23 May–6 September 2015
Opening: 22 May, 6–10pm
Esker Foundation
1011-9th Ave SE
Calgary, AB
Canada
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–6pm,
Thursday–Friday 11am–8pm
Esker Foundation is pleased to present three exhibitions exploring the too-often abstract effects of shifting natural and personal environments. They surprise with outrageous material contrivances and audacious scopes; their deadpan ironic humor revealing subtle complexities within the relationship between these two environments.
Mia Feuer: Synthetic Seasons
Mia Feuer is interested in the post-natural landscape, visible sites where human interaction—be it personal, social, political, or financial—has altered or is in the process of rapidly changing the land, and thus our relationship to it. Her large-scale sculptural installations makes connections between our intense material dependency and the accelerated environmental impact this creates.
Kevin Schmidt: A Sign in The Northwest Passage
Kevin Schmidt is known for his interdisciplinary work probing the material predilections of contemporary consumer culture and romanticized notions of landscape, wilderness, and belonging. A Sign in the Northwest Passage, the multivalent documentation of the creation, delivery, and subsequent search for a cedar billboard that Schmidt emblazoned with foreboding messages from the Book of Revelations and then placed on the steadily melting ice of the Northwest Passage. Esker Foundation thanks the Art Gallery of Alberta for the generous loan of this work.
Guido van der Werve: Nummers vier, acht, veertien
Guido van der Werve’s films, deceptively simple at first glance, weave together meticulous cinematography, symphonic scores, and durational performance to create enigmatic and ambiguous narratives that evoke and critique notions of the sublime landscape. Marked by a meditative, dream-like quality and punctuated with surprising humour, van der Werve’s work explores themes such as loss, solitude, belonging, and the self.
In the street-level project space:
Corinne Thiessen: Chronic
April 6–June 28
In this new site-specific work, Lethbridge-based artist Corinne Thiessen traces the recurring tension among composure and chaos, regimented uniformity and self-conscious release.
Svea Ferguson: airtime
July 6–October 4
In a site-specific work, Calgary-based artist Svea Ferguson focuses on creating classically inspired forms through contemporary means by manipulating synthetic linoleum flooring, addressing the structural potential of the material to create the perception of space and accessibility in an inaccessible place.
Media contact
Aeryn Twidle: atwidle [at] eskerfoundation.com / T +403 930 2499
