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earthly gestures

Guest Curator, Cathi Charles Wherry

Whenever I go to a new place it’s important
to get away from the city
and feel the land, as a way of locating myself.
Even as a girl it amazed me,
the way that certain places held and spoke to me, offered
what I needed when I needed it most.
Now those places recognize me and
she is glad when I come home.

earthly gestures will present the work of four artists: Rebecca Baird, Aganetha Dyck, Marianne Nicholson and Alastair Heseltine, who remind us of our capacity for relationship with the earth. Each of these artists have created works or engaged in processes that reflect on or realize experiences of this living world.

These themes recurr through the collaborations with honeybees as in the work of Manitoba artist Aganetha Dyck; the use of gifts from the earth of copper and glass by Rebecca Baird; the traditional and experimental basket making of Alastair Heseltine; and the story telling of the birth of Gwa yi Kwakwaka wakw by Marianne Nicholson.

Cathi Charles Wherry descended from both Anishnabe and British ancestors and is a member of the Chippewas of Mnjikaning First Nation (Rama). Although she has engaged in a formal art education ( BFA from UVic in 1994), she attempts to maintain a balance in her sensibility by honour-ing traditional Indigenous knowledge in her activities as a practicing artist, arts administrator and educator. Cathi has been mentoring with Lisa Baldissera, our Curator of Contemporary Art to develop this exhibition.