by John Threlfall | Sep 12, 2013 | Art History & Visual Studies, Events, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing
While the semester has only just begun, we’re already looking at a pretty full agenda of Fine Arts events for the fall. Below you’ll find the September lineup, but be sure to check what’s happening in October, November and December as well.
• The first Visiting Artist talk in the Department of Visual Arts has already come and gone—featuring independent critic and curator Saul Ostrow, also the art editor at large for Bomb Magazine—but they’ll have more great artists coming in once they get names and dates finalized. Also over in Visual Arts, busy professor Paul Walde is curating the out-of-town exhibit Fictive Realities at the Richmond Art Gallery through to November 3. Presenting new work by five artists working in such technologies as interactive digital projection, artware, video mediated sculptural installation, as well as good old fashioned storytelling, this exhibition literally and figuratively projects alternate visions of our reality while drawing attention to the fictions we inhabit in our everyday lives. Participating artists include Michelle Gay, Steve Lyons plus UVic Writing professor Lee Henderson and Visual Arts instructors Doug Jarvis and Peter Morin.
• Also busy off campus is Aventa Ensemble artistic director and School of Music instructor Bill Linwood, who is presenting the world premiere opera Marilyn Forever. Based on aspects of the life of actress Marilyn Monroe, and written by renowned British composer Gavin Bryars with a libretto by local author and poet Marilyn Bowering, Marilyn Forever is set in the passage between life and death, revealing the essence of a life committed to the ideals of beauty and love, in a world without values. While Linwood is conducting the Aventa Ensemble, the production is directed by Canadian stage director Joel Ivany, with Faroe Island’s premiere vocalist Eivør Pálsdóttir performing the role of Marilyn and Thomas Sandberg performing “The Men” in Marilyn’s life.
Marilyn Forever runs 8pm Friday & Saturday, September 13-14 at the McPherson Playhouse. Pre-performance talk at 7pm. Tickets $42.50.
• School of Music faculty member Alexandra Pohran Dawkins is exercising her “Poetic License” in this Faculty Concert, featuring herself on oboe and English horn with guests Jane Hayes (piano) and Catherine Lewis (soprano). She’ll be offering an arrangement of songs by Schumann and Dvořák, as well as newly created work with Department of Theatre professor and local actor Jan Wood. While “poetic license” can be loosely defined as a deviation from convention in order to achieve a desired effect, there is more than one deviation in this concert, says Pohran Dawkins. “In addition to performing music that was intended for the oboe or English horn, I have included pieces that were not originally written for my instruments. An added element is the improvisation based on the poetry of the songs featured in the concert, taking the deviation from convention one step further.”
Poetic License begins at 2:30pm Sunday, September 15, in the Phillip T. Young Recital Hall. Tickets are $13.50 & $17.50.
(Actually, the School of Music has a number of concerts lined up this month, including a guest lecture and pair of performances by visiting artist and world-renowned German trombonist Abbie Conant. Be sure to visit their concert schedule for full details.)
• The long-running Open Word: Readings and Ideas series returns for another season of collaboration between the Department of Writing and Open Space. First up is multi-talented comics artist, illustrator, sculptor and musician Geneviève Castrée, who will return to Victoria to discuss the art of comics with Writing professor and graphic novel whiz Lee Henderson. Her latest book, Susceptible (Drawn & Quarterly) is described as “an autobiographical trans-Canadian exploration of identity.”
Geneviève Castrée speaks at 3pm Tuesday, September 17, in room A150 of the Visual Arts Building (free), and again at 7:30pm on Wednesday, September 18, at Open Space, 510 Fort Street (by donation).
• Guest trombonist Abbie Conant will be visiting the School of Music this month to present on “New dimensions: A trombonist’s journey from suppressed orchestra musician to music theatre”—in fact, she’ll have three events over three days, September 18 – 20 in the Phillip T. Young Recital Hall. Together with her husband—the award-winning composer William Osborne—they have a common goal: to explore new dimensions of performance art and create substantial music theatre and multi-media works. During their visit to UVic, Conant—Professor of Trombone at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen—will perform two works of experimental music theatre composed by Osborne as well as present the free lecture, Alone among men: my relationship with the Munich Philharmonic (8pm Wednesday, September 18 in the Phillip T. Young Recital Hall). Her performance of Music for the End of Time (for trombone, video and quadraphonic electronics) is based on the Book of Revelation (8pm Thursday, September 19, PTY, by donation), while the world premiere of Aletheia (8pm Friday, September 20, PTY, by donation) focuses on an opera singer who can’t bring herself to go out and perform; while the process explores conceptions of artistic authenticity and the relationship of the artist to society, the work alludes to the life of filmmaker, media artist and cultural critic Theresa Duncan, who died by suicide in 2007 at the age of 43.
