Events from February 23, 2021

• Barbara Goretzky: Diggers
  
  - Presenter: La Ronge Arts Council
  - Location: Mistasinihk Place
  

  
  Diggers showcases humankind’s obsession with altering our habitat for ease of mobility, pleasure, and comfort. Goretzky has a fascination with the heavy-duty equipment that was used in the transformation of Wascana Lake in Regina. The sheer size of the equipment and the magnitude of the project was impressive to the artist; the removal of 1.3 million cubic metres of mud, at a cost of $18 million, was an interesting concept. As a species, we have created machinery specially designed for executing construction tasks like earth moving operations. Although, we are transforming the earth for our own particular tastes, nature is ever present. Nature shows itself as a small plant pushing its way between the cracks in a sidewalk or a jack rabbit bolting across an asphalt parking lot. Nature is ever present and waiting to burst forth and reclaim the world. We walk a thin line with our obsession of transformation and conservation of the natural world which surrounds us. Goretzky hopes that the viewer leaves with a sense of their actions and how we end up reshaping the world.
• Donna Langhorne: Common Truths
  
  - Presenter: Shaunavon Arts Council
  - Location: Grand Coteau Heritage and Cultural Centre
  

  
  "Common Truths continues my work of examining how challenges facing Indigenous people today can be identified and addressed artistically with reference to traditional teachings and concepts. Since 2015 I have been specializing in the use of the Woodlands style innovated by renowned Anishinaabe painter Norval Morrisseau. This was at the encouragement of recognized elders and practitioners in the Woodlands movement. As a member of Fishing Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan [Plains Ojibway], my ancestral roots are Anishinaabe. I have been drawn to this movement and my voice is wholly authentic and endorsed by this community of artists. This has served as a calling for me, and has proven to be immensely fulfilling artistically.
  
  Because the lived experiences of Indigenous Peoples under colonial dominance represent a set of Common Truths, this project looks to another shared manifestation within Indigenous cultures to confront them: the organization of social structure and roles as represented by the clan system and the totems. For purposes of this project I use the corresponding Anishinaabe/Ojibway term doodem. [The works and titles] outline the connections I am making between the five classes within Anishinaabe clan structure [using four representative doodem per class] in order to confront 20 common truths impacting Indigenous people. References drawn from the TRC, the media, and/or the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, are included for each of the 20 Common Truths."
  -Donna Langhorne
• Family Ties
  
  - Presenter: Indian Head Theatre and Community Arts Inc.
  - Location: Grand Theatre
  

  
  Belinda Harrow, Jennifer McRorie, Elizabeth Munro, Wendy Winter
  
  Toured through OSAC’s Arts on the Move program, curated by Zoë Schneider.
  
  Family Ties explores familial bonds through the medium of embroidery. Halifax based artist Elizabeth Munro creates embroidered and surface manipulated non-objective ‘portraits’ of her parents that include audio elements to convey impressions of her parents from childhood; providing a nuanced concept of a portrait filtered through the subjective experience of one person’s memory. Regina based artist Belinda Harrow reproduces photographs of her maternal grandmother at different ages into embroideries. Floating within the outlines of the human figure are colourful depictions of animals. The outlines of the humans are black thread on a cream felt background while the animals are vibrantly hued. Moose Jaw based artist Jennifer McRorie reimagines her daughters’ drawings in ‘whitework’; a type of embroidery where the colour of embroidery threads are the same colour as the fabric on which they are embroidered. McRorie states that "I was compelled to make this series of work as I wanted to honour my daughter, who was born with a genetic disorder, to recognize her voice, abilities and creativity. I love her drawings, her wonderful expression of line and so by embroidering her drawings, I’m acknowledging that even though she is marked by her genetics or biology, she will make her own mark, hence the title of the series." Wendy Winter is a Regina based artist that uses embroidery on vintage and upcycled fabrics to interpret her daily life and personal philosophy. The artists in this exhibition use embroidery in different ways to consider the complexities of the bonds with our families.
• Geoff Phillips: Plantscapes of the Prairies
  
  - Presenter: Melfort Arts Council
  - Location: Sherven-Smith Art Gallery
  

  
  Phillips created Plantscapes of the Prairies to challenge people to look closer at their environment, to see it in new ways, to challenge himself to learn about the different species found in our South Western Saskatchewan landscape, and to illustrate a new world of plant life underfoot. Many people rarely envision the species we walk on as having any artistic merit, interest, or importance. There are myriads of colour, form, and interconnection there for the observant in the Grasslands National Park, Cypress Hills Centre Block, Cypress Hills West Block, and the Frenchman River Valley that inspired Phillips’ work. The parks seemed very important in keeping rare species of plants and preserving the natural grasslands and forest ecosystems. Without these parks there would not be any natural land to explore as an artist, but the real cost is on the ecosystems and animals they sustain.
  
