Category Archives: FCCS Artwork

Yunhe’uwe nén Ohnékanus – MFA Thesis by Amberley John

Abstract

As a Haudenosaunee artist/researcher, my work and thinking are influenced by community-based, Traditional Indigenous Knowledges (TIK) and my responsibilities as a mother. My objectives are to create artwork expressing survival of land-based identity, ethics and values, (Simpson, 2014), such as seven-generation sustainability. The art produced will create a visual, physical environment and invite viewers to reflect on Water and stories shared in this thesis. I argue that TIK embodied through art can transform how individuals see, value, and develop a relationship with Water. Indigenous art can teach humans to recognize that Water is a human right and more; Water is sentient and has rights independent of humans. Water needs to be understood beyond its current subjugation to capitalism, war, and unceasing domination. (Tamez, 2015) (Syilx Youth Water Group, 2014) (Nielson, 2014) The thesis exhibition consists of a series of 7 art pieces, two large mixed-media paintings and installation. Some reflect the threads of Water in our traditional stories, the centrality of women and embody Haudenosaunee mothering practices transmitting knowledges for future generations, specifically with my children and immediate kinship in mind. In my research I have valued the principles and teachings of Water through many distinct Indigenous Nations’ and Territories.

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Grounding, In Touch / Inland Waters II

MFA Thesis Exhibition, Grounding, In Touch / Inland Waters II by Brittany Reitzel and Sam Neal

Brittany Reitzel is currently an MFA candidate at UBCO whose primary interests are grounding practices, forest bathing and site-specific expanded painting practices. She graduated from Brock University in 2016 with a BFA (Honours). In her current practice she works at the intersection of painting, ceramics and performance. She positions herself as a settler and long-term visitor on unceded Syilx territory, where she is interested in the boundaries of our human bodies in relation to the land. Her work posits a tactile unlearning of settler values and attitudes when working with and on the land.

Grounding, In Touch is a body of work that documents my process of grounding myself through creating site-specific artwork on the unceded traditional lands of the Syilx nation. As a settler I work directly on and with the land to open my body to ‘touch’ and be ‘touched’ by the land and provide a direct translation of the sensations I feel. I create works bare-foot and trade my paint brushes for my hands and other body parts, relating to the mindfulness theory of ‘grounding’, whereby is a process which our bodies “electrically reconnect to the earth when our skin is in direct contact with it”.
Like the permeable boundary of body, the canvas and clay are places of ‘encounter and transformation’. Through clay I am able to explore the softness of material, the absence and presence of the body and the movement from matter to object. The growth and decay of nature and the body’s natural cycles are my inspiration. Using my hands as the primary tool to create, the work reveals the material’s relations to my body and its movements. The hand is exaggerated in my work leaving pinches, mini recesses and fingerprints. With my hand emphasized, connections are made to the process and the resulting final form reveals its own creation.
The work talks to my role in that creation and bears vulnerability to the presence of my own body. It comments on the interface of myself and other natural forms. Prying open raw material as grounds to discover the interwoven relationship between my body and other natural phenomena. Like a flower in bloom the sculptures reveal the gradual opening up between myself, the material and the land. Recording the stages of growth and transformation as I become further attuned to the Okanagan valley.

Sam Neal is currently studying for his MFA in Visual Arts at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus. His most recent work utilizes cyanotype, a photographic process, to create a collaboration between the artist and the environment. He accepted the Graduate Scholarship Award in 2020 and has been a teaching assistant in photography since 2019. He is also a research assistant for Living with Wildfire, a project funded by the New Frontiers in Research Fund. Neal has exhibited most recently at The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art. He also exhibited for the Spring Festival of the Arts 2021, which featured a video installation at the Rotary Centre for the Arts.

Inland Waters II is an exploration of time, place and process. Using cyanotype chemicals, a photographic process discovered in 1842, I brush large pieces of paper that become sensitive to UV light once dry. Each of the works is created in collaboration with a body of water. I have been drawn to how water can appear to change color when light moves across it, how we can see water’s surface and its depths and how it reflects and refracts to create caustics. I carry the sensitized paper to the water and let the water impact or flow over it. The paper is then left to expose and dry at the site in which it is created. The connection between the overlapping of water, light and my engagement with the process explores a performative relationship with nature that can be visualized as a direct mapping of a place.
Inland Waters II features detailed prints that incorporate digital and screen printmaking, alongside the original cyanotypes. The prints depict the reaction between chemicals, water and light on the paper’s surface during the initial contact with water and after it oxidizes in the following days.
Each body of water acts as a potential threat to the land around it through processes such as shoreline erosion, flooding and other forms of environmental degradation. The cyanotypes in this space are left unfixed, and they retain sediment that is carried along with these bodies of water. They are impermanent objects that are susceptible to growth and decay.
Fixing a cyanotype would require me to thoroughly wash the material and let it dry to its final state. By leaving them unfixed, sediment, algae, and other deposits that reacted with the chemicals remain on the paper’s fibre. The sediment and any other organic material can grow, fall off or stay in place. Ultimately, each piece is a living object within an interior space, reflecting its original environment.