• Join the Department of Writing and the editorial team of Concrete Garden as they celebrate the launch of the fall issue of this student-created sustainable urban living magazine. Hot off the presses, the Fall 2013 edition features flavourful stories about people finding sustainable food to grow and eat, from BC to Bolivia. Tasty sustainable snacks plus Phillips Beer, a great selection of door prizes and copies of the latest issue equals an event not to be missed.
Concrete Garden launches 7 to 9pm Thursday, September 19 at Cenote Restaurant & Lounge, 768 Yates.
• With a focus on “Contemporaneity Then and Now”, the 9th Annual History in Art Faculty Research Symposium will offer an interdisciplinary lineup of speakers, including Lynda Gammon and Peter Morin (Visual Arts), David Leach (Writing) and Caroline Riedel (UVic Art Collections), in addition to History in Art’s own Erin Campbell, Victoria Wyatt, Anthony Welch, Martin Segger, Catherine Harding and Allan Antliff. The keynote speaker at this day-long event is Orion Lecturer Terry Smith, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History & Theory at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Smith will be speaking on “World-Picturing in Contemporary Art & Culture.”
The History in Art Faculty Research Symposium Contemporaneity Then and Now runs
10:30am-5pm Friday, September 20, in the Cadboro Commons Building. Free & open to the public.
• Also on September 20 is a concert by renowned Canadian pianist Roger Admiral, who will be playing new works at Open Space—including “Pillar of Snails”, a piece by School of Music professor Christopher Butterfield. (Admiral will also be returning in March 2014 to play with the Victoria Symphony.) Hear him at 8pm Friday, September 20, at Open Space, 510 Fort Street. Tickets $10/$15.
• Visual Arts alum & frequent face around campus Jackson 2Bears has been named the 2013/14 Audain Professor of Contemporary Arts of the Pacific Northwest for the Department of Visual Arts, and he’s the next Visiting Artist to speak on September 25 about his work as a Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) multimedia artist. 2bears has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, and is one of nine contemporary artists invited to participate in the forthcoming group exhibit, Ghost Dance: Activism. Resistance. Art. at Toronto’s Ryerson Image Centre.
Visiting Artist Jackson 2bears speaks 8pm Wednesday September 25, in room A162 of the Visual Arts building.
• Up next is the Department of Writing’s Annual Faculty Reading Night. Join permanent Writing faculty and a selection of current Writing graduate students for this zesty annual reading event, featuring Maureen Bradley, Kevin Kerr, David Leach, Tim Lilburn, Lorna Jackson, Joan MacLeod and Lynne Van Luven. Also on deck will be graduate students JoAnn Dionne, Erin Fisher, Connor Gaston and Fiona Mitchell, all hosted by Fine Arts communications honcho John Threlfall. This evening is always guaranteed to enlighten and entertain!
The Annual Writing Faculty Reading Night runs 7-9pm Thursday, September 26 in HSD A240 . . . and it’s free (of course).
• That same night—September 26—also sees the 8th Annual Lafayette Health Awareness Forum, sponsored by the Lafayette String Quartet. This year’s topic is “Aging well: What you can do today!” Guest speakers Dr. Scott M. Hofer and Dr. Stuart MacDonald (both of UVic’s Department of Psychology), plus Dr. Dorothy Williams, Chief of Staff for South Island at VIHA, will look at questions like, do lifestyle factors delay, or even prevent, age-related declines in memory and health? How will aging look in the future? Will recent generations have more health risks than earlier born generations? We know from a number of longitudinal and intervention studies that engagement in physical, mental, and social activities have important influences on cognitive aging and overall health. While physical and cognitive activity, social engagement, and other health behaviours are important factors in maintaining cognitive and physical functioning over the long term, these same factors matter on a daily basis. Being physically active today is related to your cognitive functioning and well-being today. In this sense, aging well is something we can do on a daily basis.
