When you can’t bring the people to the experimental art exhibit, you must bring the experimental art exhibit to the people’s computers. That’s just how you have to roll in 2020.
What might be lost in translation, however, is more than made up for in the substance of the largest-ever acceptance of Canadians into the annual open exhibition of the International Society of Experimental Artists (ISEA), a largely American organization. The show – this year, it’s called Pushing Boundaries (find it through iseaartexhibit.org) – also has a significant St. Albert presence, with eight of the 24 northerners coming from this city, and that includes three award winners at the show.
When local artist Rick Rogers told the ISEA when he joined as a board member that he would boost the ‘international’ aspect of the group’s membership, he wasn’t just whistling Dixie. The show was meant to be on display at the Art Gallery of St. Albert, the same venue where the organization would have its annual symposium in September. It would have been the annual exhibit’s début north of the border.
He and the rest of the board put in a lot of work to promote the events.
“Because of that, they had more Canadian involvement than they ever have before, and because of the additional channel that we started promoting on – social media channels in particular but also calls for artists and those sorts of things – they also had more international involvement this year than ever before,” Rogers said.
He noted all four corners of the globe will have their turn being under the focus of the magnifying glass to get artists from all countries interested in ISEA. It was easier and made more sense for him to start locally for the simple fact that he already had tons of Canadian and especially Albertan contacts.
Entries poured in from Canada and the U.S. for certain, but they also trickled in from from Australia, Bahrain, Honduras, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom as well.
Perhaps true to its experimental and boundary-pushing ideals, or perhaps due to COVID-19 cancelling so very many in-person events, this year’s online exhibit also features video art pieces for the first time. Also new: a unique membership type to accommodate artistic collaborations. That’s a nice segue to offer some details on the piece Rogers worked on with Lisa Liusz.
The mixed media piece, Atomic, might be recognizable to local art aficionadoes as it was part of the GOOP of 7’s recent Panel Discussion exhibit. It’s painted on several wood panels, which have been assembled together. Let’s let Rogers try to explain it.
“In some ways, it’s a painting. In some ways, it’s a sculpture. In some ways, it’s an assemblage. It was truly an experiment.”
Joining Rogers and Liusz in Pushing Boundaries are such recognizable St. Albert names as Karen Blanchet, Doris Charest, Miles Constable, Helen Rogers, Barbara Shore and Samantha Williams-Chapelsky, as well as Edmonton-regional artists Cathy Bible, Carroll Charest, Karen Klassen, John Labots, Bette Lisitza, Aeris Osborne, Daniele Petit, Deann Stein Hasinoff and Judy Weiss.
In case you’ve got your calendar and a pencil ready, that ISEA symposium has now been delayed to 2022, but it’s still signed up to be held in St. Albert.
Quilters get the ruby treatment
Make sure to admire the new art on the walls of the Staircase Gallery when you visit the Art Gallery of St. Albert. Ruby Anniversary is the aptly titled piece created by 34 members of the St. Albert Quilters’ Guild to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
The pattern started with Myra Mahy’s Country Faces, which was then adapted to feature the symbolic rubies, since 40 years is the ruby anniversary. The piece is meant to celebrate camaraderie and creativity and foster a sense of community through quilting. Reportedly, guild members hope the quilt not only brings a smile to viewers but also inspires some of them to take up quilting as well.
Ruby Anniversary will be on display from Aug. 18 to Nov. 7. AGSA is located at 19 Perron St. Visit artgalleryofstalbert.ca or call 780-460-4310 for more information.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
