| At some point during this holiday season, you’re bound to find yourself on the streets of downtown Calgary. It’s worth taking a short walk to the second floor of the Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts to discover a small oasis where a variety of visual treats await you. In the Plus 15 "Window Galleries," you’ll see works by artists selected by Truck, Stride, The New Gallery and the Alberta College of Art and Design’s Marion Nicoll galleries, and by members of the Untitled Arts Society, a non-profit studio co-operative.
The large display cases are mounted in a wide, busy corridor that connects the performing arts centre with both the Glenbow Museum and City Hall. Beyond merely acting as calling cards for the galleries, Tomas Jonsson of The New Gallery sees them as unique exhibition venues with their own challenges and advantages for artists and viewers. "When we look at programming these spaces," he says, "we look for works that address the particular qualities of the space and its walk-by audience."
The first window encountered from the north is Truck Gallery’s, featuring Talking up pointing down, a dramatic arrangement by Tess Macaig that plays with theatricality and exclusion. Black curtains frame her miniature "stage," where she has mounted a strand of large lighted pearls onto wooden panelling, spelling the word "jamboree." In front is a row of three black paper pyramids. Macaig explains that "jamborees are commonly large noisy gatherings for all to enjoy. But this space will only house a few objects. The viewer is on the outside of what is going on in there."
The New Gallery’s choice this month, Montreal artist Jeanie Riddle, disrupts expectations about display and desire. On the floor are small constructions in fake wood. On the back wall, painted a lurid green, are cut-out vinyl shapes covered with clear plastic film.
"I thrive in the process of installing the materials, caring for them, adding surface to surface, painting, stuffing, organizing," says Riddle. Identifying her process as particularly female, perhaps an intentional parody of "women’s work," she displays the results of her ritual of "constantly trying to fix the messiness."
The Marion Nicoll space features new work that may not otherwise be seen outside the art college. Shyra de Souza has installed colourful, intricate objects, with titles like Figurines and Totem. On closer inspection, we see that they are made from plastic bottles decorated with strands of coloured plastic, stir sticks, spoons and gaudy beads. A set of "jewelry" is actually lumps of grey plastic cast off from some industrial process, threaded together with gleaming synthetic string. The exhibit’s proximity to a real museum makes her formal presentation amusing and ironic.
The offering by Stride Gallery, If We Would Listen by Rosemary Brown, most effectively engages the space and the viewer. Using bamboo, bone and sinew, Brown has fashioned skeletal images of raven’s heads that float in the darkened space. Much larger than life-size, but receding in scale away from the viewer, they gently rotate on their invisible threads. According to her statement, the artist is creatively depicting "the space between the worlds of the living and the dead that only ravens and crows are able to cross." Mesmerized by the fragility and beauty of these raven messengers, the viewer is also aware of the pane of glass in which he sees himself and other passersby reflected, like the veil that separates us from what lies beyond.
While these constantly changing exhibits do not attract all viewers who rush by, at the very least they make an interesting diversion from downtown routine, and at best they initiate some dialogue. And if you don’t like what you see, there is always the prospect of finding something fascinating on your next visit. |
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