"Inspired by the Land" November 15, 2009 to November 15, 2010, Allen Sapp Gallery, North Battleford

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"October Prayer"

Jean Sonmor, "October Prayer," Inspired by the Land, installation view, Allen Sapp Gallery, 2010.

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"Picking Roots"

Allen Sapp, "Picking Roots," Inspired by the Land, installation view, Allen Sapp Gallery, 2010.

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"Revival Transcendence"

Courtney Milne, "Revival Transcendence," photograph. Inspired by the Land, installation view, Allen Sapp Gallery, 2010.

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"October Prayer"

Jean Sonmor, "October Prayer," Inspired by the Land, installation view, Allen Sapp Gallery, 2010.

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Inspired by the Land, November 15, 2009 to November 15, 2010, Allen Sapp Gallery, North Battleford

BY: Jill Sawyer

Curator Dean Bauche, director of the Allen Sapp Gallery in North Battleford, northwest of Saskatoon, took more than a few ideas from his last successful venture. He and his curatorial team had created an exhibition called Through the Eyes of the Cree, about acclaimed painter Allen Sapp, whose work anchors the permanent collection at the Gallery.

Designed as an online exhibition, it was so well-received that the Gallery turned it into a travelling show, and it’s been travelling ever since. A key part of that show was an experiment in multi-media. Gallery staff filmed interviews with Cree elders and other members of Sapp’s circle, which resulted in a permanent archive of important stories, and a sense of the subjects’ personalities, that had a value far beyond this exhibition.

One of the results was a sense of stories not yet told — almost everyone who participated in Through the Eyes of the Cree told Bauche they thought there was much more that could be done with the subject, and with the multimedia format. Last year, the Gallery opened a show centred on those remaining stories, called Inspired by the Land, which will be on display until November of this year, when it will begin touring.

It wasn’t difficult finding a group of subjects — artists, writers, musicians, thinkers — who wanted to compile their stories for an exhibition on how land, particularly on the vast and varied plains of Saskatchewan, can influence and inspire. Bauche and his team at the Allen Sapp Gallery eventually put together a wide-ranging exhibition of words and works by Cree elders Wes Fine Day and Judy Bear, photographers Richard Baschak and Courtney Milne, writers Sharon Butala, Ovide Mercredi, and Trevor Herriot, painters Allen Sapp and Jean Sonmor, scientist Glenn Sutter, and beadwork, sculpture, and basketry by Marcia Chickness, Noelle Lucas, Lyndon Tootoosis, and Darwin Atcheynum. The show also brings in an ancient form of Cree expression, birchbark biting, by Angelique Merasty.

Inspired by the Land ranges through three-screen video, sound effects, original music, art and artifacts. But everything circles around the words and expressions of the video subjects. Bauche found that many of the artists had the same take on land and creativity, instilling in it a power to free the soul and provide endless inspiration. “We’re not just looking at land in terms of its utilitarian purpose,” he says. “We’re saying that our experience of the land has a life and purpose of its own. Trevor Herriot says that we place ourselves in exile if we think the land’s only purpose is to make money from it.”

The show takes off from its link with the Cree, and explores the impact of the landscape on many cultures and art forms. But at its core, it’s a powerful expression of Saskatchewan, one that has already benefited both the Gallery and the northwest Saskatchewan community surrounding it. School kids who have come to see the exhibition have had the opportunity to shoot and edit their own videos, giving the concept of the show a second life beyond static gallery walls.

For Bauche, his faith in this new form of curating, both its creative side and its educational side, has been rewarded. “We went into this wondering if shooting unscripted interviews would work out, and if we’d find that none of the subjects had anything in common. But once we started the interviewing, it all came together. The result was we had hundreds of people at our opening, and a remarkable energy.”