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Group of Seven Awkward Moments by Diana Thorneycroft
Skew Gallery
Thursday, February 19 - Saturday, March 28

More in: Visual Arts

Diana Thorneycroft’s photographs often deal with sexuality and the darker elements of human identity. Her current exhibition at Skew Gallery, however, appears at first to be a surprising departure from such subject matter. Thorneycroft gives new meaning to old stories by supersaturating national symbols and clichés, presenting idyllic Canadian landscapes peopled with colourful dolls and figurines. Early Snow with Bob and Doug shows the two Canadian TV icons drinking beer in the woods, encircled by a pack of wolves. On second glance, perhaps after considering the show’s title, Group of Seven Awkward Moments, the landscapes in these photographs become all too familiar. Whether you recognize them from Canadian art museums, their gift shops or from countless appearances in more everyday places, the Groups of Seven’s version of the Canadian landscape is ubiquitous. Thorneycroft has built theatrical sets, which are then photographed, extending these natural settings into three dimensions and using their environments as locations for a series of rather unfortunate dramas.

The scenes depicted in Thorneycroft’s photos are played out by hockey figurines and toy wolves, but they are far from innocent or idyllic. The backdrops for these sets are reproductions of iconic paintings such as Tom Thomson’s Jack Pine and Emily Carr’s Tanoo. Neither Carr nor Thomson were members of the actual Group of Seven, but their well-known paintings have been absorbed by the famous name, and it is this national brand that interests Thorneycroft, not history lessons. While the Group of Seven emphasized the vast nature of the landscape, Thorneycroft’s images explore the human scenarios that play out within it and the resulting tragedies.

These misfortunes, such as Bobby Orr falling through the ice mid-game, put a new spin on the original paintings. The nature of the ordeals also link these new photos to her previous work, such as her Doll Mouth series, in which the artist photographed the plastic mouths of dolls, giving them a sexual quality of gaping desire. Infamously, in her 1999 installation Monstrance at the St. Norbert Arts and Cultural Centre in Winnipeg, the artist made use of dead rabbits, which earned her no end of (often negative) public attention.

The photographs in Group of Seven Awkward Moments go beyond shock and symbolism. In most, only the centre remains in focus, with blurry backgrounds and foregrounds creating a feeling of depth. Initially, I believe in and become engaged with the narrative reality of the work, however, upon focusing on the artificiality of the characters, I am pushed back out of the photographs, once again becoming aware of their orchestrated nature. The result is an interesting tension between being acutely aware of the cartoonish artifice and being totally immersed in these miniature realities.

The show’s title seems to describe these scenarios, acted out by the most Canadian of Canadian figurines, as awkward. The longer I look, however, the more sinister they feel. A burning igloo, rampaging beavers and a seal hunter in front of a Tim Hortons all have an underlying tone of intense anxiety. There are many more troubled moments underlying the playful clichés populating this show if you spend time examining the small details in each photograph. Group of Seven Awkward Moments (In Algonquin Park) shows a group of children bleeding from their mouths — one even lies dead in the snow — while their frozen tongues are stuck to a flag pole. In the same photo, an RCMP officer skis on by, assuming no responsibility, nor acknowledging the situation. This image, in spite of its dark subject matter, is funny. It is precisely this humorous counterbalance that allows Thorneycroft’s array of dolls and figurines to journey even further into the dark wilderness of the Canadian psyche.