Author Archives: samn09

Cultivations: Advanced Painting, Term One

Cultivations is an exhibition of paintings created by students in VISA 312S: Advanced Practice in Painting. Students in this class determined their own subject matter and explored different approaches to scale, space, value and materiality as a method of refining their body of work throughout the semester.

Cultivations includes work by Katya Meehalchan, Sara Richardson, Tin Laam Au (Eunis), Taylor Carpenter, Melissa Clark, Makeena Hartmann, Josie Hillman, Chloe Jenkins, Carly Johnson, Amy Marui, Karina Nardi, Julia Pearson, Christine Wakal and Abigail Wiens.

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Algorithmic – Connor MacKinnon

 

Connor MacKinnon graduated in the Masters of Fine Arts Visual Art programme at the University of Victoria in 2022. He is now a Workshop and Studio Technician for the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBCO.

 

A Gold Pan stoneware 2023

Generating and using algorithms as tools for creation is a curious process. In many ways, they can be deterministic, repetitive, and reduce the creative act by limiting it to solutions allowable within their bounds. In other ways, they can be generative, speak to unimaginable potential, and ignite a deep sense of questioning. The algorithms at work here are simple. They do not make use of A.I. or neural networks. They don’t feed off big data and aren’t hooked up to any endless networks. In reality, they are more like math equations that deal in digital 3D geometry. Each series follows a unique set of steps which translates some piece of data into 3D models ready for production whether that be 3D printing, CNC milling, or other forms of digital fabrication. While the function of these algorithms ranges from imaginative historical reconstructions to explorations of non-human centered design, and object-based evolution, they all produce and demonstrate a range of variability within a defined system. While some of the strangeness and variability are genuinely produced through the action of the algorithm, it is important to understand that it is a very controlled environment that inherently carries the bias of the person who developed it.

Historical Fictions (Lisbon) 3D Printed PLA & composite gold leaf 2021

While their algorithmic nature directly links these works, they are also a part of a larger and longer-term exploration of material culture through the properties, qualities, and attributes that we associate with objects.  In particular, these algorithms examine those object characteristics as variables or parameters. How far can traits be pushed or changed? When does it become a new object or even a new type of object? Like the algorithms themselves, when does a value break the system completely?

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Con•com•i•tance

Con•com•i•tance

 

The fact of existing or occurring together with something else.

 

by Jordan MacDonald, & Nayaab Master

 

Con•com•i•tance: the fact of existing or occurring together with something else, features elevenartists from VISA 482: Advanced Art Practices who work with a variety of, mediums, including drawing, painting; printmaking, sculpture, photography, and new media, to explore themes related to the relationship of interactions that take place alongside one another. Sharing common interests through the exploration of interconnections.

Entering the gallery space, Julia Pearson utilizes a combination of new technologies and printmaking to form an installation that investigates self-identity with overlapping realms of reality. Delainey Vogan uses cyanotypes as a means to reconceptualize the male gaze through a feminine perspective. While Jordan MacDonald’s installation addresses the relationship between fabric and skin as a representation of mental health issues, and the use of natural materials, revealing the many facets of the self. Claire Worrall’s textile art, likewise, confronts her personal mental health struggles by merging objects and garments to build a tale that ties the audience to the piece. Simone King’s textile work explores themes of catharsis and healing while utilizing animal forms t<? portray emotions that are difficult to put into words. Josie Hillman’s interactive performances challenge one’s physical and psychological understandings of social norms by disrupting the underlying societal standards.

The artworks offered by Nayaab Master engages with the process of creation, focusing on themes of intimacy and moments hidden in privacy through the use of mixed media. Moving into the conventional realm of art, Hei Yu Wong’s paintings engage with the concepts surrounding surrealistic illusions via the exploration of elements found within nature. Whereas Chloe Jenkin’s paintings explore themes of place, atmosphere, and individual experience through still images of spaces gathered from film and television. Moving into the natural world, Makeena Hartmann’s graphite drawings on handmade paper elevate native wildflowers to foster the development of a nurturing relationship with nature in the modern world. Lastly, Bella Jiang’s drawings capture and depict the faded-insignificant moments of memories that carry subtle and sensitive emotions.

