The View Gallery has a new exhibition with a special message.
Now through February 12, Figuratively Speaking: A Journey Through Movement is open to the public on the Vancouver Island University campus.
The collection is the final project for Visual Arts student Pam Vickars’ curatorial course. Although it ended in December, she chose to have the exhibition in January in order to be uplifting.
Vickars said, “Even when we get sometimes stuck in things that are difficult to deal with in our lives, we’re always moving.”
Vickars chose four artists to feature in the collection: Katarina Meglic, who works with acrylic and oils; Chintan Bolliger, who uses acrylics and glazing; Joel Prevost, who sculpts with clay and bronze; and Kathy Venter, who makes ceramic sculptures.
Prevost’s pieces come from his background in dance and are inspired by people he knows. Most of his sculptures, including “Ascension” and “Karsten II,” are of dancers.
“The way somebody moves in life, it’s their own personal dance, it’s their own personal growth, their own path,” Prevost explained.
Dancers also appear in Meglic’s art. “Dancers, by their nature, create beauty and inspire emotion just by moving their bodily vessels,” Meglic said.
Meglic is inspired by human emotions and experiences, as shown in the passionate “Lovers” and the transitional “Emerging (Eve in Yellow).” On the other hand, “Divination” illustrates the “relationship between the seen and the unseen, [the] process of divining order from the abyss.”
Bolliger portrays psychological movement, through haunting works like “It’s Not the Wounds, But How You Wear Them” and “Resisting the Past.” Of the latter, she said, “Even as we flow forward through life, we want to be aware of the pull of the past clouding the present and future promise.”
Venter’s Coup d’Oeil series explores the move into young adulthood. Figures one, four, and five appear at the Gallery. They recall Greek Tanagra terracotta figurines and draw inspiration from Aboriginal body painting. Once someone’s body is decorated, it “enters a heightened, ceremonial or spiritual context.”
“In the sculptures, there are no longer only contemporary young women, friends from my community, but a perception of truth, a symbolic absolute and a concentration of power,” Venter explained.
Figuratively Speaking also features a video recording of contemporary dancer Maya Campbell, filmed by a Theatre student. It was one of two collaborations between the Gallery and a VIU department. The Gallery also worked with a Graphic Design student on the exhibition’s handbook.
Vickars hopes the show draws many visitors. She said it was made with students in mind, from both Visual Arts and the larger community. “I hope the broader body of students … take the opportunity to come and see it and have some sense of feeling for it.”
Figuratively Speaking: A Journey Through Movement is at the View Gallery until Saturday, February 12. The opening reception will be held virtually over Zoom on Saturday, January 29, from 1:30 to 3:00 pm.