The 8th Annual Lafayette Health Awareness Forum runs 7-9pm on Thursday, September 26, in UVic’s David Lam Auditorium. To reserve a seat, contact lafayettehealth@shaw.ca.
by John Threlfall | Jul 15, 2013 | Art History & Visual Studies, Events, Visual Arts
It’s hard to think of a better way to spend a summer afternoon than taking a tour of UVic’s art collection. Whether exploring the vast amount of art on campus or checking out downtown’s Legacy Art Gallery, the general public is welcome to see what we’ve got on display—for free!
To help you get a feel for which of the 27,000 objects in UVic’s art collections are currently on view, UVAC director Mary Jo Hughes and curator Caroline Riedel have created this new video tour as a sample of artworks available for viewing to all. The video provides a glimpse of what everyone can experience—including mosaics, landscapes, murals, serigraphs and legend poles—on our free, self-guided summertime art tours.
“UVic is an inspirational and invigorating place to be and to visit,” says Hughes. “I invite everyone to discover these hundreds of works of art as well as outdoor sculptures such as the Charles Elliot and Hunt family totems, and more than 400 paintings and sculptures in the library representing a ‘who’s who’ of Pacific Northwest Coast art.”
The Legacy gallery, located at the corner of Yates and Broad streets, was established as part of a bequest by patron of the arts and philanthropist Michael Williams, offers rotating exhibitions throughout the year. UVic also displays pieces in community locations including the Royal Jubilee Hospital and Swans Hotel at the bottom of Pandora. Learn more about the university’s art collections, by visiting their extensive website.
McPherson Library’s Maltwood Print Gallery
On campus, highlights include the Salish Reflections collection of Coast Salish Art in the Cornett Building, original art and archival material in the Maltwood Prints and Drawings Gallery at McPherson Library, as well as contemporary ceramics and student exhibits in the Faculty of Fine Arts buildings. (The Salish Reflections collection now includes QR codes that link the user to details on each piece; this smart-phone barcode technology will soon be extending to more art at UVic as well.) A downloadable PDF self-guided walking tour map of art on campus includes all locations and hours of accessibility.
Glenn Howarth’s painting, “Gun Collector’s Daughter”
And in other Legacy Gallery news, the Times Colonist‘s longstanding visual art columnist Robert Amos recently reviewed the current Legacy exhibit Core Samples. “The carefully chosen and installed exhibit brings a new elegance to the university’s downtown Legacy Gallery,” writes Amos in his July 12 article. “The forthcoming catalogue by curator Caroline Riedel reveals an inside view of this important component of Victoria’s art culture. Best of all, for art historians and art fans alike, this is a visually stimulating show.”
Core Samples offers a retrospective of the teaching faculty of the Department of Visual Arts, circa 1966-1986. Stay tuned for the next phase of this fascinating exhibit, titled Paradox, focusing on current Visual Arts faculty. Paradox runs October 30 to January 12, 2014, and presents the recent work of the department’s teaching artists: Daniel Laskarin, Sandra Meigs, Robert Youds, Vikky Alexander, Lynda Gammon, Jennifer Stillwell, and Paul Walde.
“In the Highest Room” by Sandra Meigs
Each artist will present a selection of work, including pieces seen during the short Congress 2013 Now Art! exhibit this summer. All of the current Visual Arts faculty members are mid-career and senior artists with national and international careers. Each artist will be represented by works characteristic of his or her current practice. All relate to the theme of the paradox, which is implicit in our physical and psychic experience of art.
Finally, UVAC and the Legacy Gallery got a nice shout-out in the Spring 2013 issue of roundUp, the newsletter of the British Columbia Museums Assocation. 
Click on this link and scroll to page 19 to read Emerald Johnstone-Bedell‘s article, “Contemporary Art for All Time.” A curatorial assistant with UVAC, Johnstone-Bedell is a recent History in Art graduate with honours, and will soon be doing her MA at Queen’s University in the fall.
by John Threlfall | May 30, 2013 | Alumni, Art History & Visual Studies, Events, Faculty, Graduate, News, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing
Unrivaled in scope and impact, the annual Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities—known simply as “Congress”—is now (amazingly) in its 82nd year. This flagship event is much more than Canada’s largest gathering of scholars across disciplines. Organized by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Congress brings together academics, researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners to share findings, refine ideas, and build partnerships that will help shape the Canada of tomorrow.
