Isabel Hayeur, “Vie Nue,” 2020
The Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris offers insight into how leading Canadian artists – including a handful from the West – experienced the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in a new exhibition that includes a major online component.
With photographs that evoke isolation, the joys of nature and other themes, the exhibition, Image … Sent / Image … envoyée, includes some 100 photographs from 36 Canadian artists, ranging from Isabelle Hayeur, Denys and Ming Arcand and Nadia Myre to Ed Pien, Jana Sterbak and Iain Baxter&.
“It transports us from poetic, intimate and private universes to other universes that are more political, critical and sometimes even caustic,” says curator Catherine Bédard.
The show also includes another 50 images – 25 from Canadian citizens and 25 from French citizens who responded to a call for submissions about the global pandemic.
The virtual show continues for the coming year, long after the Paris exhibition closes Oct. 16.
Stan Douglas, “Berlin,” 2018 - 2019
The project does feature some photographs taken before the pandemic, including three from Vancouver artist Stan Douglas, who will represent Canada at the next Venice Biennale.
As well, another artist based in Vancouver, Adad Hannah, revisited images he shot during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009 while working in 100 Mile House, B.C., to re-stage The Raft of the Medusa, a painting completed in 1819 by Théodore Géricault. Hannah’s models wear personal protective equipment – white Tyvek suits, blue nitrile gloves and masks.
Adad Hannah, “The Raft Of The Medusa PPE 2,” 2009 / 2020
“Looking at these images in 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic, creates an uncanny feeling," says Hannah. "Géricault’s raft, a rudderless vessel cut loose by those in charge and left to drift aimlessly, is once again a potent symbol of inept leadership and the human toll it takes."
Winnipeg artist Diana Thorneycroft’s project, Love All Around, saw her pose action dolls around town in honour of Get Naked Day. One shows an RCMP officer clutching a beaver and waving a rainbow flag outside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. He’s in the buff, of course, in all his anatomically modest plastic glory.
Diana Thorneycroft, “Love All Around (Canadian Museum for Human Rights),” 2020
From Southern Alberta, Adrian Stimson shares three images, including a black-and-white photo of a dog crossing an empty parking lot outside The Hang Over restaurant on the Siksika Nation.
Meanwhile, Calgary artist Dianne Bos offers three multiple-exposure images shot with black-and-white film and a simple plastic camera. One shows the mountains and trees of the Kananaskis, west of Calgary.
Dianne Bos, “Untitled Landscape Alberta, Trees and Rocky Mountains, Kananaskis,” 2020
“Exploring the natural landscape of Alberta during this time of social isolation has kept me sane,” she says. “The mountains put time in perspective. There’s a patience that comes with using old cameras, something we all need now.” ■
Image … Sent / Image … envoyée at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris can be accessed online until Sept. 17, 2021.
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