By Griffy Vigneron (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: June 5, 2013
You don’t have to go far for a unique experience and a chance to see things in a different light.
With a variety of displays, a local Abbotsford art gallery is attempting to redefine how we see the world around us.
“I think galleries and museums are playing with … this [other] way of seeing and playing with our ideas of knowledge and knowing vis-à-vis the visual image. I think that’s part of our mandate,” Scott Marsden, curator of The Reach gallery, said.
Established in 2008, The Reach has steadily been coming into prominence. Though small, the gallery is a class A facility. Under a ceiling 30 feet high, the 13-foot walls of the gallery’s great hall showcase both internationally acclaimed artists and regional talent.
In an effort to establish reputation and give viewers something new, Marsden does his best to make sure the exhibitions he curates will not be shown in any other gallery in BC. On top of that, he seeks exhibits that will stand out.
“I’m looking for unique art practice, [a] unique way of doing things,” Marsden explained.
On the walls of the great hall, the deep-blue hues of cyanotype prints stand out against the white walls. Each print is classified under a scientific taxonomic grouping. This unusual exhibit is Observation of Wonder, put together by the regional artist Brenna Maag.
Cyanotype prints were one of the first photographic methods of making copies of something. In 1843, the botanist Anna Atkins created the first photographic book. It contained 400 cyanotype prints of British algae specimens.
At first glance, one might easily mistake the cyanotypes in Observation of Wonder for scientific specimens, much like Atkins’ initial prints. This is intentional, yet the specimens on display are not organisms at all – the specimens are doilies.
While doilies might not be considered that useful, Maag was inspired by the detail and creativity that had gone into making them.
“I really love science and art together, I think … they’re similar in many ways, and then very different in others,” Maag described.
The exhibit ties together science and art in an unusual fashion. In an effort to acknowledge the creative efforts of anonymous women doily-makers, Maag ties in this women’s domestic work with the scientific world. It’s a perspective we rarely connect to.
While her cyanotypes emphasize the detail of the doilies, Maag’s dome-like “observatory,” also on display, emphasizes the overwhelming creative essence of doilies as a collective. The space connects a mathematical dome with doilies by plastering them all over the interior. The effect is breathtaking – the designs reminiscent of exotic embroidery.
“I was really hoping that people would get the connection to the natural world and be reminded about paying attention, slowing down and being present in nature,” Maag said. “It’s a huge lofty goal, but we just live in such a hectic world that I think we really miss so much of the detail … There’s so much beauty.”
Maag’s Observation of Wonder exhibit pushes us to think differently – to see similarities where we otherwise might not. The other exhibits Marsden has put on include A Way of Seeing by Alfried Siemens, and How I Became a Ramblin’ Man by Rodney Graham.
Each exhibit aims to throw something new or unexpected at the audience.
