand new perceptions of nostalgia and adolescence as they themselves age. Viewers can expect to see new perspectives and valuable expressions of what youth means in the next generation of Young exhibitions.

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Music of the Heavens Prints by Jessica Dennis and Aleksandra Dulic


Music of the Heavens Prints
Prints by Jessica Dennis and Aleksandra Dulic

These 20 prints feature key scenes from the forthcoming multimedia performance concert Music of the Heavens set for November of 2017. Music of the Heavens maps out the stars and tells ancient legends of the constellations in the sky from 3 different cultures. The interest in the stars is shared by many, which explain the movements of the stars with various character myths. The artists have researched the astrological stories in different cultures to explore their similarities and differences, continuing the ancient human desire to seek representations of human characters in the heavenly bodies and to create mythical constellation creatures that relate to our lives from the heavenly world. Music of the Heavens marries ancient myths and philosophies with modern visual language and digital technology. At the same time, it promotes the awareness of both Indigenous, Asian, and Greek influences in contemporary Canadian arts and the shared heritages as well as connections between different cultures.

While Jessica Dennis worked on developing the compositions, Aleksandra Dulic provided artistic and conceptual direction of the Music of the Heaven project and prints showcased here. The stills shown in the gallery are selected scenes from the project’s storyboard, which represent important portions of the overall Music of the Heavens storylines.

The prints are the result of a collaborative effort. Amberley John designed and created the characters and narrative correlating to the constellation of the Big Dipper. The Chinese Weaver Woman and Cowherd compositions (Vega and Altair stars) include drawings by Diane Schnieders and Li Tung. Third, Ardanna Semeschuk and Li Tung drew the constellation characters in the Greek section.

The Bear and 3 Brothers section of autumn is the story of The Big Dipper constellation. It is A Haudenosaunee story of a giant Bear and the three brothers, as Amberley John recalls hearing it being told by her father, Bradley John. This story shares why the leaves change colours in autumn and relates to when the men should be hunting. Bear is visualized as a mechanical monstrosity, a symbol of industrialization which carries the theme of greed and devastation of land into a contemporary context.

The Chinese Weaver Woman and Cowherd section represents summer, and depicts the eternal love story of the Weaver Woman (Vega Star in Lyra constellation) and Cowherd Man (Altair Star in Aquila constellation). In the story, Weaver Woman and Cowherd are two lovers, but because heavenly bodies were forbidden from romantic endeavors, are separated. Every year, birds fill the sky and create a bridge for the two lovers to meet on. This story is the integral story of the Chinese Qixi festival, held on the 7th day of July every year. Drawings of Cowherd Man and the Ox were drawn by Li Tung, and all other drawings in this section were illustrated by Diane Schnieders.

The ancient Greek section represents spring, and touches upon several different star constellation myths and the intersections between them. This section is rich in imagery, since the public is familiar with Greek constellation stories. Featured are several stories, including the story of Andromeda, Pegasus and Perseus and their rescue of Andromeda, the eternal battle between Orion and Scorpio, and the story of Orpheus, the creator of music, protecting sailors from the sirens. The Greek scenes are styled after ancient Greek pottery, with some modern interpretation. Li Tung illustrated the drawings of the sirens, sailors, and boat, and Ardanna Semeschuk designed all other characters and scenery.

For all inquiries please contact Jessica Dennis or Aleksandra Dulic
jessica-dennis@outlook.com
aleksandra.dulic@ubc.ca

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[Re]visions by Laura Widmer

Life can turn on a dime or it can corner slowly, almost imperceptibly, over a course of years before we find ourselves standing in an unfamiliar place and facing a new direction. As individuals we are constantly negotiating and renegotiating our understanding of the world – both around us as well as within us. My work is concerned with these in-between moments, simultaneously endings and beginnings, that hover somewhere between being and becoming.

I have used linocut as a medium for much of this work because it presents an interesting tension, both formally and conceptually, between distance and understanding. The closer you stand to these works, the more abstracted and black-or-white they become; as you move away from the work, the brain is increasingly able to resolve the black-or-white binary into subtle greys.

The work titled “A Simple Poem for Virgina Woolf” presents seven sheets of handmade paper. Each individual sheet of paper contains Canadian poet Bronwen Wallace’s poem of the same title in its entirety. I cut the poem’s words apart and added them to my papermaking vat so that as each sheet of paper was formed, the poem rewrote itself both onto and into the page.

Biography
Laura Widmer earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in printmaking from the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus in Kelowna in 2012. In 2014 she completed a residency at The Banff Centre and returned to a longstanding interest in hand papermaking, which she is now incorporating into her print-based practice.
Laura regularly exhibits her work within Canada and internationally. Awards fro her work include First Prize at the Open Studio National Printmaking awards (Toronto 2010), the Muskat Award at the Boston Printmakers Biennial (Boston, 2011), and most recently, the Anna Eglitis Award for Printmaking at the InkMasters Print Exhibition (Cairns, Australia 2016).

Laura lives and works from her studio in Kelowna, British Columbia.
http://www.laurawidmer.ca
laura@laurawidmer.ca

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Kacie Auffret – recent MFA graduate

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Congratulations Kacie. Kacie has recently defended her thesis for the degree of Master of Fine Art (Visual Art).

“My art presents a critical view of nonhumans and how they are sentient beings that
mourn and also grieve. The inspiration for my thesis came from an across Canada drive that I
took from Kelowna, British Columbia to Windsor, Ontario during which time I saw 140
animals dead on the highway.

The installation entitled (un)spoken uses motion sensors, video, photography, and
mapping to address mourning, grief, “entangled empathy”, and “rewilding” through the
symbolic representation of my journey and the crows that followed me on my way. I see my
installation as an entry point for individuals to start to rethink their relationships with
nonhumans in their daily lives.”

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MAY CLEARY – Jenifer LaFrance MFA Thesis Exhibition

“My research explores intergenerational connections through the creation of spatial
experiences based on photographic documents depicting my grandmother. Having never
met this person, I have no tangible memories attaching me to her: no sounds, no smells,
nor tastes. By reviving archival images, I aim to capture her essence while evoking and
carrying on conversations regarding the past with the present and future. Through the
creation of this work I specifically ask the following questions: can intergenerational
connections be made through the photographs of a passed family member? What lives in
a photograph after a person passes? Can the creation of artistic works be used to form a
better understanding of one’s origins? By reviving my familial photographic history and
reconstructing a possible past through the production of objects, I invite the audience to
reflect on the importance of generational relationships in a time of accelerated
innovation.”

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