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2021 BFA Graduating Exhibition – Up Close from a Distance

Each spring, graduating visual arts students at UBC’s Okanagan campus prepare a final exhibition as they complete their program. This year’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) show, titled Up Close from a Distance, is shared as a virtual exhibition.

The BFA exhibition highlights a wide variety of work created by 18 emerging artists during the course of the year. The collection includes sculpture, performance, installation, painting, drawing and animation.

Adrianna Singleton

Drawing has become a therapeutic ritual to express what I cannot verbally explain. My drawings are raw like the wounds of my mind. They make me want to be as vulnerable as I can and dive into the root of my issues, stripped naked as I try to find the right clothing.

I use canvas that has been torn from a larger cloth with the edges left raw. My process entails hours dedicated to covering my hands in charcoal, dripping paint onto the floor, and immersing myself into what seems like the room from the film, A Beautiful Mind, finding connections from every moment that brought me here. The black lines I paint represent the utter agony of having a mental disorder, and I am often lost in a distorted reality that fills my mind with delusions I cannot unsee. The figures I make feel heavy to move and helplessly stuck in an abyss that is thickened with the lingering of my past.

I work large to let my entire body flow to the rhythm of the piece; my arms tired, covered in materials as if the drawing and I wrestled until both of us were spent. I burn through sketchbooks as they see me through a non-judgmental lens where I can lay down my circling thoughts and put them to rest. I place my figures in a liminal space of uncertainty, trapped inside myself, unsure of my last decision and unsure of my next. I want to change the way I used to turn a blind eye to fragile feelings. I want to be an activist to find peace in chaos.

AJ Salter

“Where Did You Get that Coat?” is a performance project in which I wear an obviously handmade coat and record the conversations that wearing this clothing initiates. The coat is white and blue with hand dyed panels. These contrasting panels attract attention to the coat’s construction and emphasize some of the common features used to custom fit clothing, including gussets, godets, gores, and princess seams. Though common in handmade clothing, these features are often absent in mass-produced fast fashion. When people engage with me on the street and ask “Where Did You Get that Coat?” A conversation ensues. My goal is to educate people on the benefits of basic tailoring, to interest people in sewing, and to help promote higher expectations from fashion.

Amily Wang

Family Portrait is a series of digital watercolor drawings that explores how family violence affects all family members, especially from a child’s perspective.

In my drawings I seek to depict the emotional landscape of family relations and show the individual experiences of each person. For example, in one drawing the mother character is facing a different direction and hiding her emotions while the other family members look ahead. Throughout the series there are various meanings to be found in the background imagery and objects that help to convey my intended narrative. The opening of a classical Chinese screen symbolizes an ‘exit’ to walk away from the family. The pictures behind the little girl represent her understanding of an ideal marriage. Patterns and decorations also have different meanings in my work. The embroidered bamboo patterns symbolize the father’s obstinate personality, and the blooming floral patterns on the young girl’s dress symbolizes her hope for peace within her family. Most importantly, these images portray how children see family violence.

Women’s social status and feminism have become topics of concern. Feminism is not only about national politics but also a symbol of the progress of human civilization. According to a Chinese government official website, 24.7% of women in China have suffered from abuses, beatings, restrictions on personal freedom, economic control, and other forms of family violence throughout their marriage.

In this series, children’s vision has been shown as an important element. That is because if a child is born in a family that experiences violence, they will be at risk of growing up to continue these behaviors or they are more likely to be insecure because of their childhood shadows. This project also reminds people to avoid family violence because children are always watching their parents. This series of drawings also incorporates elements from my childhood memories. It explores the feelings I used to have when violence was a problem in my family.

