GLOBAL NATURE
Lorraine Gilbert
Sarah Anne Johnson
Central Gallery
June 11 to September 3, 2011
The unique art of Winnipeg’s Sarah Anne Johnson come into being through personal memories and histories. Pieces in the KAG show include work inspired by a 12-day-expedition to the Arctic Circle. Johnson has been a featured artist at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. In 2008, Johnson’s work earned her the Grange Prize for photography. She is a graduate of the University of Manitoba Fine Arts program and a holds Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale.
Lorraine Gilbert has been a practicing and exhibiting artist since 1979. Her photographic works have been collected by Canada's major galleries and museums, including the National Gallery of Canada. Gilbert has been an invited professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, a part-time professor at Concordia in Montreal and is presently an Associate Professor at The University of Ottawa.
Global Nature presents the exciting and thought provoking works of Johnson and Gilbert as they explore the relationship between photography and issues related to the environment, eco-tourism, and the ecology movement.
Johnson, in her Tree Planting series (2003) turns her camera on the youthful aspirations of a group of young tree planters in Manitoba. Through her photographs we see their “planet healthy” activities, as well as their more mundane preoccupations with summer romance, the on-going battle with irritating insects, the physical exhaustion and the boredom of life in the bush. For a lucky few, there are sporadic moments of joy and feelings of synchronicity with their natural surroundings.
Johnson’s installation, The Galapagos Project (2005-06) again shows young people toiling to replant the land while they attempt to rejuvenate the island of San Cristobal in the Galapagos and rid it of non-indigenous flora and fauna. The enormity of the task is evident in the images.
The land and our relationship to it, is an ongoing theme in the work of Lorraine Gilbert. She is especially known for Shaping the New Forest (1987-2004) in which she documents the lives of tree planters in British Columbia and the effects of the forest industry on the environment. Gilbert’s Icelandic Walksphotographs (2002-03) extend her inquiries into the cultural significance of land. The work combines tourist experiences, documentary approaches and mythological expressions. In addition, the images draw attention to the role of digital technologies in constructing an understanding of the world.
Global Nature, so relevant to the BC Interior and our forest industry, is curated by Andrea Kunard, Associate Curator, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography
Organized by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, an affiliate of the National Gallery of Canada
Generously sponsored by Radio NL, Simmons, Black and Emsland Insurance Services
Lorraine Gilbert
Shaping the New Forest (detail), 1990
dye coupler print, approx.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
