Johnston Falls
Stride Gallery, Calgary, AB
Septemeber 2 - October 7, 2011
Johnston Falls is based on a promotional image of the popular tourist destination and is built using more than 80,000 of plastic craft beads. The beads, neither precious nor rare, are strung together to create a glittering image of the raging waterfall. Strands of beads spill out of the picture plane and pool onto the gallery floor. Like recent works, Johnston Falls, examines representations of the natural environment in terms of its relationships to local economies, national identities and global consumers. Central to these works is the interface between processes of production, representations of communities and aesthetic vocabularies.
Johnston Falls evolves from an earlier series of work exploring romantic notions of landscape. The series “Wish You Were Here…” includes three large beaded sculptures - Niagara Falls, Lake Louise and Saguenay (2001-04). The project involved people from across Canada in the production of the sculptures and through contributions to an expansive postcard collection. The sculptures are based on 19th century paintings of majestic Canadian landscapes captured by Frederic Church, FM Bell-Smith and Lucious O’Brien. Predating widespread use of photography, these paintings portray the new world promoting travel, tourism, trade and development. The untamed wilderness has been synonymous with the Canadian identity ever since.
Over the past century the photographic image has become vastly more accessible than the painted one.Concurrently, movements in modern art established that a painting is a painting, and that a camera can capture a more “real” representation. Johnston Falls was originally conceived for an exhibition in Newcastle in 2009 and selected because of the very Canadian content. The falls are a regional natural wonder so the source image is taken from a tourist information web site available to anyone around the globe. The photograph was specifically chosen, as any visitor can attest, for capturing the spectacular beauty of the waterfall and because the sturdy handrail and well-groomed pedestrian path are cropped out of sight. Like the 19th century landscape paintings referenced in earlier works, Canada continues to be marketed as uninhabited and unconquered wilderness.
In another country Johnston Falls represents home, but at home the relationship to this site becomes more multi-layered. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to remodel, rework and rebuild Johnston Falls for Stride Gallery.
The exhibition was reviewed by Marcella Ducasses in FFWD.
See animated postcards from September 2, 2011!
Thanks to the following people for help with Johnston Falls:
Bill Ouellet
Judy Ouellet
Aurora Landin
Ken Buera
mn Hutchinson
Cathy Ott
Megan Boisvert
Lisa Benschop
Larissa Tigglers
Ward Bastian
Jason E. Bowman
Petronella Overes
Peter Redcopp
The Board of Directors of Stride Gallery