Running June 1 to 8 at UVic this year, Congress will host nearly 70 scholarly association meetings and attract an average of 6,000 attendees over the week. Developed in partnership with a different host university each year, Congress programming is open to attendees, academics and non-academic audiences. From theatre research, literature studies and education to history, sociology and communications, Congress represents a unique showcase of scholarly excellence, creativity, and leadership. The theme for Congress 2013 is @ the edge. (Next year, it will move to Brock University, and will be held at the University of Ottawa in 2015.) For complete details, see this schedule of meetings for Congress 2013.
But while much of the programming if specific to delegates, there are a number of lectures, workshops, entertainment and special events that are open to the campus community and the general public. Be sure to visit the Congress website for complete event details.
Within the Faculty of Fine Arts, various departments are hosting association meetings—such as the Department of Theatre, who are welcoming the Canadian Association of Theatre Researchers/ Association canadienne de la recherche théâtrale conference, and the School of Music, who are hosting the Canadian University Music Society—but there are also a number of our faculty who are involved with various public presentations and events. Here’s a quick list of where you can check out the Fine Arts presence at Congress 2013.
The free gala concert kicking off the Canadian University Music Society conference at the School of Music on Thursday, June 6, at 7:30pm is now open to the public. The concert features performance faculty including Lou Ranger, Eugene Dowling, Michelle Mares, Anne Grimm, Susan Young, Harald Krebs, Arthur Rowe, and members of the Lafayette String Quartet. The program will include Gary Kulesha’s Sonata for Trumpet, Tuba & Piano, Julius Otto Grimm’s Ach, es sitzt mein Lieb und weint & Der Traum, Johannes Brahms’ Es träumte mir & Ständchen, Robert Schumann’s Schön Blümelein & Die Schwalben, Eugene Weigel’s Quartet Search, and Brahms’ Quintet for Piano and Strings.
As well, the CUMS concert at 8pm on Friday, June 7, is also free and now open to the public. This concert will feature School of Music faculty and alumni, performing a program of works by the winners of the CUMS 2013 Student Composition Competition—the School of Music’s own Robert Hansler and University of Alberta student André Mestre. Also on the program are works by Stefen Maier, Daniel Brandes, Tawnie Olson, and Jacques Hétu.
Paul Walde (photo: Times Colonist)
The Now Art faculty exhibit celebrates the contemporary work and wisdom of UVic’s Department of Visual Arts. Featuring the work of Vikky Alexander, Lynda Gammon, Daniel Laskarin, Sandra Meigs, Jennifer Stillwell, Paul Walde and Robert Youds, Now Art is a rare opportunity to see a group exhibit of dynamic contemporary art by some of Canada’s leading contemporary artists.
From sculpture and photography to painting, sound works, light works and drawing, our faculty members exhibit worldwide and are among the top contemporary Canadian artists, with work in the National Gallery of Canada’s permanent collection and representation by some of Canada’s leading galleries. Visitors will also have the opportunity to tour the Visual Arts building. Be sure to read this Times Colonist interview with both Walde and Meigs, and listen to this CBC Radio interview.
Now Art runs 10am to 5pm Saturday, June 1 to Saturday, June 8 throughout the Visual Arts building. There’s also a public reception from 5 to 8pm Wednesday, June 5.
The Department of Theatre is proud to host the annual Canadian Association of Theatre Researchers conference, running from June 1-4. While much of the CATR/ACRT conference is closed, the following free sessions and events are open to the public:
Mary Kerr’s design for Copper Thunderbird
• “A Creator’s Guide to The Unknown” with Marie Clements (9 to 10:30am, Saturday, June 1, in the Phoenix’s Dan George Theatre). An award-winning performer, playwright, director, screenwriter and producer, Marie Clements launches the conference with her keynote address on “A Creator’s Guide to The Unknown”. Her 12 plays, including Copper Thunderbird (featuring a stunning design by Department of Theatre’s own Mary Kerr), Burning Vision, The Edward Curtis Project and The Unnatural and Accidental Women, have been presented on some of the most prestigious Canadian and international stages.
