Opening Reception and Artist Talk: Ask The Mountains

add to outlook add to google calendar remind me

Saturday, March 19th, 2022
5:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Join exhibiting artists Jenni Schine and Sylvie Ringer, along with curator Jenelle Pasiechnik, for the opening of Ask The Mountains at the CRAG.

In confrontation with pressing environmental issues and a global pandemic, Ask The Mountains investigates landscape as a metaphor for our internal worlds.

Starting from the idea of landscape as the first source of our personal metaphors and similes the artists ask themselves the question: “what can we learn about ourselves by allowing our perception of our surroundings to be mirrored in our emotional states?" How does connection with the natural world help us listen to our environments, to each other, and within ourselves? What does this sound like? What does it look like? What does it feel like in our bodies?

Ask The Mountains is a multi-sensory, immersive installation featuring drawings, paintings, and soundscape compositions referencing the atmosphere and landscape of North Vancouver Island and Malcolm Island; places dear to the artists and many who call the Island their home. During Ask the Mountains, the artists return to Malcolm Island psychologically and emotionally, but not necessarily physically due to the way the pandemic has changed travel. And yet, the artists continue to carry the gifts of Malcolm Island within their separate lives as a way to help move through and seek shelter during difficult times.

Through being present and remembering, asking the mountains, and exploring what it is to be a mountain, the artists begin a conversation with the natural world and bring it into the gallery to share with visitors. How do the layers of information that are stored in rocks, sediments, and earth find their way into artists’ work, and our lives?

Join us for a beverage some appetizers, hear from the artists about the exhibition, ask them questions and experience the connection between art, nature and ourselves. As per Provincial Health Office regulations, a valid proof-of-vaccination QR code will need to be shown and scanned at the door for entrance into this event.