  Phillips’ process includes driving to locations in South Western Saskatchewan, mountain biking with rolled canvas in his knapsack, finding a section of land, unrolling the primed canvas on the ground, paint-sketching the scene/plants, and rolling it back up to stretch and paint in oils later in his studio. He takes many close-up photographs of the various elements and plants found within the scene. Some photos are chosen for reference and printing. These photos along with the paint sketch and the artists memory/experience of the land inform the painting process. Without that one-on-one with the land the painting has no life.
• I do not have my words
  
  - Presenter: Prince Albert Council for the Arts
  - Location: John V. Hicks Gallery at the Prince Albert Arts Centre
  

  
  Curated and organized by the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery with funding assistance from the City of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan Arts Board, SaskCulture, Saskatchewan Lotteries, and the Canada Council for the Arts. The exhibition, I do not have my words, features printmaking, photography, sculpture and beaded, mixed media works by Indigenous, Saskatchewan artists, Joi Arcand, Catherine Blackburn and Audrey Dreaver. Each artist’s body of works explore language loss and considers how language is connected to one’s cultural identity.
  
  Joi Arcand explores the interruption of intergenerational language-learning, as a result of the residential school system and other colonial attempts to remove Indigenous culture, through the revitalization of the Cree language. Emphasizing the discontinuation of the language within Arcand’s own family by rendering it hyper-visible in location and material, the work further questions how the public presence of language is connected to acknowledging Indigenous peoples. Catherine Blackburn’s art practice is informed by her Dene and European ancestry, considering Canada's colonial past through her personal relationships and life experiences. The pieces in, I do not have my words, use media, traditional materials, like beading, and artistic processes that connect to the various themes and histories Blackburn explores in the work, including the Dene language. Audrey Dreaver’s prints document her research into her family’s history of Cree language loss and consider how this loss has impacted her cultural identity as a Cree woman. In this exploration, Dreaver poses questions: How did my family come to lose our language? Is your language who you are? Does my inability to speak my language mean that I am less Cree? The artist invites viewers to engage in her exploration and consider if language loss affects identity by breaking continuity with one’s past and culture.
• Miriam Körner with Bernice Johnson-Laxdal: When the Trees Crackle with Cold: pîsimwasinahikan
  
  - Presenter: Nipawin Art Club
  - Location: Central Park Library/Arts Centre
  

  
  Miriam Korner and Bernice Johnson-Laxdal have collaborated to bring us a series of watercolour paintings depicting the Cree moon calendar through Johnson-Laxdal’s childhood memories. The original paintings that were printed in a children’s book of the same title make up this fascinating exhibition.
  
  Bernice Johnson-Laxdal grew up in a family of thirteen siblings in Ile-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan’s second oldest community. Miriam Korner grew up in the bustling city life of Germany.
  
  Miriam fell in love with northern Saskatchewan fourteen years ago during a dog sled race that led across wind-swept Bigstone Lake. Little did she know then that the unforgiving vast wilderness of northern Saskatchewan would become her intimately known backyard or Bernice her neighbour.
  
  Bernice, showed Miriam the traditional Cree moon calendar and told her stories of her family’s traditional activities. Although Bernice and Miriam grew up worlds apart they found a connection through their understanding of nature and a deep respect for the people whose life-style followed the natural cycle of nature.
  
  This exhibition celebrates northern Saskatchewan and its people. It is an homage to a unique place, where we can all learn important lessons about respect for the land and each other and move towards a common understanding of northern Saskatchewan’s history and our place within it. Growing up in Germany Miriam felt disconnected to the natural world. Now, living in northern Saskatchewan helps her to find the lost connection. She is still learning.
• Sylvia Ziemann: Accidental Utopia
  
  - Presenter: Melville Arts Council
  - Location: Gallery Works and The Third Dimension
  

  
  Curated by Lauren Fournier and toured thorugh OSAC's Arts on the Move program.
  
  Sylvia Ziemann: Accidental Utopia is a monographic exhibition of new paintings by Treaty 4/Regina-based artist Sylvia Ziemann. In the world of Accidental Utopia, Ziemann paints a menagerie of fantastical characters- figures that are playful combinations of human, animal, insect, and plant- welcoming us into an imaginative realm. In this world, everything and everyone has its place. The artist affirms a philosophy of simplicity that is restorative, particularly in a contemporary context of pervasive social media and the often troubling news on tv. Ziemann has long explored the tension between dystopia and utopia in her art, and with Accidental Utopia she paints the unexpected moments of utopia that emerge when folks come together in the wake of a disaster. Physical, emotional, and intellectual labour are at the heart of Accidental Utopia, where creatures come together across difference to build community. In Ziemann’s Rabbits, for example, an orange rabbit and a white rabbit each hold an end of a lumberjack saw: wearing professorial-looking eye glasses, the rabbits embody both the working-class labourer and the bookish intellectual, revealing the two to not only be compatible but, in this world, coexistent. Working with oil and acrylic on wood, canvas, and board, Ziemann has made twenty-three paintings, bringing visions of community, collective world-making, and inner reflection to rural and urban communities around the province.