Charles Stankievech

Artist probes fringes of perception and depths of metaphysics.

by

Some 12,000 years ago, a meteorite exploded at low altitude above what is now Chile. Scientists believe the intense heat sparked blazes that turned sand in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places in the world, into twisted slabs of glass.

Such cataclysms are at the core of a three-part exhibition, The Desert Turned to Glass, by Toronto-based artist Charles Stankievech. On view at Contemporary Calgary until May 7, his immersive, site-specific work is right at home in a building that used to be a planetarium. Occupying multiple spaces, including the domed theatre, the exhibition becomes an epic meditation on human consciousness, the origins of life on Earth and our connections to the cosmos. 

Stankievech, born in Okotoks, southwest of Calgary, is an intriguing artist who exhibits internationally. He spent his boyhood in a secret “lab” that his parents built in the attic. There he would conduct experiments, seeking answers to burning metaphysical questions such as: “What is our role in the universe?” It’s not surprising to learn that he studied theology, physics and philosophy before emerging as an artist. 

At Contemporary Calgary, Stankievech takes viewers through kaleidoscopic sensory experiences that transport them into the Earth’s subterranean underworld, past its eroded surfaces and up through the clouds into the starry abyss.

The first encounter comes under the low ceiling and utter blackness of the project gallery, when viewers step into The Dark Side of the Sun and an accompanying sound installation, What Is It Like to Be a Bat? Even after the eyes adjust, it is unnerving. The darkness is smothering yet beckons you forward. At the room’s centre is a dark pool filled with crude oil, water and Alcanivorax borkumensis, an oil-degrading marine bacterium. Walking around the pool feels treacherous, as if one is about to be devoured. Hanging above the pool is an ultrasonic sound installation of an AI voice reading a text by American philosopher Thomas Nagel. Although it is audible only to bats, people sensitive to high frequencies may temporarily experience headaches, nausea or tinnitus.

On exiting, the eyes must recalibrate to make sense of a meteorite, spinning slowly above black sand sprinkled with glass particles. Tucked at the bottom of a spiral walkway that leads up to the domed theatre, it feels ominous. The installation not only links the underworld next door with earthly surfaces but also with outer space. As viewers climb upwards, this peculiar installation, The Desert Turned to Glass, is seen from an aerial perspective.

Inside the dark theatre, the eyes must adjust again.  But here the vast interior space curves upward like the night sky. Animating the space is a black-and-white projected video, The Eye of Silence, that features recordings of the Earth made high in the atmosphere. The 30-minute video includes imagery of Alberta’s Badlands, the Utah Salt Flats, a meteor crater in the Namibian desert and volcanoes in Iceland and Japan. Accompanied by a sonic fugue with subterranean beats and field recordings that evoke crackling ice and the whistle of solar rays, the images seem to engage in a slow dance. Viewers are invited to meditate on the origins of life.

This surprising exhibition both depicts and implies metamorphosis on multiple levels. Stankievech’s work, with its otherworldly ruminations and experiences, challenges our perceptual boundaries while critically examining broader metaphysical questions. ■

Charles Stankievech: The Desert Turned to Glass at Contemporary Calgary from March 2 to May 7, 2023.

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