Con•com•i•tance aims to open conversations around intimacy, discomfort, memory, and self within the natural world; providing a space for reflection on how these themes affect us psychologically and physically. Exploring themes around relationships, body, land, memory and place, the exhibition invites us to reflect on what defines each one of us and our relationships to the ever-changing world around us.

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BECOMING KNOWN

BECOMING KNOWN is a collection of works created by nine BFA and BMS students enrolled in VISA 482: Advanced Art Practices. Because these students are exploring a number of ideas ranging from themes of the natural world to neurodivergence, this show does not have a specific theme or prompt. However, these students have discovered a common interest in the theme of human experience and collective spirit, which you will find in each of these works.

As the exhibition title suggests, these students are emerging artists just beginning to cultivate their artistic practices. This show serves as a small sample of what these students have in store for their year-end exhibition in April. These artists hope that this show will provide visitors with an enthusiasm for what is to come.

Students featured in BECOMING KNOWN: Cakeferdays, Katya Meehalchan, Mariah Miguel-Juan, Ivy Munro, Emily-Jayne May Myatt, Sara Richardson, Angela Wood, Haonan Zhang and Sikun Zhao.

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Soundtracks – 2nd Year Sculpture

 

Soundtracks is a multi-sensory exhibition of artworks by 2nd year Sculpture students made in response to ‘music’, defined in the broadest sense, as a starting point. This eclectic collection of artworks range from sculpture/sound hybrids, participatory ‘noise makers’, an experimental sound chamber, birdsongs, to purely visual works made to evoke memory and requiring the viewer to ‘listen’ to imagined music — all examples of how music resonates as a central theme in contemporary art practice.

 

 

 

Students:

Maddy Bohnet

Chandler Burnett

Ella Cottier

Hailey Gleboff

Mei Henderson

Evan Hildreth

Stephen Ikesaka

Ruth Nfutxila

CJ Ozee

Alicia Phypers

Shelley Sproule

Jian Suniga

Frederik Thacker

Odelle Walthers

Wenjing Wang

Wayne Xie

Instructor:

Renay Egami

 

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Assemblage: MFA Group Show

Assemblage was an exhibition held by the Visa 582/582 MFA graduate student class with instructor Tania Willard.

 

Assemblage takes its starting point from the studio practices of diverging artistic practices but aligns resultant artworks in the gallery in ways that position new dialogues between practices, concepts and materials. From sculptural works that are conceptually driven by the state of women in Iran to; graffiti sentiments, the beauty of photographic archives of daily life, augmented reality that examines ‘bullish markets’, painstaking works informed by Persian miniature painting, the impacts of veteran lives and their families and figurative painting that focuses on our complex mental states, the exhibition positions differently informed works into conversation with one another and an assemblage of our human experience emerges. Assemblage highlights the engaging and dynamic work of graduate students in the MFA program showing a range of practices and emerging dialogues in artistic practice.

 

MFA candidates featured in this exhibition: Bengi Agcal, Herra Khan, Jessie Emilie, Nasim Pirhadi, Troy Teichrib, Victoria Verge and Zev Tiefenbach.

 

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Nasim Pirhadi: Say Her Name #…

Nasim Pirhadi is a current MFA candidate at The University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus.

 

SAY HER NAME

Using pine needles, I built a wall to embody the restrictions the Islamic Republic imposed upon Iranian people.

A wall between Women and Men

A wall between Iran and the free world

A wall between the dispossessed and the privileged

Many people died to cross the wall

Many are in prison because they think there shouldn’t be a wall

Many people inside Iran are trying to connect to the free world by destroying the wall

Many are risking their lives by choosing to live as though there is no wall.

Many Iranian citizens outside of Iran cannot return home because of the wall

Many religious and sexual minorities cannot live safely inside the wall

 

In the video, I am repeatedly smearing my face with and then cleaning it of basil seeds as traditional drum music plays in the background. This music is normally played in zoorkhanehs, traditional gyms that only men are allowed to enter and participate in, and whose name translates to House of Strength. There is an old belief that women are not purified enough to enter these sacred places, and that the inherent corruption of womanhood makes them undeserving of titles like ‘hero’ or ‘champion’. Through the repetitive act of cleaning my face of basil seeds, positioned here to represent Irian womanhood, I am asking: is it enough now? Am I purified enough? Am I eligible now?

