Hinterlands: Fastwürms I Sky Glabush I Diana Thorneycroft I Colette Urban - Curated by Patrick Mahon
Until January 3, 2010 at York Quay Centre at Harbourfront Centre
The exhibition Hinterlands takes as its focus the works of five contemporary Canadian artists (Fastwürms are two) who mine the potential of distant and “unseen” places as zones of myth-making that encourage psychological disclosure. Each of the four projects represented in the exhibition is predicated on the notion of a place partially understood to be “out there” that betrays a readiness to be encountered as strangely familiar. Through painting (Glabush), photography (Fastwürms, Thorneycroft), and video and performance-installation (Urban), the artists of Hinterlands bring the periphery to the centre, maintaining a fascination for the particular and the psychologically charged qualities of places that are just beyond the reach of everyday experience. The artists of Hinterlands propose our re-consideration of the potential of “lost” zones to be engaged for the purposes of play, psychological speculation, and cultural and environmental criticism. – Patrick Mahon
Colette Urban, BARE, 2008 Performance
Diana Thorneycroft, Group of Seven Awkward Moments (Lake and Mountains with Double-double), 2008
Kalle Kataila: Landscapes and Contemplations
Until January 3, 2010
Kalle Kataila's photographic series captures the experience of being present in a moment and observing the landscape in stillness. Being part of the landscape that we interconnect can lead us to explore our relationship and understanding with the environment around us. Landscapes help us to reflect on our role as humans in the ever-changing diversity of our planet’s landscapes.
Kataila seizes moments of contemplation. A landscape shows nature in all its varied beauty, but also our ability to shape it in a harmonious and sustainable way. Landscapes also reveal the impacts of our acts that might not always be positive. The relationship between man and landscape is constantly redefining itself as man builds and changes his surroundings and the climate.
The challenge is to preserve the beauty of the natural world, and to alter it wisely. Increasing awareness of climate change and the ongoing financial crisis pushes us to more closely consider our impacts, and underlines a responsibility to take care of the environment and landscape that we are creating for future generations.
There is the opportunity to pause, carefully observe and consider what we want to see on the horizon.
Kalle Kataila (b.1978 Helsinki) is an artist currently based in Helsinki, Finland. Kataila's work is based around concepts of landscape, awareness and personal stories. He has exhibited with artists from The Helsinki School at Paris Photo, Art Forum Berlin, École des Beaux-Arts, Paris and the Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki. Kataila's works are in art collections at the Helsinki City Art Museum and the Finnish State Art Gallery as well as in several private and corporate collections in Europe and in the United States.
Kalle Kataila, Contemplation Lapland, 2007 from the series Landscapes and Contemplations
Directed North: Garett Walker: Sledhead I Eamon Mac Mahon
Until January 3, 2010
Two artists present two unique photo-based series of works that seek out communities in the northern wilderness.
Garett Walker | Sledheads
Beyond the urban centres of southern Ontario, beyond the sprawling suburban communities, and up into the rural north, the landscape changes as does the climate. The wilderness opens up in its natural state and envelops the smaller and more isolated communities. The snowmobile was born out of this topography. These “chariots of the north” serve as a functional transportation vehicle for individuals and communities living in more remote and snowbound places across Quebec, Ontario, Northern Michigan and beyond.
I had heard about a vintage snowmobile rally in Eganville and it piqued my curiosity. With a growing interest in documenting regional cultural festivals in Canada, and as an outsider to snowmobile culture, I made my way northeast towards the Ottawa Valley. I’ve been documenting some of the lesser known Canadian cultural festivals, celebrations, and rituals of the present. In documenting a diverse range of smaller regions, communities, and individuals, I am attempting to construct an understanding of my own relationship to the multifarious notion of Canadian identity.
I have been documenting regional cultural events that are seldom seen outside their locales. These events are traditions that are important in building and maintaining regional communities in different places across Canada. As a country, Canada spans 9,984,670 square kilometres, making it the largest country in the western hemisphere. Its culture is as diverse as its geography, and so it is not so strange for me to feel like a foreigner inside the country I call home. This is one of the reasons why I wish to bring these activities into focus and share them with a larger public in hopes of including these hidden treasures in a larger picture of how we as Canadians view Canada.
Garett Walker completed his BFA in Photography and is currently working on his MFA in Documentary Media Studies at Ryerson University. He is an active participant in the Toronto arts community and has been the recipient of many private and public artistic development grants, which help to fund his ongoing work. Various private collectors and public institutions in Canada collect his work. Walker lives and works in Toronto.
Garett Walker, part of the series Sledheads
Eamon Mac Mahon
Since 2004, Toronto-based photographer Eamon Mac Mahon has spent up to three months of each year working in the wilderness of northwestern Canada and Alaska. These slow journeys via bush plane have allowed him to intimately photograph remote landlocked communities, and the vast areas of uninhabited land surrounding them. His work has appeared in various publications including the Walrus, National Geographic, W and New York Magazine, as well as exhibition spaces such as The Power Plant, The Detroit Institute of the Arts, the Griffin Museum of Photography in Boston and Higher Pictures NYC. Mac Mahon also spends much of his time creating video projections for stage productions, short films and documentaries.
Eamon Mac Mahon, from the series Landlocked: Living room, Uranium City, Saskatchewan
Visual Arts at York Quay at http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/
