REVIEWS

Exhibition Review
— Sergio Veyzaga

Cultural Construction and Negotiations

“Culture is being created by our questions as viewers,” through our understanding of the work of art and its semiotic exchange.[1] This premise is explored in the works of the artist collective Postcommodity and the artist Mary Anne Barkhouse in exhibition at the Esker Foundation in Calgary.

A Very Long Line by Postcomodity is a four-channel installation of the fence demarcating the U.S-Mexico border between Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora. The installation represents how physical objects are important in cultural construction and reimagined identities, and foregrounds our understanding of the world through physical objects as well as emphasizing how borders as transitional spaces fragment spatial and cultural continuums. In the instance of the U.S.-Mexico border, the demarcating fence fragments cultural groups, wildlife, and nature.

Seen only as commodities by governments and realtors, these fragmented landscapes were actually understood by the ancestral peoples of this land as a source of knowledge passed down through family generations. Postcommodity advocates for a process of “recovering” this knowledge.

The Aristotelian concept of knowledge states that by the act of walking we acquire knowledge. [2] In the example of borders, they represent a space of transculturation and exchange of identities in which peoples displaced due to economic or humanitarian crises “reflect their knowledge and experience while moving through terrain.”[3] This movement also reflects the dualism and contestations of local and international policies; the handcrafted and mass-produced; or an indigenous relationship to nature versus “the Liberal understanding of modern society,”[4] which sees nature as a human resource and not as an interconnected ecosystem.

The negotiation process of the wilderness and manufactured cultures is embodied in the works of Mary Anne Barkhouse in the exposition Le rêve aux loups. Her work takes inspiration from the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Melchior d’Hondecoeter, known for his depictions of woodland animals or exotic birds, both alive and dead in lush park-like settings.[5]

The portraits Alpha I, Alpha II, and Omega depict wolves in baroque ornate picture frames. The dualism of the wilderness contained by the so-called high culture of past colonial powers is part of the negotiation between animal and humans or nature and culture. It also acts as a visual allegory challenging the viewer to contemplate at what point the urban fabric or human-modified nature intertwines with the natural habitat of wild species.

The dialogue between wilderness and culture is also present in Barkhouse’s sculptural tableau Arcadia, in which bronze tree branches appear to grow or penetrate through an antique wood tabletop. A porcelain owl bound to the branch watches the scene of human conflict unfolding below enacted by porcelain figurines. The subject-object dualism is reversed and humans are reduced to objects in the eyes of the owl.

We humans, who are the greatest predator, need to negotiate among ourselves to balance our own dominion. Truth and Reconciliation is a commentary on colonizers and the colonized. In it, a bronze beaver, the symbol of Canadian state pride, stands witness to a river of red fabric that holds pages from the executive summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report. The piece represents the ancient memories of Kanata[6] being interrupted for a nation-state project with contemporary agreements inadequate as they try to reduce complex and apparently irreconcilable differences. Overall, Barkhouse suggests the stumbling of the nation-state paradigm and the constriction of multiculturalism from internal forces.

Struggle is a recurrent theme for both Barkhouse and Postcommodity. The Postcommodity collective highlights how physical objects fragment land and Indigenous identities with borders and nation-state structures. Mary Anne Barkhouse  explicitly invokes themes of human negotiation with wilderness. The dialogue present between the two expositions ties the overall event together. As a viewer, however, there is a sense of omission surrounding A Very Long Line. The ideas and concepts of this installation are highly charged at this point in time and, as such, the theme deserves to be explored with a larger conversation than a singular installation in a format similar to Mary Anne Barkhouse’s collection of art on display. Her work is thematically and aesthetically organized in a very cohesive manner, with the Truth and Reconciliation artwork as the culminating work.

To conclude, the construction of culture and the understanding of our social composition is a common thread in the exhibition. The works embody the dichotomy between wilderness and human-influenced space. They reveal the explicit human relationships that stretch beyond economic determinism. By challenging or reaffirming our relationship with the landscape, the viewer is given the space from which to reflect on layers of history: colonial, economic, and personal. Using their mediums as both conversation and culture-making tool, Postcommodity and Mary Anne Barkhouse create a space where assumptions can be challenged and cultural biases can be faced as the process of evolving and making of culture continues .

[1] "Content and Analysis in Native Art." SAR School for Advanced Research. May 15, 2014. Accessed October 8, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHFlrSC8XILxGHiwUW8uewQ.

 [2] Schmelzer, Paul. "Aesthetic Portals: A Postcommodity Prime." Walker. March 9, 2017. Accessed October 20, 2017. https://walkerart.org/magazine.

[3] Kelley, Bill, Jr. "Reimagining Ceremonies: A Conversation with Postcommodity ." Afterall, Summer 2015

[4] Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples. London: Zed, 2012:32.

[5] Rudder, Jennifer . "Le rêve aux loups." Koffler Gallery . July 13, 2017. Accessed October 12, 2017. http://kofflerarts.org/publication.

[6] The name “Canada” likely comes from the Huron-Iroquois word “kanata,” meaning “village” or “settlement.”. Government of Canada. "Origin of the name "Canada"." Government of Canada. August 11, 2017. Accessed October 15, 2017. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/origin-name-canada.html#a1.

Sergio Veyzaga is an intern architect based in Calgary. He can often be found, notebook in hand, pondering the social effects of the built environment.

-- Editor: Justin Loucks