In Farsi, the word for basil is ‘Reyhan’, which is also a common female name, so, basil seeds and the gelatinous mass they create upon contact with water are embodying female kinship networks. The way that basil seeds swell twice their size and bond together upon coming into contact with water is representative of the misogynistic fears surrounding the contagious nature of women’s drive for freedom – if one woman is fighting for it, she might ‘infect’ other women around her with the same ideas.

 

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Heraa Khan: Devoured Earth: From floods in Pakistan to forest fires in the Okanagan

From floods in Pakistan to forest fires in the Okanagan the exhibition Devoured Earth explores climate apartheid, colonial history, trade practices and migrations.

 

Heraa Khan is a miniature painter from Lahore, Pakistan. She received her BFA from the National College of Arts Lahore, Pakistan in 2012. Currently, she is an MFA candidate at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. She received the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation award in 2021 and the Ruth Katzman scholarship for the Art Student’s League Residency at Vyt, New York, in 2016. She co-taught the course “Miniature painting and Beyond” at The International Summer Academy of Salzburg, Austria in 2017. She has conducted several workshops on traditional miniature painting including those at Art Student’s League, New York, Satrang Gallery Islamabad and at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Khan has shown both in group shows and solo shows in Pakistan, USA, UK, Europe, Iran and Canada.

 

Statement:

Currently, a third of Pakistan is underwater due to record-breaking flooding. These statistics are shocking, since Pakistan is responsible for 1% of the world’s carbon emissions and yet is the 5th most affected country by climate change. Last year, after moving to Canada, Heraa not only witnessed the flooding in British Columbia, but also the devastating aftermath of forest fires in Kelowna. Having had close encounters with impacts of climate change, Heraa has become deeply vested in understanding the climate crisis that has followed her through her journey from the East to West. In her paintings, she draws upon Pakistan’s and Canada’s similar colonial histories of violence towards land, ecosystems, culture, and traditions.

Heraa’s interest in the use of Indo-Persian miniature painting as a medium, lies not only in reviving an ancient traditional art-form but also because the practice embraces ideas of sustainability, ecological sensitivity and knowledge. Her practice involves borrowing raw material from nature like squirrel hair, bird feathers, tree branches and natural pigments to craft handmade paint brushes, paper and paints. The paint created from these natural pigments is then stored in empty mussels. She uses her hand as a palette and sits on the floor to work which helps her form a connection with earth and her surroundings. The whole process of creating her art requires her to be at one with nature, whether through observation or by creation, much like the indigenous folks that inhabited this land before her.

 

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Do I Know You? Alumni Art Exhibition

Do I Know You? was held in the FINA Gallery from September 19 to 29, 2022 and features fine arts alumni from the Public Art Collection at UBC Okanagan. This exhibition is hosted by the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS) in collaboration with UBC Okanagan Gallery, and alumni UBC as part of Homecoming 2022 at UBC Okanagan.

Do I Know You? explores the concept of a first impression and public personas through eight figurative and portrait artworks by UBC Okanagan fine arts alumni. Viewers are encouraged to examine works spanning photography, painting and drawing and ask themselves the questions: who exactly do you see?

The exhibition includes works of eight Bachelor of Fine Arts alumni including Jenny Long (BFA’03), Cherie Stocken (BFA’06), Christina Knittel (BFA’06), Tia-Maria Soroskie (BFA’03), Cory Dixon (BFA’10), Emily Geen (BFA’12), Hanss Lujan (BFA’12), and Laura Widmer (BFA’12).

 

Laura Widmer (BFA’12)

Christina Knittel (BFA’06)

This exhibition was curated by UBC Okanagan Gallery Curatorial Assistant Ryan Trafananko, and FCCS Communications Specialist Shauna Oddleifson, and is sponsored by alumni UBC.

Jenny Long (BFA’03)

Tia-Maria Soroskie (BFA’03

 

 

In his 1956 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, sociologist Erving Goffman likens our social interactions to a theatre performance. When an individual encounters another person, they will attempt to control or guide the impression that others might make of them by changing their appearance and manner. At the same time, the other person tries to form and obtain information about the individual.