Conrad Alexandrowicz
• “The Poet’s Dream” performance created by assistant Theatre professor Conrad Alexandrowicz (5:45 to 6:45pm Saturday, June 1, in the Phoenix’s Roger Bishop Theatre). Based on the poetry of Lorna Crozier, the much-lauded Canadian poet and recently retired Department of Writing professor, and collaborating with Alexandra Pohran Dawkins, head of woodwinds at UVic’s School of Music, Alexandrowicz has explored poetry as the textual point of departure in the generation of physical theatre. (You can read the backstory to the piece on this earlier blog post.) The poems evoke wonder in the face of life’s creations and grief at their passing. This workshop features recent grads Mollison Farmer, Alex Frankson, Véronique Piercy and Kale Penny, with Chris Mackie and Theatre professor Jan Wood, plus dancers Brandy Baybutt and Jung-Ah Chung, and musicians Keenan Mittag-Degala and Sarah Tradewell, with lighting by current Theatre student Freya Engma. Developed through the generous support of SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council).
• “Embodying This Place: An Eco-Dramatic Experiential Exploration . . . Outdoors” with Bronwyn Preece (4 to 5:30pm Sunday, June 2, in Finnerty Gardens, but meet in the lobby of Phoenix Building). Through drama, poetry and storytelling, this collective experiential workshop will attempt to embody and express UVic’s Finnerty Gardens. The workshop, drawing from the emerging field of Theatre/Performance/Ecology Studies, encourages partner and group participation to explore the garden’s “land/buildingscape” through touch, sound and smell and to consider new ways of interacting with the space. This site-specific workshop will be held outdoors and is open to everyone and all mobility levels. No previous theatre experience required.
• “Step by Step: Walking, Reconciliation & Indigenous Performances of Sovereignty” with Helen Gilbert (9 to 10:30am Monday, June 3, in the Phoenix’s Dan George Theatre). Acclaimed Australian theatre academic Helen Gilbert is recognized internationally for her cross-cultural theatre research. A professor of theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London, she is the co-convener of its interdisciplinary Postcolonial Research Group. She has published widely in theatre and performance as well as in postcolonial studies and has recently co-written a book on orangutans, race and the species boundary. Her primary research is now focused on an interdisciplinary and multinational team-based project examining Indigeneity and Contemporary Performance.
Juliana Saxton
• “Plus ça Change” with Department of Theatre professor emeritus Juliana Saxton (9 to 10:30am Tuesday, June 4, in the Phoenix’s Dan George Theatre). Juliana Saxton is an international master teacher, keynote speaker and co-author of a number of texts, most recently, Applied Drama: A Facilitator’s Handbook for Working in Community (Intellect, 2013). A lifetime in theatre is context for an idiosyncratic overview of “What’s up now?”
There are also a few events beyond Fine Arts where faculty members will be participating.
Lynne Van Luven
• Writing our world: A panel discussion about life writing (2 to 3pm Saturday, June 1 at the Expo Event Space in the McKinnon Building). Join Acting Dean of Fine Arts and Department of Writing professor Lynne Van Luven for a panel discussion about life writing with Aaron Shepard, Andrea Paquette, and Julian Gunn. These writers have covered topics such as mental illness, gender issues, body image, and the traditional role of family, and show how life writing and the personal essay can examine parts of our existence in an immediate and influential way.
• Attention, Poetry, Politics: Poetry Reading (7:30-9pm Tuesday, June 4 in Room 104 of the Fine Arts Building). Enjoy an evening of poetry readings by Department of Writing professor Tim
Lilburn plus fellow poets Jan Zwicky, Sue Sinclair, Warren Heiti and Lucy Alford.
Sam Dunn
• South of Heaven: Religion & Heavy Metal
(7pm Friday, June 7 at Cinecenta, 1 to 6pm
Saturday, June 8 in Room 103 of the Fine Arts Building). A two-day multi-media exploration of the relationship between heavy metal music and religion around the world, South of Heaven kicks off Friday night with a screening of the iconic Canadian documentary Global Metal, followed by a Q&A with director (and UVic Anthropology alumnus) Sam Dunn, hosted by Fine Arts communications honcho John Threlfall. Saturday afternoon, the public is invited to a free symposium by visiting scholars on the relationship of metal to religious movements and religious identity in diverse global contexts. The event finale is a live all-ages concert at Vertigo in the UVic Student Union Building with metal bands from Victoria and the Lower Mainland.