Amy Hanfstingl

Most people feel a connection with animals, a connection established through their pets or through experiences in nature. This series emphasizes those moments of connection between animals and humans when eye contact is made. By capturing these moments and emphasizing the physicality of the scene through the heightened expression of texture and colour, I aim to create a momentary relationship between viewer and animal.
My inspiration for this series of digital paintings is based on my experiences camping in British Columbia’s fragile wilderness. Through these pieces I emphasize their environment by placing the animals in this simplistic landscape. Through the viewers interpretations, these backgrounds can be viewed as different places. By taking a closer look at these pieces it creates a small moment between the viewer and the piece. Our local wildlife and its preservation is more important now than ever. Through this work I hope to create a momentary shift in the viewer’s train of thought in order to bring their attention to the precious wildlife around them.

Arianne Tubman

My work investigates Canadian gun culture through documentary photography. This series looks at hunters, who make up the largest demographic of gun owners in Canada. By engaging with hunters and documenting their experiences I am attempting to create a holistic portrait of this community. For some, hunting reflects their connection to the land and for others it is a way to provide for their families. Regardless of their motivations, the subjects of these photographs are united in their love for the natural world, and their interest in using guns as a tool of choice.
Canada has a federal gun licensing program run and monitored by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The rules surrounding firearms in Canada regulate who gets to possess guns and outlines the steep penalties for using them irresponsibly. However, regardless of these regulations and the extensive background checks that law-abiding citizens go through to own a gun in Canada, the influence of American media negatively shapes our perception of gun owners as dangerous and violent individuals.
Through these photographs I represent the firearms community in Canada in a way that is honest to their experiences; both the serene and the severe. I hope my work challenges people’s perspectives on firearms and hunting and also creates opportunities for informed discussion about gun use in Canada.

Bronwyn Maddock

Art can be seen as an extension of the artist creating it, whether it be created out of past experiences or what they see for themselves in the future. These works were created out of humour and thinking in terms of the everyday aspects of life. I leaves space for viewers to interpret my paintings and perhaps see themselves reflected in the images and narratives.

The ‘skeleton’ is a reoccurring subject in this series of paintings. Unless you are an expert in anatomy, you won’t be able to tell the gender of the skeletons that are depicted in my work, and that’s the point. At the end of the day, we’re all just a skeleton underneath. You are able to see yourself in the work in whatever way you feel is the best. I chose to paint these everyday aspects of life which will evoke different interpretations by viewers.

I have always been highly influenced by the Baroque period and the techniques that were used when playing with light and space. Rembrandt’s works are the greatest inspiration when it comes to the study of light, colour, measuring the space and creating movement within the composition. Light plays an important role in my work as it sets an interesting mood in each scenario that has been created. I hope these works will encourage viewers to think about their lives, the highs and lows.

Coralee Miller

I am a Syilx (Okanagan) artist who portrays cultural pride through my paintings. I gain inspiration from my family and the oral stories from my community. I explore oral stories as a way of looking deeper into Syilx cultural values and bridging their moral lessons into a modern day understanding. I focus on moments of humour and the importance of humility through the ever boastful and immortal trickster spirit, Senklip (Coyote). What I take from the Coyote stories is the importance of identity, being true to ourselves and remembering that we are all fallible. In Syilx belief, people are part of an interwoven relationship between the land, water, animal, and spirit. I do my best to portray this relationship in my paintings by depicting scenes of connectedness between the natural world and the spiritual.

Dillon Eichhorst

Virtual Distancing is an interactive digital experience commenting on the feelings of anxiety during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The installation is comprised of a dynamic animated projection of particles that track motion using a mounted camera, as well as audio using an external microphone. When interacting with the work, it is my intention for viewers to consider their own experiences with the pandemic and how it has affected their behavior and interactions with society as a whole. I am very interested in how new media can bring a viewer or an audience into a fantastical world physically different from their own, and as an artist, I can harness this to draw parallels with the world we live in.

Faith Wandler

My greatest enjoyment comes from creating pieces in a conceptual manner that also includes the use of craft. I like to focus on my own inner anxiety and repetitive thoughts that end up controlling my daily life in a negative way. The use of ‘journal therapy’ allows for someone to focus on their internal experiences, overbearing thoughts and feelings by putting them into a tangible physical form instead of holding them within and allowing them to have control over one’s wellbeing. I use the idea of journal therapy through the repetition of words or short phrases that are weighing me down and creating significant anxiety in my life. The only way I feel that I can rid these toxic thoughts from my mind is by bringing them out visually. This allows the meddlesome words to be released from my mind and into the work, therefore becoming a tangible piece that viewers can connect with and hopefully relate to their own inner anxieties.

