All tagged Visual and media arts
Growing up, art held a special place in my heart and began with my older sister. She's the one who kick-started my artistic journey, and it's sort of a ritual of ours that she insists I acknowledge her role. “Don't forget to tell people where it started,” she playfully reminds me before speaking or writing anything art-related. It's our little inside joke.
Four gallery spaces in Arts Commons have been energized with 13 individual artists spanning the practices of painting, photography, ceramics, and textiles. Take a peek behind-the-scenes to see how these artists make their work come alive at Arts Commons.
The raging hot summer has drawn to a close and it’s time to start exploring what our indoor galleries and spaces have to offer. This fall, we have six new exhibitions to share in our media and visual arts galleries throughout the building – all for free!
I’m sure I’m not making a huge controversial statement when I say we’re living in a hyper polarized society today. There’s lack of trust in the media, our elected officials, and one another. It’s increasingly evident that many are just not willing to listen, let alone speak to, those on the “other side”. Similarly, I don’t think it’s too controversial to say we’re all guilty in varying degrees, myself included, of propagating toxic narratives of those who we feel stand across ideological divides than us. The faceless crowd of those who oppose our completely rational beliefs, with their completely irrational beliefs of their own.
Unveiling her exhibition A Rose for Remembrance / Una Rosa Para Recordar in the Ledge Gallery at Arts Commons this month, Claudia Chagoya is deeply interested in gender dynamics and how they impact culture and belonging. In her piece, she examines how ingrained, misogynistic assumptions is the root to much of the violence against women, and shares her hope that we can strive for a safer, more inclusive tomorrow.
After giving birth to her son Migizi in July of 2020 via emergency c-section, Autumn Whiteway (“Night Signing Woman”) was bound to her hospital bed for four and a half days. While recovering from the surgery, the Saulteaux/Métis artist and curator conceptualized her exhibit Indigenous Motherhood and Matriarchy, a three-part series that features artworks which explore motherhood and matriarchy through an Indigenous lens.
When I graduated from SAIT with a Diploma of Journalism in 2013, my parents gave me a book, Flight of the Hummingbird. It tells a story of a raging fire threatening a forest, where animals of all shapes and sizes flee the wall of flames. Every animal, from the bear to the eagle, lamented on their helplessness in the face of such a tragedy and each proclaimed why it was hopeless to try and fight the fire. Throughout this, a single hummingbird flew from the river, carrying a bead of water in its tiny beak and dropped it on the towering inferno. The bird repeated this until the other animals asked why the hummingbird was doing this, to which it replied. “I’m doing what I can”.
When Peter Moller was a little kid, he went to The Grand theatre to watch his very first movie along with his parents and his brother. The Danish family of four was sitting in the iconic Calgary landmark, built in 1912, feeling comfortable on those green leather seats housed in the same space where audiences had seen The Marx Brothers perform, Nelly McClung speak, and crowds rally for both the Liberal and Conservative parties.
