Kali Yuga
An imagined ecosystem brings together myth and reality.
Doug Derksen
Emily Jan, “Kali Yuga I: Footsteps,” 2022-2023
silk, wool, found textiles, reed, resin, silicone, epoxy, soil, gravel and found cardboard boxes, dimensions variable, installation view at Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon (photo by Doug Derksen)
In Hindu mythology, Kali Yuga is the fourth – and current – era of history. Also called the Age of Kali, a goddess associated with time, destruction and change, it’s the darkest of the four cycles, simultaneously leading to the world’s annihilation and the start of a new cycle of the four yugas.
Inspired by this idea of death and rebirth, Emily Jan, an American artist based in Edmonton, created Kali Yuga, on view until April 1 at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon. The exhibition aims to portray what Jan calls the sorrows and the wonders of our time.
Visiting Kali Yuga is like stepping into a greenhouse. The sound of chirping birds fills the air, as does the smell of the dirt in which Jan has planted synthetic flowers. She has created an ecosystem, equal parts myth and reality.
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Emily Jan, “Through a Glass Darkly,” 2022-2023
reed, wool, epoxy resin and hog gut, 28" x 28" x 28" and 28" x 28" x 18" (foreground, left and right) and “Kali Yuga VI: Melt,” 2023, found fur, dyed lichen and unfired clay, dimensions variable, installation view at Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon (photo by Doug Derksen)
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Emily Jan, “Through a Glass Darkly,” 2022-2023
reed, wool, epoxy resin and hog gut, detail of installation at Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon (photo by Doug Derksen)
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Emily Jan, “Through a Glass Darkly,” 2022-2023
reed, wool, epoxy resin and hog gut, detail of installation at Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon (photo by Doug Derksen)
This duality is underlined by a rabbit and a jackalope, a mythological creature of North American folklore said to resemble a jackrabbit with antelope horns. The two face each other from separate plinths. The rabbit is infected with the Shope papilloma virus, which has caused horn-like tumours on its face. Some suggest the jackalope legend was born from a sighting of a rabbit afflicted with this virus. The work invites viewers to consider the ways maladies can evolve into myths.
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Doug Derksen
Emily Jan, “Kali Yuga I: Footsteps,” 2022-2023
silk, wool, found textiles, reed, resin, silicone, epoxy, soil, gravel and found cardboard boxes, dimensions variable, detail of chimera (photo by Doug Derksen)
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Doug Derksen
Emily Jan, “Kali Yuga I: Footsteps,” 2022-2023
silk, wool, found textiles, reed resin, silicone, epoxy, soil, gravel and found cardboard boxes, installation view at Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon, dimensions variable (photo by Doug Derksen)
The fish-headed creature that dominates the exhibition is a chimera, an imaginary monster made from parts of other creatures. It has a boar’s body, a human hand and a head composed of two muskies, a predatory freshwater fish native to North America. It’s covered in lampreys and various plants.
Walking must be laborious for such a creature, but it leaves a trail of footprints that grow larger and are filled with more plant life as you draw near. It’s up to viewers to decide if the creature is leaving a trail of growing, yet quickly fading, plants in its wake, or if it is, instead, a destructive force that causes flowers to vanish, leaving zebra mussels in their place.
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Doug Derksen
Emily Jan, “Kali Yuga I: Footsteps,” 2022-2023
silk, wool, found textiles, reed, resin, silicone, epoxy, soil, gravel and found cardboard boxes, dimensions variable, installation view at Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon (photo by Doug Derksen)
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Doug Derksen
Emily Jan, “Kali Yuga I: Footsteps,” 2022-2023
silk, wool, found textiles, reed, resin, silicone, epoxy, soil, gravel and found cardboard boxes, dimensions variable, detail of footsteps at Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon (photo by Doug Derksen)
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Doug Derksen
Emily Jan, “Kali Yuga I: Footsteps,” 2022-2023
silk, wool, found textiles, reed, resin, silicone, epoxy, soil, gravel and found cardboard boxes, dimensions variable, detail of detritus at Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon (photo by Doug Derksen)
While the chimera is imaginary, the zebra mussel is real, an invasive species of European origin that has caused increasing problems in Canadian waterways since its accidental introduction to the Great Lakes in the 1980s. Zebra mussels have overwhelmed ecosystems, clogging pipes and marine equipment, and have been found in Lake Winnipeg.
Doug Derksen
Emily Jan, “Kali Yuga IV: Out from the Deep (1 of 3),” 2022-2023
wool felt, resin, found faux fur, dyed rawhide and sand, dimensions vary, approximately 23" x 23" x 4" each, installation view at Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon (photo by Doug Derksen)
Elsewhere in the gallery, three felted fish are placed individually on piles of sand to symbolize another form of ecosystem disruption. They evoke the rare Pacific footballfish, which lives in the frigid depths of the Pacific Ocean. In 2021, three of these strange-looking fish washed ashore in Southern California, perplexing scientists.
There is much to ponder in Kali Yuga. Jan’s fantastical reflections on environmental crisis through the uncanny lens of mythology are aimed at prompting viewers to confront – and minimize – their ecological footprint in a very real world. ■
Emily Jan: Kali Yuga at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon from Jan. 26 to April 1, 2023.
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