The use of repetition is also very prevalent in my practice, whether it be how I physically make the piece or the visual aesthetics that are being shown. This method of working shows the effects of my generalized anxiety disorder and how repeated thoughts are often weighing me down. However, repetition in my daily routine also gives me great comfort. My artistic process relates to my daily process of dealing with mental illness, and constantly working on my wellbeing is a never ending journey.

Jade Zitko

I find painting remarkable. Colour, line, form, shape, brushwork and liquidity are the painter’s tools, and they are both certain and unpredictable. With these tools I strive to express how I experience the world around me. For there are many interesting materials presented around us. While I often begin a painting by studying a particular object or constructing a model, feelings and emotions are also starting places. Abstraction has the capacity to represent the unique characteristics of an object. Such as the shapes found in the reflection of a glass vase reveals the finer details of its structure. The ability to build up paint makes it possible to convey emotions for they are not something that has just one layer. For instance, representing the calmness I feel sitting outside on a sunny morning. The passion in the process of creating makes for a memorable experience.

Lareina McElroy

The natural world is full of magic moments, even in the most common places. This series of paintings, set in rural Saskatchewan, reimagines my childhood memories and seeks to capture the emotional expression of the prairies and their melancholic skies. There is a hidden beauty in Saskatchewan that is often overlooked. There is also a sense of desolation in the vast fields of crops, thunderstorms, abandoned farm houses and barns. In this place a female figure, whose distant expression suggests contemplation, is accompanied by animals who offer comfort. These are narratives constructed on beauty and desolation in equal parts.

Pip Mamo Dryden

The home is the site of many of the most intimate moments of our lives. As suggested by Gaston Bachelard in his book The Poetics of Space, each area of our home is charged with memories, each room contains a different time. In this piece, I am examining one of the most intimate spaces in my memory: the dining room.

As someone who has suffered from anorexia nervosa from a young age, the dining room is the site of my fears, hatred, anger, and pain. These feelings are shared by many of those affected by eating disorders, insecurities about body image and anxieties brought about by diet culture. The dining room is also the place where families come together. Aside from just holding memories, homes are the sites of our relationships. My work examines the effects of anorexia and mental illness on the family.

At either end of a long, fractured table, two chairs sit, each functioning as a representation of a person. One is made of felted raw wool, shaped from something soft into something hard by the repeated violence of the felting needle. The other is cage-like, made out of chicken wire and barely visible. Between them stretch seven tables, each set with a tableau of tableware bound with thread and beads, rendering the objects unusable. In the center sits a large white cake under a glass dome. Making a cake for one you love is an act of care and celebration, but this cake is inedible, trapped under glass and growing mold. The slow decay of the cake is a marker of the time these two people have spent at this table, and functions as a symbol of their decaying relationship. The stark white colour scheme of this work emphasizes the objects and their materiality. To me, white is representative of the void, of silence, and of frozen things. In this piece, the two figures have been frozen at their dinner table, stuck in a silent, painful standoff.

Reuben Scott

I create large-scale paintings that depict comedic scenes of mundane every-day events. These situations are loosely based on real experiences that were unremarkable, yet they stuck in my memory because they were funny or odd and were worth sharing with the viewer.

My style of painting is influenced by the cartoons that I saw in books and newspapers as a kid. When I was younger, I tried to replicate them and I took cues from how they drew bodies and forms, the humour they use, and the ideas they explore. I combined these elements together into my own personal style. It is my hope that through painting I can elevate these every-day scenarios and the popular art form of cartoons into something that is engaging and could be enjoyed by the gallery patron and the comic book fan equally.

I am specific in how I place these characters in their environments in order to find the hidden resonance that plays out in their every-day turmoil. The participants are experiencing an issue or struggle. The nature and the relative unimportance of these struggles is where the humor lies in the finished painting. In the end I want to isolate and focus on the events that all people experience and reveal the humorous qualities to make art that eases the strife that people experience in their daily lives.

Sage Cannon

Conversion therapy’ is a pseudo-scientific practice that is used to change a person’s gender expression or sexual orientation. Except for some provinces and cities, this harmful practice is legal across Canada. The Canadian government is currently discussing an amendment to the criminal code (Bill C-6) which would make conversion therapy illegal.

