MOOSE JAW — The Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery (MJMAG) is the first stop for a new provincial art exhibit that features photographic works by Canadian artists whose images present as lens-based performances.
“Storied Telling: Performativity and Narrative in Photography” opens in the MJMJAG’s Norma Lang Gallery on Friday, Feb. 7 and runs until Sunday, April 27. The six featured artists include Catherine Blackburn, Lori Blondeau, Xiao Han, Mariam Magsi, Meryl McMaster and Laura St. Pierre.
According to the show’s description, the photographs “reflect a performative nature, taken as video stills or documentation of performance art or presented as elaborate figurative compositions within settings that border on the fantastical or are imagined re-creations of historical scenarios.
“The resulting images are rife with story, reflecting diverse narratives that are poetic, political, surreal, spiritual or perhaps even mythic,” the description added. “(These are) stories that inform and speak to cultural and diaspora identities that are constantly producing and reproducing themselves anew through transformation and difference.”
This exhibition will be touring around the province for several years with the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils (OSAC), while the organization is letting the MJMAG open it first because it’s originating from here, explained Jennifer McRorie, the MJMAG’s curator/director.
“They’re a great partner. We’ve partnered with them for years,” she continued. “And it’s either a great way to get some of our permanent collection pieces out or just curate shows that we’re interested in featuring artists like from Saskatchewan (or) from Moose Jaw (and) getting the work out to broader audiences.”
Three of the Aboriginal artists are from Saskatchewan, as Blackburn is from the English River First Nation in northern Saskatchewan and now lives in Toronto, Blondeau is from Saskatoon and now lives in Winnipeg and McMaster — who is “a pretty big name” — is from Red Pheasant First Nation near North Battleford and now lives in Ottawa, McRorie continued.
Furthermore, Han is a Chinese-Canadian from Saskatoon, St. Pierre is a Fransaskois artist from Saskatoon and Magsi is a Muslim artist from Toronto.
“So, all of their works basically include figures in the landscape,” the curator remarked. “It’s very performative in nature.”
McMaster includes herself in staged photographs and creates portrait shots, which sometimes depict indigenous legends and identity in Canada, McRorie said. In fact, many of the exhibit’s artwork contain elements of cultural identity.
For example, Magsi photographs women in veils, burqas and niqabs standing in different Canadian landscapes, while St. Pierre depicts herself attempting to live sustainably with the food she grows. Also, Blackburn’s photographs depict a person performing in a landscape while wearing beaded works that she created for fashion shows.
Meanwhile, Han re-creates the history of Chinese cafés from the 1920s, when such restaurants weren’t allowed to hire white women — such a story exists at the MJMAG — and two owners from Regina and Moose Jaw challenged that prohibition at the Supreme Court of Canada.
“So (Han is) re-creating that history, to speak to sort of that racism,” said McRorie. “So, in all of this work, there’s an element of performance, which I think is really interesting.”
McRorie encouraged people to attend the exhibition since there was likely something they might enjoy. Moreover, she thought this show meshed well with Gabriela García-Luna’s exhibition — a beautiful and introspective collection — next door since they both used photography, spoke about landscapes and addressed cultural identity.
An artists’ reception for “Storied Telling” is on Friday, April 4 at 7 p.m.