Threlfall will also be emceeing some of the performances on the Celebration Stage in the Quad, which runs from Sunday, June 2, through to Friday, June 7—and all performances are free and open to the public. See the complete schedule here.
Fine Arts will be represented on the stage by the likes of Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane at the Writing @ the Edge event, from 11:45am to 1:45pm on Tuesday, June 4. Hosted by UVic’s own Malahat Review, there will also be readings by Yvonne Blomer, Jeremy Loveday, Arleen Pare and Philip Kevin Paul, plus musical performances by School of Music string students.
Also, School of Music professor emeritus Ian McDougall will be performing on the Celebration Stage from 12:30-1pm on Wednesday, June 5. (Don’t forget to pick up a copy of his $20 Fine Arts benefit CD, The Very Thought of You.) And School of Music instructor Coleen Eccleston will be performing from 1:15 to 1:45pm on Thursday, June 6, followed by Music alum Daniel Lapp and the BC Fiddle Orchestra at 6:30pm.
Finally, History in Art faculty and students are offering the exhibit Creating Con[Text] at downtown’s Legacy Art Gallery (10am to 4pm daily from Wednesday, June 5 to Saturday, June 8 at 630 Yates Street). Creating Con[Text] brings to life the works of art in the UVic’s Michael Williams Bequest Collection through the oral history research of Carolyn Butler Palmer and her graduate students. Dr. Butler Palmer and her students have gathered an extensive array of interviews with people associated with the late businessman and art supporter, Michael Collard Williams, and the artists he collected. Featuring paintings by Angela Grossman, Jack Shadbolt and Emily Carr, the exhibition allows the stories of artists, dealers, and collectors to impart greater meaning to these works of art.
by John Threlfall | May 30, 2013 | Events, Faculty, Research, Visual Arts
It takes a unique artistic vision to guide the development of over 250 student artists, especially in the field of contemporary art. That guiding vision, as seen through the creative lens of seven distinctive artists, will be on view at Now Art, a rare group exhibit by the Department of Visual Arts faculty.
Sculpture by Daniel Laskarin
Vikki Alexander’s “Between Dreaming & Living #4”
Part of both Congress 2013 and UVic’s ongoing 50th Anniversary celebrations, Now Art celebrates the work and wisdom of Vikky Alexander, Lynda Gammon, Daniel Laskarin, Sandra Meigs, Jennifer Stillwell, Paul Walde and Robert Youds. These faculty members exhibit world-wide and are among the top contemporary Canadian artists, with work represented at the National Gallery of Canada, commissions in Vancouver, Toronto and Winnipeg, and many pieces held in well-respected art collections around the globe.
Now Art has received coverage in both this article by the local Times Colonist newspaper, and in this episode of the “State of the Arts” column for CBC Radio’s All Point West.
“Red, 3011 Jackson” (detail), by Sandra Meigs
Now Art will feature sculpture, photography, painting and drawing, plus both sound works and light works. Highlights include a new series of photographs by Vikky Alexander, plus two large-scale panorama paintings by Sandra Meigs, featuring highly chromatic schematic depictions of architectural foundations. The department’s newest members, Paul Walde and Jennifer Stillwell, will also be creating new works specifically for this exhibit.
While a group exhibit by the current Visual Arts faculty may be a rare occurence, all of them have been busy with recent solo exhibitions and participation in other group shows. Department chair Daniel Laskarin, for example, had a career retrospective at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in 2011 and Robert Youds had recent exhibits at both Deluge and Toronto’s Diaz Contemporary. Vikki Alexander‘s photographs were a highlight of the 2012 Nuit Blanche in Toronto, while Jennifer Stillwell was one of 13 artists invited to participate in the WAG’s Winnipeg Now exhibit, and is currently working on a new installation for her former hometown.
A still from Paul Walde’s “The Nature of Silence”
Lynda Gammon‘s work appeared at the 2012 collage exhibition Cut and Paste at Vancouver’s Equinox Project Space, alongside work by Alexander (who also had photographs at the recent _backspace exhibit). Sandra Meigs was on the jury for the 2012 RBC Canadian Painting Competition, and collaborated with School of Music professor Christopher Butterfield on his Contes pour enfants pas sages concert in Toronto. And Paul Walde has been busy on all sorts of projects since joining the faculty in 2012, including some John Cage related field recordings, an exhibition at Museum London, a collaboration with the Royal BC Museum, and a glacier-based piece.