Conversion Therapy: Carry It With You is a public performance in which I carry a backpack that is filled with rocks through downtown Kelowna. During the walk I pause to unpack and repack the rocks to give pedestrians space to observe me and to interrupt their routine. The act of unpacking and repacking serves as a reminder to me of how many people conversion therapy has affected. The performance is an hour long as I want to endure a portion of the burden that others have as a way of furthering my understanding. When strangers engage with the work by approaching or talking to me, I hand them a business card with a QR code linked to an audio-recording. The audio includes sections of Bill C-6 combined with an interview from the Human Rights Campaign that inspired my research.

As a lesbian woman I am interested in exploring my community to further understand my identity. After researching the history of LGBTQ+ experiences, I discovered that conversion therapy continues to be practiced across North America, which was surprising as it is not well-known. Although Canada is seen as an accepting country for LGBTQ+ people, the law is simultaneously harming the same community and trying to ‘fix’ them. This performance is a reminder that there is still work that needs to be done to protect LGBTQ+ people, especially youth. With this work I hope to start an open dialogue about conversion therapy.

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Sidney Steven

Breaching Out is a short hand drawn and digital animation that depicts a journey of transformation through the perspective of a whale. I have a close connection with whales from spending time observing these animals on whale watching trips, and because they are mysterious animals. This story depicts a whale’s journey from a dark and lonely place into a place of colour and freedom.

The narration is my own voice and along with the setting, it helps to capture the emotions at the heart of this journey. Growing up, I went through a difficult process of understanding myself. I experienced lonely times on my path to self-love and self-acceptance. My goal in making this animation is to help others understand a snippet of my thoughts and feelings. I was also motivated to create something positive in response to the increase of mental health awareness and loneliness. Nobody truly knows what is going on inside someone else’s mind until that person can say it aloud. I hope that this story brings comfort and helps us all relate to one another.

Stephanie Tennert

Mitochondrial DNA is a separate DNA sequence that exists solely in the mitochondrial organelles. This sequence is only passed down through the mother, creating a long ancestral line that can be traced back for not only generations, but thousands of years. This DNA sequence is what unifies my series of portraits which are all colour coded drawn representations of the matrilineal members of my family.
In this series of illustrations, maps are displayed over each portrait signifying the memories of these spaces being stored away in their psyche. Each portrait is represented with strong colours that relate to the subjects’ personalities and the environment being depicted. I believe that geography can act as a vehicle for exploring memory and how a space can become part of one’s identity.
I chose to centre my work around this as a way to connect to my mother’s Brazilian heritage while exploring my own cultural identity. As a first generation Canadian, I wanted to fit in with the culture that surrounds me, but also at home. This conflict of being caught between different cultures resulted in never learning my mother’s language which left me with feelings of disconnection and exclusion.
Feminism is a cornerstone of my project. It emphasizes the importance of female figures, just as I want to emphasize the women in my family, their stories, and foster the connection with my maternal lineage.

Tiffany Douglas

This series of paintings on log cookies reflect the natural world around me and my spiritual connections to it. This collection of wooden ‘canvases’ are painted with abstract shapes and colour palettes directly influenced by nature’s vibrancy.

A log cookie is a cross section of wood cut from a tree where you can see all the tree’s rings. These were cut and harvested by my brother in law who is a logger. I like to think of this as a collaborative process between a tree, a logger, and an artist. In this body of work, I want to reflect upon the material’s importance by highlighting its patterns and textures through abstract marks and shapes. The various colour schemes in each of the paintings reflect the magic of the natural world.

I am deeply inspired by the changing seasons, local flora and fauna, and the magic within the forest. I had moved back to my hometown, Lundbreck, for a year while creating these pieces and this informed their materiality and process. Because it is a rural location in Alberta, (nestled at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and the Prairies) I was surrounded by so many different types of landscapes that I had grown up seeing.

The colour scheme is pulled from magic that surrounds me within nature and is a way to show the native plants, elements, and animals through abstract marks and shapes. I feel very connected to my spirituality when I explore nature. I found that by creating these pieces, I was able to connect with natural elements and spirituality in a different way than just experiencing these settings firsthand. When making this series I found out more about myself, my spiritual journey, and meditative states by creating with nature.

Tony Yu

Butoh is a form of Japanese dance referred to as the antithesis of western dance traditions. It is predominantly performed utilizing slow movement and can be defined as a dance where one discovers how to use their feet. Butoh does not surpass the human concept nor the ideals of a superhuman apprehension but, it asks us to assimilate ourselves through a different mentality.

