Sometimes it feels like I’m flying in to the evening programs at Esker Foundation. The trek north on Deerfoot Trail is never optimal around the dinner hour. It seems that the folk who have struggled their way south through rush hour traffic have made their way home for their wardrobe changes and are then all headed back to the core for their evening events. Calgary is such a sprawl! All that aside, when the program lists are published for the Esker Foundation, I always try to log on and register and fill in my calendar for the coming months.
Today, Anna Gustafson delivered a ‘making’ workshop at the Esker. These programs are especially inspiring. Because I wasn’t able to fit this one in, I was really motivated to listen to her talk last night and to see her work in Esker’s Project Space. This exhibit, titled Object Lessons is accessible from the huge picture windows on street level 9th Ave SE.
Anna spoke about her transition from a piece titled Ghost Salmon (very serendipitous) into her shrouded works. Initially, the image that she projected on to the screen of her Ghost Salmon work brought me back to some ideas I had once explored in my own studio. My brother, Cliff, who runs a salmon charter in Comox named Cliff’s Chinook Charters, now has this piece at home with him.
Anna described her connection with other species and her sense of urgency around having a deep regard for sustainability. I felt as though we were connected in our thoughts through some sort of umbilical…I was captivated.
Enjoy Anna’s beautiful website and click on this link in order to read through her process.
As she spoke about shrouding objects that represent our full-on consumption, I thought very much about the bags of litter I picked for such a long period of time at a single pond here in south Calgary. Nothing ever seemed to change about the landscape that I picked….after months and years of clearing the flats, new litter would just move on in. It came in waves. It was no wonder that Anna’s fish nets filled to the brim with shrouded single use plastics hit me in the gut.
The exhibit is happening, in partnership with the New Gallery and Anna Gustafson is extending an invitation to the public to help her with the harvesting of particular household objects including remote controls, film and slide projectors, film cans, slide carousels, flashlights along with white cotton and linen fabric for shrouding. Donations can be brought to The New Gallery from 3 February to 19 April.
Anna has a very detailed record of where she is gathering these objects, as seen below.
I find it interesting that as I attended a second event last evening, I should still be thinking about Anna’s work as I encountered this display. Well done, Anna, and thank you. Thank you, Esker Foundation.