Visitors to Now Art will also have the opportunity to tour the Visual Arts building, as the exhibit will fill the various studios and the Audain Gallery.
Now Art runs June 1 to 8 in UVic’s Visual Arts building. Exhibit is open 10 am to 5 pm daily, with a public reception running 5 to 8 pm on Wednesday, June 5.
by John Threlfall | Jun 5, 2012 | Faculty, Visual Arts
What’s your preference—college or collage? For two of our Visual Arts profs, the emphasis is definitely on the latter.
Both photography professor Vikky Alexander and Lynda Gammon, associate professor of drawing, sculpture and installation, are among the more than 30 Canadian artists selected for the new collage exhibition Cut and Paste at Vancouver’s Equinox Project Space. Equinox describes Cut and Paste as a group show featuring artists “whose processes are connected by an impetus to cut, tear, separate, juxtapose, contradict, assemble and reassemble.”
Alexander and Gammon were both at the June 2 opening event, which Gammon said attracted “many, many people—over 400, I would say.”
Alexander’s work in particular caught the eye of Robin Laurence, visual arts reviewer for veteran Vancouver alt-weekly The Georgia Straight. “Smart and visually engaging works by both Alexander and Van Halm reveal a shared interest in critiquing modernist architecture and design,” writes Laurence in a June 5 article. “Alexander has a gift for digitally combining banal patterns and images, often lifted from wall paper, photomurals, and glossy magazines, to invoke the interface between nature and culture. Her imaginary modernist interiors often look out on impossible landscapes such as icebergs or gigantically enlarged, frozen pine trees.”
As of September 2012, Equinox Project Space will be the new home of Equinox Gallery, which was established back in 1972 and has been a Vancouver institution ever since. (This will be Equinox’s third move, following its original space on Robson Street and its current South Granville location.) Equinox Gallery has long been committed to presenting the work of local and Canadian artists in the context of an international program.
Gammon notes that Equinox’s new home is a former Finning Tractor machine shop at 525 Great Northern Way (between Main Street and Clark Avenue in East Vancouver)‚ which features over 12,000 square feet of exhibition space. “It is a pretty amazing space for showing art,” she says.
Just in case you’re curious, in addition to Gammon and Alexander, the other artists included in Cut and Paste are: Roy Arden, Michael Batty, Raymond Boisjoly, Paul Butler, Sarah Cale, Gathie Falk, Geoffrey Farmer, Charles Gagnon, Peter Gazendam, Rodney Graham, Randy Grskovic, Holger Kalberg, Christopher Kukura, Tiziana La Melia, Lyse Lemieux, Elizabeth McIntosh, Jason McLean, Al McWilliams, Ron Moppett, Office Supplies Incorporated, Toni Onley, Jean Paul Riopelle, Jack Shadbolt, Krisdy Shindler, Gordon Smith, Derek Sullivan, Jonathan Syme, Takao Tanabe, Harold Town, Allison Tweedie, Renée Van Halm, Etienne Zack, and Elizabeth Zvonar.
As the Straight‘s Laurence notes, “the show invites us to examine contemporary uses of what was once a breakthrough medium championed by the early modernists . . . . Given its location, this exhibition also provokes thought about the shifting nature of curation. The strikingly large Equinox Project Space, located on industrial land off Great Northern Way, reminds us that commercial galleries (and sometimes private collectors) are playing an ever greater role in shaping our experience of contemporary art.”
Cut and Paste runs to July 14.
All photos by Lynda Gammon
• The first Visiting Artist talk in the Department of Visual Arts has already come and gone—featuring independent critic and curator Saul Ostrow, also the art editor at large for Bomb Magazine—but they’ll have more great artists coming in once they get names and dates finalized. Also over in Visual Arts, busy professor Paul Walde is curating the out-of-town exhibit Fictive Realities at the Richmond Art Gallery through to November 3. Presenting new work by five artists working in such technologies as interactive digital projection, artware, video mediated sculptural installation, as well as good old fashioned storytelling, this exhibition literally and figuratively projects alternate visions of our reality while drawing attention to the fictions we inhabit in our everyday lives. Participating artists include Michelle Gay, Steve Lyons plus UVic Writing professor Lee Henderson and Visual Arts instructors Doug Jarvis and Peter Morin.