My performance takes place outdoors which allows me to relate to my immediate environment and adheres to the Butoh ideology of being one with nature. Through slow and controlled movements, I travel through space and alter my audience’s perception of time. I aim to take them on a journey that encourages self-reflection while immersing ourselves in nature. When the performance starts, I am no longer myself but an anonymous performer who demonstrates expressions of all aspects that can be found in the human body.

I apply a dark and light thematic by employing personal experiences and memories from serving in the Korean military. These images serve as choreography for my movements and are directly transmuted into Butoh dance. These themes fuse together seamlessly in a manner where one cannot exist without the other.

Animations!

This 2D animation introduces core principles and techniques required for the creation of two-dimensional digital animation projects.

The students had to create two main projects for the VISA 266 – 2D Animation course.

The first project was a short abstract animated film, edited on a music of their choice (public domain/creative commons music). The minimum duration was 45 secondes.They had to use only shapes, colours, lines and patterns with no recognizable objects. Students had to associate the image with the mood and tone of the chosen music. The films must feature at least two animation principles seen in class (acceleration/decelaration; perspective in movement; stretch and squash).

The second project was a narrative animated film, with an original soundtrack. The minimum duration was 1minute 30 secondes. It had to contain one character minimum, maximum two, and backgrounds. The creative process included storyboard, animatic, character animation and character design. The film could be in colour or B&W.

Mei Henderson

Saki Irie

Amanda McIvor

Nick Tai

Digital Documentary Production

Documentary films by students in FILM 371

This third year course in Digital Documentary Production introduces students to the theory and practice from the point of view of producer, writer, and director of documentary filmmaking. Students build a foundation of directing, shooting, and editing to create a short-form documentary as their final project for the course.

Normally, students in this course would work in small teams on the pre-production (pitching and proposal writing), production, and editing, however COVID-19 restrictions presented each student with the challenge of making a short documentary all on their own. Students were given the flexibility to work in any mode/model of non-fiction film and were encouraged to take creative risks, and were asked to adhere to the “commonsense assumptions” of documentary as laid out by scholar Bill Nichols; essentially, that the films depict real people (not actors), real events, and the real world. They were shown a wide array of example documentary work throughout the term, including traditional interview-based, observational, or expository films; experimental and hybrid documentaries; and personal, portrait, and essay films.

Sheri Ptolemy

“The First Time I Thought I Was Fat”

A 25-year-old college student reconciles with her disordered eating habits and seeks healing during a pandemic.
“Audience Choice” winner (in class)

Fiona Firby

“COVID-19 and the Music Industry in the Okanagan”

After a full year of adapting to COVID-19 restrictions, businesses and performers in the Okanagan Valley music industry grapple with how each might sink or swim.

Olivia Fang

“Spring Festival”
A year after the outbreak of the COVID 19, how did a Southern Chinese family (in Fujian) celebrate the Chinese New Year in 2021?

Jordan Pike

“Living Spaces”
A gritty and striking visual exploration of abandoned spaces reflects on ideas of home, memory, and ephemerality.

Ayush Pratap

“Blue Hills”
A regular phone call between a mother and son reveals how social connections and interactions have transformed since the pandemic.

Isabel Su

“Arriving with Faith”
A Taiwanese ex-pat’s account of her new frontier as she searches to belong, while having faith her destination will be revealed.

Maura Tamez

“Our Memory”
A navigation of Maura Tamez’s family cultural heritage and matrilineal ways that have traveled across borders from Nde ancestral territory (U.S. Southwest) to Sqilxw lands.

Seen | Unseen by Jacen Dennis

Seen|Unseen

by Jacen Dennis

Artist Statement: Seen|Unseen

Jacen Dennis’ digitally animated and projected artwork links the creative process of animating to creating a meaningful relationship between his gender transition to his sister’s death, of connecting a new body to the past, and a past body to the future. He positions himself as a transmasculine artist who started transitioning shortly before his sister died of an unexpected overdose in late 2018. His work explores the fact that he did not have the opportunity to recontextualize his relationship with his sister and how this impacts the parallel positive experiences in transitioning. Seen|Unseen is the final exhibition for his Masters of Fine Arts thesis at UBC Okanagan.

His artwork, it both nourishes and consumes expresses the joy of authenticity and gender euphoria in gender transition; what is seen on the surface of the body. At the same time, what is unseen, under the skin, touches on gender dysphoria.

The artwork seismic reversal represents gender transition and the sudden familial loss both existing together and existing separate. When viewing seismic reversal as a metaphor, the implied positions of the bodies at the graveside (standing over and buried under) are in opposition. Whether or not the earth is reversed to allow the one buried to stand once again, the implied bodies will never stand at the same time, one will always be horizontal in death.

