>>PREVIEW
McINTYRE RANCH PROJECT
Illingworth Kerr Gallery
(Alberta College of Art & Design)
Active for more than 100 years, in recent times the McIntyre Ranch has been closely linked with artists. They travel there to learn more about the mystique that surrounds this 22,000-hectare parcel of land, located approximately 60 kilometres east of Cardston near Magrath, Alberta.
Established in 1894 by William H. McIntyre Sr., the ranch is known for its sweeping grasslands and massive rock formations. Thankfully, in Southern Alberta there is a dedicated – some say stubborn – group of ranchers who are determined to forgo quick cash for their land, ignoring offers to subdivide it for housing and industrial developments. The McIntyre Ranch, now owned by the Thrall family, is included in this dwindling and precious group.
Artists, mostly from Alberta, have visited the ranch to become immersed in the type of pristine scenery that’s quickly disappearing from the West. The first McIntyre Ranch Project occurred in 1991, partly organized by David Durrant, the co-curator of the current exhibition.
Always in search of the "real" Alberta, another group of artists (and a CBC producer) visited the ranch in the summer of 2004. The result is an exhibition of works that range from photographs and paintings, to conceptual installations and a television documentary.
Included in this collection are three pieces from guest co-curator Tim Zuck, whose works of subtle charcoal on woven paper remind viewers that some of the best art inspired by the ranch has less to do with big skies and open fields, and more to do with the feeling of the place. Restrained, shadowy and sublime, these works are a testament to the skills of this Pennsylvania-born, Calgary-based artist.
American photographer and photogravurist Jon Goodman heads in a more romantic direction on the ranch with his piece titled Anvil, McIntyre Ranch. There’s no arguing with the quality of the print, its tones underscoring Goodman’s skill as a technician. The "dust grain photogravure" of the Anvil comes dangerously close to devolving into something resembling poster art, but is saved by the sincerity of its creator.
One of the most unusual pieces in this exhibition is Calgary artist Gordon Ferguson’s sculpture Strung. Made of steel pipe and wire, it appears, at one end, as a gargantuan piece of barbed wire, large enough to hem in the dinosaurs that roamed this territory millions of years ago.
Gradually the wire tapers off, leaving me to think about the land where the McIntyre Ranch is located. Will it still be here 100 years from now? Are good intentions enough? Is the barbed wire Ferguson depicts symbolic of the eventual loss of this utopian setting?
Also included in the McIntyre Ranch Project is the CBC documentary The Gift, produced by Jim MacQuarrie. "Billy McIntyre stuck it out and put his faith in the natural grasses," says the narrator of the film. For those who continue to care for these vast tracts of Southern Alberta, and invite artists to document them, that faith is still being tested. |
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