Upcoming Exhibitions
“Awkward and Atrocious”: Photographs by Diana Thorneycroft
Curated by Diana Nemiroff
10 May – 01 August 2010
Photographer Diana Thorneycroft continues to hold Canadian history up to her lens in this exhibition. In addition to her humorous reinterpretations of iconic paintings by the Group of Seven in her series Group of Seven Awkward Moments, she will present a number of works in a darker vein from a new series titled “Canadian Moments.”
In Group of Seven Awkward Moments, Thorneycroft uses reproductions of the earlier painters’ iconic northern landscapes as backdrops to the dioramas she photographs, combining them with scenes of accidents, disasters, and bad weather that gives the images their edge. If the resulting photographs are imbued with a slightly twisted sense of humour that resonates with audiences, the moments she captures in the new work are more atrocious than awkward. They encompass many of the blacker episodes of recent history, including the horrors that took place in First Nations residential schools and orphanages like Mount Cashel, Newfoundland, and speak of atrocities that eradicate all humour.
Whether awkward or atrocious, Thorneycroft’s photographs focus on the mythologized view of Canada as a nation of vast, unspoiled natural splendour, a country that views itself, and is viewed by others, as inherently good and reasonable. One of her goals in these two series is to challenge these myths.
Frank Shebageget: Light Industry
Curated by Sandra Dyck
10 May – 01 August 2010
The Ottawa-based Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) artist Frank Shebageget was born and raised in Upsala, in northwestern Ontario. Although he no longer lives in the area, he continues to draw inspiration from its landscape, which he calls home. Shebageget never depicts the landscape itself, choosing instead to explore humans’ impact upon it in the specific context of what he describes as “colonial influence disguised as progress.”
Shebageget’s multi-faceted artistic practice is modernist to the core, characterized as it is by repetition, structure, rigour and the simplification of form. He has addressed the “opening up” of Canada’s North with elegant squadrons of models of the de Havilland Beaver floatplane. He has made minimalist prints and drawings based on government blueprints of the “typical Indian house” and used ordinary millboard to craft prototypes of the one he grew up in. On large sheets of black tar paper, the kind used to roof the houses of his childhood, he has written in orderly columns the names of all the reserves created in Canada by virtue of the Indian Act.
In Light Industry, Shebageget will present Lodge, an installation of Beaver planes piled to resemble a dam-like structure. In another work (now in progress) comprised of suspended fishing nets, he’ll explore the form and concept of the grid and its relation to Aboriginal cultural traditions such as beadwork design, quill work and basketry, and handmade fishing nets.
A Leap of Imagination: The Barwick Gift
Curated by Sandra Dyck
10 May – 01 August 2010
Frances Barwick, a professional harpsichordist, and her husband Jack, a concert agent, were active members of Ottawa’s cultural scene in the 1960s. Mrs. Barwick took a particular interest in Carleton’s music department and in the university as a whole: as she said in 1970, “We watched it start, and were delighted by its progress.” She decided that upon her death, Carleton would receive most of her husband’s estate (he had died in 1964) and eventually, their art collection. Without the Barwicks’ remarkable financial bequest, Carleton University Art Gallery would not exist.
When the Barwicks’ collection came to Carleton in the mid-1980s, however, the University owned just 350 works of art and its gallery would not open until 1992. A Leap of Imagination celebrates the Barwicks’ faith in and generosity to Carleton. It presents a selection from their collection of early- and mid-twentieth century Canadian art, which includes artists Will Ogilvie, Emily Carr, Louis Muhlstock, and Kenojuak Ashevak. It also features signature works by such Group of Seven members as Arthur Lismer, Fred Varley, A.Y. Jackson, and L.L. FitzGerald. The core of the gift remains 16 paintings and works on paper – landscapes, still lifes, and architectural views – by the extraordinary David Milne.
In the Hands of Women: Inuit Uluiit and Qulliit
10 May – 01 August 2010
An ulu is an Inuit woman’s crescent-shaped, multipurpose knife. The qulliq is the tradition Inuit oil lamp. These objects are the tools of women, who have used them to provide for their families for hundreds of years. In the Hands of Women explores their representation by artists of the past and present.
A powerful sign of prosperity, security and home, the flames of the qulliq provided warmth, light, water, and dry clothing. An ulu is used to divide and clean meat, to clean and sew skins, and to make clothing, bedding and blankets. The knives symbolize sharing, collaboration and interdependence, which are important Inuit values. Uluiit and qulliit also reveal patterns of use, trading relationships and traditions of production that provide valuable cultural information.
In the Hands of Women presents historic examples of uluiit and qulliit from the collections of the Carleton University Art Gallery and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Contemporary works include David Ruben Piqtoukun’s Sharing the Good Food (1999), an evocative sculpture of the ulu as a symbol of generosity and hospitality. A print by Napachie Pootoogook demonstrates the importance of the ulu in transmitting cultural knowledge across generations. In her 1969 print The Two Sisters, Agnes Nanogak presents the qulliq as an emblem of home.