The works the mark left on the carpet and her grass that grew thereafter contend directly with the sudden loss itself. Making the mark is the last action his sister took, but the animation imbues that horrific symbol with continued life. Her graveside in her grass that grew thereafter allows for exploration of the conflict between what is seen and what is unseen, under the surface.

The imagery for the artworks was derived through a process of active imagination, a process within analytical psychology, and constructed within frameworks of expressive art therapy. These methods have allowed unconscious thoughts to be surfaced through the artwork and facilitate healing through the creation thereof. Jacen’s animations are designed as slow and ambient works, ones that move through time and experience change gradually, reflecting his physical transition and process of grieving.

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Black Harbinger of Spring (2021) by Michaela Bridgemohan

Black Harbinger of Spring (2021)

1 person(s): Make a promise to yourself

2 person(s): Make a promise to each other

Black Harbinger of Spring invites the spectator to the potential of playful encounters with the objects. As visitors share the same space as the work, they will come across moments where they can decide to activate them by bodily stepping into the area(s) or communicate through word or gestures. Inspired by childhood activities like criss-cross apple sauce or cross your fingers, hope to die, Black Harbinger of Spring entrenches these innocent acts through a tension of feeling unease or existing conflicting assumptions. Hoping to shed the old and be rebirthed anew.

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Michaela Bridgemohan is an interdisciplinary Canadian artist of Jamaican and Australian descent. She grew up in Mokinstsis, also known as Calgary, but now resides in Syilx nation, Kelowna, BC. She’s currently an MFA student at the University of British Columbia – Okanagan and has received my BFA (with Distinction) from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2017. Bridgemohan’s artistic research examines Black mixed-race subjectivity and the visual ambiguity surrounding those kinds of bodies. Her work has been exhibited across Canada and Australia, in gallery exhibitions reflecting various intersections of contemporary Blackness and feminism.

“HOMEBODIES”- VISA 312 Advanced Painting Exhibition

We all have had to deal with such a strange year. Nobody could have guessed that we would have to work primarily from home form the end of the last semester in 2020 up until now. Today marks the near exact year anniversary of when the university first closed. There is no clear line that connects these works – all of the artists work within varying sensibilities – yet we have all worked and supported one another through the same experience. As I look at this group of paintings I am struck by how well this outstanding group of students has managed to take an adverse situation and sincerely make the best out of it. Most have been “Homebodies” but certainly none have been “couch potatoes”.

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Tiffany Douglas, 2020, Forest Floor, acrylic on a log cookie slab, 50” diameter.

Layla Schmidt, His and Hers, 2021, oil on wood, 27 x 20”

Layla Schmidt, Bananagrams, 2020, oil on canvas, 39 x 30”

Emmah Farrel, Early Morning on Clovernook Farm, 2020, Oil on Canvas, 20 x 24”

Jade Zitko, Enchanted, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 54 x 48”

Amelia Ford, #lolsad”, 2020, Oil on Canvas, 30 x 30”

Jade Zitko, Charmed, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 35”

Emmah Farrel, New Westminster and Surrey, 2021, Oil on Canvas, 24 x 36”

Shelley Sproule, Sorrento Sunset, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 26 x 48”

Reuben Scott, Community Service, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 48”

Shelley Sproule, Silver Star View, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36”

Abigail Wiens, Winged, 2020, oil on canvas, 20×24”

Elizabeth Huang, Wonderland, 2021, Oil on Wood, 12 x 16”

Bronwyn Maddock, Skull Dude #1001″ 2020, acrylic on canvas, 38 x 38”

Candice Hughes, Shipwrecked, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48”

Reuben Scott, Stranded, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 38 x 40”

Angela Wood, Is there such thing as a pink lemon?, 2020, Oil on Canvas, 20 x 24”

Brett Dopp, Untitled, 2020, acrylic on wood, 24 x 16”

Angela Wood, Just a couple of watermelons on the beach, 2021, Oil on Canvas, 30 x 24”

Amelia Ford, Spiral, 2020, Oil on Canvas, 40 x 24”

Bronwyn Maddock, Till Death Do Us Part, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 38 x 38”

Hana Hamaguchi, Multiply, 2020, Acrylic on wood, 16×14”

Susan Protsack, Pergola, 2020, acrylic on wood, 24 x 18”

Candice Hughes, Cartel Cruise, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 58 x 30”

Hana Hamaguchi, Adrift, 2020, acrylic on Canvas, 29 x 23”

Sara Larsen, Untitled, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 28 x 24”

Abigail Wiens, Venus, 2020, oil on canvas, 24 x 20”

Susan Protsack, Capistrano, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 36” x 36”

Elizabeth Huang, Wonderland, 2020, Oil on Wood, 18 x 14”

Light Up Kelowna – UBCO Graduate student works exhibit

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As part of Light Up Kelowna’s art-dedicated urban screen projection in the Rotary Centre for the Arts window, UBCO graduate students are showcasing their work in this fabulous venue.

