First week back at school and the fall events are already up and running!
First off the mark is Visual Arts instructor Tara Nicholson, whose exhibit of photography Somewhere Beyond Nowhere opens September 7 and runs through to October 6 at Deluge Contemporary Art, 636 Yates.
Tara Nicholson’s Tyvek House, Salmon Beach
A photo-based artist whose work revolves around myths of Canadian wilderness, the BC-born Nicholson weaves visual narratives between the psychological and physical presence of northern territories. Visiting remote landscapes and communities, she has created several bodies of work probing Canada’s underlying historical and present day narratives associated to its isolated landmasses. She uses photography, sound installation, painting and writing to reflect on her fascination with utopian landscapes, secret hideouts and her desire to create proof of the existence of wilderness. Her images hover between reality and fiction representing imagined landscapes and invented states of being.
Next up is Department of Writing alumni and noted author Richard Van Camp, who is returning to campus for a special event to help celebrate UVic’s Indigenous Week of Welcome. While the Week of Welcome includes a number of events and activities, Van Camp will be joined by City of Victoria poet laureate Janet Rogers for a special lunchtime storytelling gathering, 11am to 2pm Tuesday, September 11, in First Peoples House. All are welcome to join in what promises to be a memorable experience.
Van Camp is a member of the Dogrib (Tlicho) Nation from Fort Smith, NWT who currently teaches creative writing for aboriginal students at UBC. He’s written poems, short stories, novellas, children’s books and novels, has written for radio, television and film, have been published in anthologies and journals since 1992; he’s also the writer-in-residence for their CBC Radio One’s weekend show, North by Northwest.
Looking for some cheesy fun? Don’t miss the annual Fine Arts PizzaQ. Yes, it’s time once again for the ancient and time-honoured annual celebration of the grease wheel, where Fine Arts faculty and staff done their ritual aprons and take up the sacred spatula to serve pizza to their students. It’s great tasting event that’s all in good taste, of course.
Grab your napkin and head into the Fine Arts courtyard from 4:30-6 pm Wednesday, September 12, to get a slice of the action. (If it’s raining, we’ll be in the atrium of the Visual Arts building.)
Then once you’ve had dinner, stick around for the first Visiting Artist Lecture Series of the fall that same day. The season kicks off with multidisciplinary artist Doug Buis. A BFA graduate of UVic’s Visual Arts department, the globe-trotting Buis has lived and exhibited across Canada and the US, has had shows in Holland, Belgium and Korea, and has curated exhibitions in Europe, Montreal, Los Angeles and Saskatoon.
OK Hover by Doug Buis
After residing in Montreal for 18 years, he relocated to Long Beach, California, where he taught at Long Beach State University, and then to Kamloops, where he is currently an associate professor teaching sculpture, intermedia and digital media at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, Buis’ work focuses on the malleable perception of landscape, examined through dioramas, installation, site specific projects, hand crafted VR, mechanical apparatus, photography, video and writing. His Visiting Artist talk begins at 8pm Wednesday, September 12, in room A162 of the Visual Arts building. (We’ll let you know about the full Visiting Artist lineup for the fall shortly.)
An earlier work by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Also over in the Visual Arts department is the much-anticipated opening of the exhibit of new work by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas. So new is this piece by last year’s Audain Professor in Contemporary Art Practice of the Pacific Northwest that very little information was available in advance—only that it will be a historic hull from the days when industry was first introduced to fisheries, made from white gold, copper and fiberglass. It will be on view in the Audain Gallery in the Department of Visual Arts from Thursday, September 13 through to October 8.
As with inaugural Audain professor Rebecca Belmore’s installation “Liberty” last fall, Yahgulanaas will complete his teaching term with this exhibit. The opening reception begins at 5pm September 13 in the Visual Arts Building, where incoming 2012-13 Audain professor Nicholas Galanin—an internationally acclaimed Tlingit/Aleut artist based in Alaska—will also be officially welcomed.
And that’s all just in the first week of classes! There are many more events coming down the pipe in late September—including the School of Music’s Steinway fundraiser, the annual History in Art Faculty Research Symposium and a full rage of Fine Arts events for Homecoming weekend—so stay tuned and click back often for updated information.