Mavis Reimer will be participating in the panel discussion for Chris Reid: I like to believe I am telling the truth, a double-sited exhibition co-presented by Gallery 1C03 and the Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre.
This panel discussion has been organized to complement Chris Reid’s current exhibition, I like to believe I am telling the truth, at Gallery 1C03 and Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre. The exhibition includes large-scale pastel drawings, quirky re-interpretations of Ukrainian Easter eggs and multi-media sculptural installations that incorporate recycled and found objects. Through these diverse media, Reid invents lush visual narratives containing a sundry cast of characters — from folkloric symbols of her Ukrainian heritage and her husband’s African heritage such as Baba Yaga buildings and Anansi the spider to idiosyncratic anthropomorphic cats, dolls, bunnies and bread — that play out their actions in surreal prairie landscapes and unsettling domestic environments.
Three academics have been invited to share their current research as it relates to themes in the exhibition. Dr. Pauline Greenhill, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at The University of Winnipeg, will present “That’s Not Folklore! (A)Musings on Art and Tradition” which includes a discussion of how Raymond Williams’ ideas of archaic, residual and emergent traditions focus an understanding of processes linking folklore and art. For her presentation “Folklore Characters as Perceived by People, Art and the Media”, Joint Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Manitoba’s Department of German and Slavic Studies & Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies Dr. Svitlana Kukharenko will deliver an overview of anthropomorphism in Ukrainian folklore. She will also speak to representations of Baba Yaga and Koshchey in Russian high art and Soviet cinema. Dr. Mavis Reimer is Canada Research Chair in Young People’s Texts and Cultures, and Professor of English at The University of Winnipeg. In “No Place Like Home: Some Thoughts about Unhoming in Contemporary Culture”, Dr. Reimer will talk about the ways in which the ideas of place, the relationships and the feelings associated with “home” are disrupted in contemporary culture. She will focus on the ways in which the work by Chris Reid can be read beside a group of Canadian narratives for young people that represent and encode such unhomings. Following the presentations, audience members are encouraged to engage in a question and answer dialogue with the panelists.
The exhibition runs from February 9 to April 14, 2012, and the panel discussion takes place in Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall on Thursday, March 22 at 7:00PM.
Chris Reid is a visual artist and educator based out of Brandon, Manitoba. Reid completed Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Education degrees from the University of Alberta as well as a Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she specialized in painting and drawing. In addition to her artistic practice, Reid has worked as a contemporary art curator and is employed as a Housing Resource Worker for the Brandon Regional Health Authority. She has been the recipient of grants for her art from the Manitoba Arts Council and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Reid has exhibited across Canada and in the United States for more than 25 years, including recent solo exhibitions at the Yukon Arts Centre, Latitude 53 and the Thames Art Gallery. I like to believe I am telling the truth is Chris Reid’s first solo exhibition in Winnipeg. It will travel to the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba later this year.