• Also busy off campus is Aventa Ensemble artistic director and School of Music instructor Bill Linwood, who is presenting the world premiere opera Marilyn Forever. Based on aspects of the life of actress Marilyn Monroe, and written by renowned British composer Gavin Bryars with a libretto by local author and poet Marilyn Bowering, Marilyn Forever is set in the passage between life and death, revealing the essence of a life committed to the ideals of beauty and love, in a world without values. While Linwood is conducting the Aventa Ensemble, the production is directed by Canadian stage director Joel Ivany, with Faroe Island’s premiere vocalist Eivør Pálsdóttir performing the role of Marilyn and Thomas Sandberg performing “The Men” in Marilyn’s life.
• School of Music faculty member Alexandra Pohran Dawkins is exercising her “Poetic License” in this Faculty Concert, featuring herself on oboe and English horn with guests Jane Hayes (piano) and Catherine Lewis (soprano). She’ll be offering an arrangement of songs by Schumann and Dvořák, as well as newly created work with Department of Theatre professor and local actor Jan Wood. While “poetic license” can be loosely defined as a deviation from convention in order to achieve a desired effect, there is more than one deviation in this concert, says Pohran Dawkins. “In addition to performing music that was intended for the oboe or English horn, I have included pieces that were not originally written for my instruments. An added element is the improvisation based on the poetry of the songs featured in the concert, taking the deviation from convention one step further.”
• Join the Department of Writing and the editorial team of Concrete Garden as they celebrate the launch of the fall issue of this student-created sustainable urban living magazine. Hot off the presses, the Fall 2013 edition features flavourful stories about people finding sustainable food to grow and eat, from BC to Bolivia. Tasty sustainable snacks plus Phillips Beer, a great selection of door prizes and copies of the latest issue equals an event not to be missed.
• With a focus on “Contemporaneity Then and Now”, the 9th Annual History in Art Faculty Research Symposium will offer an interdisciplinary lineup of speakers, including Lynda Gammon and Peter Morin (Visual Arts), David Leach (Writing) and Caroline Riedel (UVic Art Collections), in addition to History in Art’s own Erin Campbell, Victoria Wyatt, Anthony Welch, Martin Segger, Catherine Harding and Allan Antliff. The keynote speaker at this day-long event is Orion Lecturer Terry Smith, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History & Theory at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Smith will be speaking on “World-Picturing in Contemporary Art & Culture.”
• Visual Arts alum & frequent face around campus Jackson 2Bears has been named the 2013/14 Audain Professor of Contemporary Arts of the Pacific Northwest for the Department of Visual Arts, and he’s the next Visiting Artist to speak on September 25 about his work as a Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) multimedia artist. 2bears has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, and is one of nine contemporary artists invited to participate in the forthcoming group exhibit, Ghost Dance: Activism. Resistance. Art. at Toronto’s Ryerson Image Centre. 
• Up next is the Department of Writing’s Annual Faculty Reading Night. Join permanent Writing faculty and a selection of current Writing graduate students for this zesty annual reading event, featuring Maureen Bradley, Kevin Kerr, David Leach, Tim Lilburn, Lorna Jackson, Joan MacLeod and Lynne Van Luven. Also on deck will be graduate students JoAnn Dionne, Erin Fisher, Connor Gaston and Fiona Mitchell, all hosted by Fine Arts communications honcho John Threlfall. This evening is always guaranteed to enlighten and entertain!
• That same night—September 26—also sees the 8th Annual Lafayette Health Awareness Forum, sponsored by the Lafayette String Quartet. This year’s topic is “Aging well: What you can do today!” Guest speakers Dr. Scott M. Hofer and Dr. Stuart MacDonald (both of UVic’s Department of Psychology), plus Dr. Dorothy Williams, Chief of Staff for South Island at VIHA, will look at questions like, do lifestyle factors delay, or even prevent, age-related declines in memory and health? How will aging look in the future? Will recent generations have more health risks than earlier born generations? We know from a number of longitudinal and intervention studies that engagement in physical, mental, and social activities have important influences on cognitive aging and overall health. While physical and cognitive activity, social engagement, and other health behaviours are important factors in maintaining cognitive and physical functioning over the long term, these same factors matter on a daily basis. Being physically active today is related to your cognitive functioning and well-being today. In this sense, aging well is something we can do on a daily basis.
