WAR: A Personal Response Exhibition by Articulation October 16 to November 29th 2018

Articulation is very pleased to be exhibiting in the Sidney Museum, Sidney, British Columbia from October 16th to November 29th, 2018.

The exhibition coincides with the 100-year commemoration of the signing of the Armistice Treaty, the official end of World War I in Europe.

While the museum will feature displays full covering Canada's history of involvement in wars until the present day peacekeepers, Articulation will be taking a more personal look at war.

Unlike other studies where Articulation members research together, this war project research was done in their own time. It involved talking to family members to gather war stories and searching through family archives for war-related memorabilia.

I found other source material in many different places.

War displays started popping up in front to me when I wasn't expecting them such as the informative war display in the Mary Winspear foyer, in Sidney.

Around Remembrance Day there were moving displays to think about.

I studied uniforms in military museums.

I photographed war memorials whenever I saw them. This one is in Blenheim, New Zealand.

I caught this one in passing on a rainy day.

                           I began to recognise their familiar shape and looked out for them in every small town we passed through.

I was particularly interested in the airforce because my uncles enlisted.

Google is a treasure trove of early war photographs that say so much.

I visited war museums in England, New Zealand and Canada because they all played a part in my family's war stories.

I was particularly interested in learning about the Lancaster Bomber because my uncle flew one. I visited the Bomber Command Museum of Canada link in Nanton, Alberta. They have one of the last Lancaster Bombers and allow the public to climb up inside the plane. I was able to sit where my uncle would have sat. 

I began to focus on the textiles of war. It was something I could relate to.

I found the uniforms most interesting.

I studied the materials, the construction and how items were attached.

I read a number of books and watched many documentaries on war.

It became overwhelming. I let ideas percolate and captured them in a large notebook. In time a theme emerged. 

I began developing my ideas while collecting materials. I asked people to help me collect specific items. Carol bought me auction lots of military buttons and uniforms. Barbara gave me her husband's airforce uniform to work with. Friends gave me their husband's and father's worn and stained handkerchieves. I live in a very supportive community for which I am so grateful.

I do hope you can make it to the exhibition in the Sidney Museum where you will be able to see how all 6 Articulation members went through a similar process before they were able to begin to tell their personal war stories.

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' - How she came about.

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' - Artists Statement

Women menstruate.

If women did not menstruate, you and I would not be on this earth. We would not be alive.

Menstruation is a necessary part in our chain of life.

This artwork celebrates the humanity and acceptance of this monthly visitor. Aunt Flow comes to visit, sits on a tomato, and can’t go swimming on certain days. Strawberries, rabbits, Maggie the Red Bird is flying her colours. Speak about it, share words and stories, celebrate women, and this part of womanhood that just is, that makes life possible. We are enough, we are OK.

Menstruation Euphemisms penned by Kirsten Horel, website, artist and lettering artist.

After reading 'Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation' by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim, I had a strong urge to stimulate a conversation about this hidden subject.

It was time my collection of perfectly laundered handkerchiefs got to work.

I rubbed the centre of each handkerchief with red ochre to represent the blood.

I contacted Kirsten and asked if she wanted to work with me on the project. I was so pleased when she agreed to. She went to work researching and collecting more euphemisms and tested different ways of working the lettering with different inks and different pens. She also lettered the signs inviting the viewer to touch the handkerchiefs and to write their menstruation words and experiences in the red book. 

Together we worked on the artist statement where Kirsten's wonderful sense of humour lighted my rather heavy expression of indignation at yet another social injustice.

Each saying was printed on cloth and torn into a strip then a cotton thread was attached to the bottom.

Each handkerchief was nailed to the wall with its euphemism mostly hidden by the natural fold of the handkerchief hung on point.

I trialed different arrangements for hanging the handkerchiefs.

I wanted to give the feeling of lots, as though the installation could go on and on if there was enough room - to make the viewer ask why there were so many of these sayings.

I decided on this staggered arrangement then made a template out of gridded interfacing to show where each nail needed to go.

Satisfied I packed everything into a box and went looking for places to show 'Aunt Flow Speaks Out'.

Old Quebec City Architecture

One of the enjoyable things about a visit to old Quebec City is to look up at the roof lines.

There is a lot of history told in the architecture

 

 

Looking down at the foundations shows stories of the past also.

 

Articulation members spent many hours exploring the streets of old Quebec City.
It will be interesting to see what features come out in their group body of work.

Good Design: Seats

Wherever I go I observe where people chose to sit in public to see if the design and location of the seats and space work. 

These large bean bags are scattered around a small inner city green space.

Some people sat on them while they looked at an art work - a tall, rectangular screen with changing colours.

These two people chose to sit on the bean bags while they had their coffee rather than sit in the classic Adirondack chairs.

People put their feet up on the bags and on foot stools, a sign they felt comfortable sitting in the space.

They dragged the bean bags around the space to create their own temporary environments.

I decided this seating area is successful.

Banff Centre

Dr Jennifer Salahub worked with us for a day during our artist residency at the Banff Centre. She focused on how to do research and how to work with an inspiration to produce a personal response to it.

During a tour of the Whyte Museum, she gave us an assignment make a personal response to this image of Mary Shaffer, an early European explorer of the Banff National Park.

My response was to make some close-up charcoal drawings of parts of the image.