Hanss Lujan (BFA’12) (left) Cherie Stocken (BFA’06) (right)

Emily Geen (BFA’12)

In everyday life, like theatre, we present differently whether we are in public or private and this concept of our inner and outer selves can also be applied to visual art. When we view an artwork we bring to it our attitudes and judgements, trying to obtain information as we would a face to face interaction with another person.

Cory Dixon (BFA’10)

In particular, figurative and portrait works invite us to make impressions and assumptions about who and what we see. When confronted with the human form, whether a body or a face, we imagine who that person in the image is and how we would interact with them. Internally, we wonder who they are, what their name is, how we know them? Yet despite our attempts at gathering information, we can only ascertain so much from the external. Do I Know You? invites the viewer to explore eight figurative and portrait works by UBC Okanagan alumni, asking the question: who exactly do you see?

 

 

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Natasha Harvey: Layered Landscapes

Natasha Harvey is a current MFA candidate at The University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus.

Layered Landscapes: Landscape Art, Politics and Connection

My artwork consists of a series of collaged landscape paintings and linocut prints, which seek to represent and communicate the effects of human interference on the environment while evoking the participatory spirit of love and beauty of nature. I spend time deepening my connection with the land in the Syilx peoples’ unceded territories, walking and connecting through place-based research. Over time, during these walks, I have found the expansion of dwellings, homes pushing up the mountainsides around and over wetlands, impacting wildlife habitat and ecology. Construction cuts into the land. Culture and economy reshape the horizon, thus rendering ‘space’ politically complex. Therefore, achieving the colonial sublime is not a simple image of beauty without erasure. Can my depictions of the landscape illustrate this complexity and thus encourage a conversation about our expanding contribution to the detriment of the land.

I have been considering landscape depiction in Canada. The legacy of the Group of Seven has contributed to the Canadian national identity and art. The most popular and recognizable paintings by this group depict a pristine land, devoid of human evidence. This interpretation and representation of landscape omit industry and human interaction. As an artist, I feel an urgency to try to depict a comprehensive version of landscape art in this time of climate crisis and environmental emergency. My version of landscape depiction illustrates a vista that is manipulated and used for human development. The landscapes illustrate land commodification and colonial capitalism with the intention to encourage discussion about our impact on natural spaces.

My family has a local construction business. We participate in manicuring and manipulating the landscape. Green grass, geometric ponds and infinity pools replace indigenous habitats. My family’s livelihood comes from the commodification and development of the landscape. At the same time, I observe the detrimental construction management and practices happening in the Okanagan and recognize my part in it. My position within the construction industry is difficult. My love for the environment and local landscape has always been sincere however I recognize the paradox.

The collaged landscapes consist of juxtaposing images combined with found materials, photographs and expressive painting techniques. There are moments of tight and linear marks alongside messy and chaotic areas to construct or weave a layered poetic narrative. Collaged layers are built up and create meaning. I intend to illustrate the many contextual layers within a landscape. I use found construction materials that have been salvaged from worksites encroaching and overtaking the forest trails where I walk. The construction materials are juxtaposed with the photographic images of forests and living things I have documented during such walks. The linocut prints depict a forested wild landscape. The trees illustrated no longer exist, in their place, houses have been built or are in the process of construction. The prints are large and detailed. The process is meticulous, it takes time, love and care. Documenting forests that have been clear-cut through the slow process of relief printmaking is like a memorial of sorts.

Building my paintings is laborious. The linocut prints are challenging and time-consuming. It is physical work that mimics the labour involved when constructing a home. The paintings reflect industry with their large scale and overbearing proportion. These constructed landscape paintings are large in scale. It is meant to feel both encompassing and obstructive. A push and pull, as though you could physically enter the landscape however, it may also feel like a barrier. This implied barrier operates as a symbol of the disruptive nature of development and private property

Veneration is created to motivate discussion and awareness concerning our impact on ecology. This discourse could potentially encourage choices of care and contingency towards the environment. Rather than seeing the environment as a resource to be used, love and connection could alter this perception from resource to relative, as we are all elemental.

 

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