RESONANT OBJECTS

Open Gallery
December 6, 2023 to January 13, 2024

This community art project was inspired by the idea that the objects we keep in our lives embody some significance to us and hold our stories. Through conversation, self-reflection, and explorations of Deanna Bowen’s exhibition Black Drones in the Hive, participants were invited to consider their relationships with objects. Which objects in our lives hold meaning? What gets saved and why? How do we decide which objects tell our story?

In writing stories, objects can be used to spur action, to reveal character, and to create narrative unity. Writing about an object can also be helpful for getting authors to move away from the abstract and toward a focus on something concrete.

The goal of this art project was for the participants to develop a piece of writing using an object as their inspiration. Together, Jennifer Chrumka and Emily Hope led participants through a series of four workshops designed to help each participant write a short story or poem based on their object. The result is this display of 20 separate works of art – the pieces as written by the individual author, paired with a photograph of their chosen object. This exhibition celebrates the process of writing and is the culmination of Jennifer’s time as the 2023 Writer in Residence with the Thompson Nicola Regional Library.

Resonant Objects is a collaborative workshop organized and delivered by TNRL Writer in Residence Jennifer Chrumka and Kamloops Art Gallery Education and Public Programs Director Emily Hope.

Photographs by Cory Hope.

Photo: Emily Hope