Performance With 2 Sculptures

Installation

The work for Performance With Two Sculptures was created specifically for exhibition at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, and grew out of a consideration of Southern Alberta — a place often referred to as "the Texas of Canada". Like Texas, Alberta has an art patronage class focused on collecting cowboy art — an aspect of the place that was both embraced and critiqued within my exhibition.

The exhibition posed a studio-centered variant of what could be termed a museological exhibition practice. Here, art objects borrowed from a collection were combined with my own works. On loan from the University of Manitoba art collection, were two bronze sculptures by the well-known American cowboy artist Frederic Remington (Bronco Buster and Mountain Man). These were used to generate a group of paintings, assemblages and a performance for two actors, as well as being on display within the exhibition.