The exhibit was developed in the context of Graduate Studio in Visual Arts course that involves the critical analysis and production of independent artwork in various disciplines.

Scott Lebaron Moore’s sisymbrium altissimum, 2021, is a three channel video created on the unceded territories of the Syilx/Secwépemc nations in the North Okanagan. It is a pairing of re-discovered home video with found historical text to contextualize the complexity of being in space and place. Scott is an interdisciplinary artist and Master of Fine Arts candidate at UBCO.

Kaytlyn Barkved’s thesis show Neuroqueer Imaging features select digital drawings from her exploration of the unique emotional and sensory perceptions that Autists experience. Kaytlyn is is a queer disabled digital artist and Master of Arts candidate in the Digital Arts and Humanities theme of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies program at UBCO.

Sam Neal’s Inland Waters, 2021, captures the exploration of time, place and process. Sam collaborates with water bodies in the Okanagan using an early photographic process, cyanotype; a photographic process that utilizes UV light to create cyan-blue prints. He is a multi-disciplinary photographer, artist and Master of Fine Arts candidate at UBCO.

Rylan Broadbent’s #FAKENEWS examines how a recognizable symbol can be transformed across virtual and physical spaces in an attempt to destabilize and subvert the body of meaning. As a multidisciplinary artist and Masters of Fine Arts candidate Rylan examines the nature of symbols and meaning through a physical language of materials and gestures.

Jacen Dennis’ triptych Continuous Breath explores the concepts of gender transition and familial loss through slow looping animation. The imagery is derived from the recent loss of his sister juxtaposed with his own body, and the joy in its transformation. Jacen is a transgender digital media artist and Masters of Fine Arts candidate at UBC Okanagan.

Huiyu Chen’s the Container, 2020, is exploration and examination of self within the transpersonal bodyshell. The series examines the relations of the self to the world to convey how the body can contain an infinity within it. Huiyu is an interdisciplinary artist and Masters of Fine Arts candidate at UBCO.

Natasha Harvey’s mixed media paintings, Okanagan Lake and Kalamalka Lake, are abstracted landscapes and bodies of water of the unceded Syilx Territory. Natasha’s Masters of Fine Arts thesis art work evokes an emotional connection to the beauty of the Okanagan Valley through poetic juxtaposition and layered metaphor.

Brittany Reitzel’s X, is a land based, site specific performance piece created on unceded Syilx territory near Kalamalka Lake. It is a documentation of reattuning the settler body to the land through the intermediary of clay. As a Master of Fine Arts candidate at UBCO, Brittany works in an expanded field of painting and sculpture.

Yujie Gao‘s media artwork Individuals is about the interdependency between individuals and the constantly chaotic universe. The work is a collaboration with electronic music duo Frankfurt Helmet. With sharing experience of living in Wuhan, China for many years between the collaborators, the work was created in 2020, shortly before COVID 19 lockdown was lifted in Wuhan. The work is dedicated to every individual who’s rights and freedoms were infringed during this period. Yujie is a Ph.D. student in the Digital Arts and Humanities theme of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies program at UBCO.

Light Up Kelowna is made possible with a partnership between FCCS, the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan and the Rotary Centre for the Arts.

Skin Hunger

Skin Hunger features works from UBCO’s Bachelor of Fine Arts students, Masters students, and faculty members, displaying works focusing on the theme of our need for touch and the impact that social distancing is having on our “Skin Hunger”. This exhibition is a project for a curating course by Stacey Koosel, instructor at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. It allows students to hone their skills into curating their very own exhibition and an opportunity to broadcast their talents.

All the artists are members of the UBCO artistic community, with students from UBCO’s Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts, as well as faculty members.

Jordan Doody, Briar Craig, Brittany Reizel, Avery Ullyot-Comrie, Hana Hamaguchi, Pip Dryden, Ashley Desjarlais, Bethany Hiebert, Arianna Tooke, and Jordan MacDonald.

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