A Big Show About Tiny Art

×

Expand

Lance Cardinal, “St. Martin’s Catholic Mission School,” mixed media, 1/12 scale replica (photo by Dave Starrie)

Miniature objects evoke childhood memories of the long hours many of us spent staging imaginary worlds. It’s no wonder that Lego, invented in the 1040s, remains the world’s favourite toy. However, long before its invention, kids sent walnut shells sailing down streams and built sandcastles inhabited by little stick figures. 

Such deep-rooted memories may account for our timeless fascination with this genre. From the paleolithic Venus of Grimaldi figurines to the tiny prehistoric seals from the Indus Valley and the 18th-century European thumb-sized portraits, miniature-making continues to thrive. 

The exhibition Minutiae, featuring works by 53 artists from across Canada, is a case in point. Within days of opening at the Alberta Craft Council Gallery in Edmonton, the show attracted coverage from both CBC and CTV.

Fortunately for miniature enthusiasts, it will be on view until June 15 in Edmonton before moving to Calgary's Alberta Craft Gallery from July 6 to Aug. 31.

The attention garnered by this exhibition is well deserved. It offers viewers many reasons to laugh and cry. One heartbreaking piece in the show, St Martin’s Mission School, by Bigstone Cree Nation artist Lance Cardinal, is a 1/12 scale replica of a residential school that stood in Wabasca/Desmarais, Alberta from 1901 to 1930. It is a tribute to Cardinal’s grandparents whose tragic childhoods ended at the ages of 15 and 16 with a clergy-arranged marriage. Their wedding photo hangs beside the artwork: two sombre-faced teens stand on the school chapel steps looking abandoned and shell-shocked.

Cardinal chose to depict the school in autumn. It is a poignant reminder of the season when most Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes and brought to the school. Dead leaves lay scattered around the entrance. Cardinal encourages viewers to bend down and view the scene from the vantage point of a newly arrived child. That is exactly what he did. Once the building was completed, he got down into a prayer-like position and looked up at the school doors through his grandparents’ eyes. He felt their presence close behind him.

From the outset, Cardinal knew that creating this work meant confronting painful truths. “I really had to put trust in the Creator for this project,” he says. It turned out to be cathartic. “We are still broken, we are still finding those survivors, finding those bodies, releasing those spirits,” he reflects. Yet, Cardinal trusts that his project heals and allows long-lost children to be seen, felt, acknowledged and ultimately released.

×

Expand

Kimberly Jones, “Steaming Cup of Quality Time,” 2022, resin, clay, paint, plastic, ceramic, stainless steel (photo by Laura O'Connor)

By contrast, many of the works in this show brim with humour. Calgary-based Kimberly Jones’ delightful Steaming Cup of Quality Time is a grandma-style floral teacup filled with hot chocolate. Two tiny adults are perched on the cup’s rim and seem engaged in lively conversation with a child floating on a marshmallow. The scene is so realistic, right down to the bubbles, that you almost want to take a sip. That’s not advisable as the work is made of resin and plastic, among other unpalatable materials.

Calgary artist Leslie Pierson’s diorama is equally witty. It pokes fun at the vicissitudes of prairie gardening.  Her miniature greenhouse, Plight of the Southern Alberta Gardener, is pelted by glass-shattering hail and, judging by the panic-stricken gardeners, damages heads not just seedlings. 

Stephanie Elderfield, another Calgary resident, also derives inspiration from domestic activities. But the models for her sterling silver and mixed media jewellery come from an unexpected source: her garage. “Mechanical items with functional moving parts are always a fun challenge for me,” she says enthusiastically. Her 3-inch-long Toolbox Jewellery Set is a prime example. It boasts functional hinges, a lock, a removable tray, a claw-hammer pendant with a wooden handle, and two seemingly functional screwdrivers that double as earrings.

×

Expand

Julia Vysokova, “Morning of a New Life,” 2021 (photo by Laura O'Connor)

The jaw-dropping amount of labour invested in this exhibition is epitomized by Edmonton-based artist Julia Vysokova’s embroidered silk and mixed media purse, Morning of a new life. An elaborately beaded window on the front of the purse opens onto a three-tiered enchanted garden. For a Canadian audience, this scene may evoke fairy tales, but Vysokova’s inspiration comes from life. Growing up in Russia she visited many grand estates filled with Baroque and Rococo treasures. Her works evoke all the joy and beauty she has seen and give viewers a chance to dream of better worlds.

Perhaps that’s what gives all miniatures their magic: when busy adults walk into a show filled with filigree worlds populated by tiny figures, we are granted permission to daydream. In this fleeting moment, we can view the joys and troubles of the world through the lens of hope, optimism and curiosity of children. ■

Minutiae is on view until June 15 at the Alberta Craft Council Gallery in Edmonton and then Alberta Craft Gallery in Calgary from July 6 to Aug. 31.

PS: Worried you missed something? See previous Galleries West stories here or sign up for our free biweekly newsletter.