05.06.2018 | 06.09.2018
BODY COLLECTIVE | DAYLEN CHUPIK, HANA FALCONER, BRADY GLEESON, ELEXANDRA GREAVES, ALISON GRIGG, DANIN LAWRENCE, TARA LYNN MACDOUGALL, ANGELINE SIMON, GRACE WIRZBA, MIGUELTZINTA SOLÍS, LAUREL SCOTT, MEGHAN MACWHIRTER, GARY UCHIKURA, KYLIE FINEDAY, RACHEL LEE

The body is an intelligent site through which we can know things. Body Collective contemplates the physical connection of the artists in the exhibition, through conversation between artworks in the gallery and with the communal environment they were created in. The students work intimately in an open studio, influencing one other through support, critique and collaboration. This setting, focused on growth and exploration, is a crucial developmental stage of each artists' body of work. The exhibition centers on these relationships. 

Each artist uses their body to create the work, some making this aspect clear and central, while others actively remove their form. Notions of identity, intimacy, memory and perception are explored, in relation to self and place. Each artist is influenced by the space they share, the city of Lethbridge in southern Alberta, on Treaty 7 traditional Blackfoot territory. These physical features and political implications are interpreted through differing lived experience and perspective. 

This is where the power of the collective emerges. Our contemporary era is understood by the individual and shared with the group, which reflects itself back in constant dialogue, the singular with the whole, a composite of parts altering one another. This unintentional collective is unique to this time. The population of the art department is perpetually in flux. This movement is paused for a moment to be seen as a collection, only to disperse afterwards, in differing directions to unknown destinations, affected somehow by this gathering.

The interaction between the parts and the whole, the artist and the art world, can be likened to the workings of a body, where each organ finds a specialization. For the artist it is a voice of their own, a field of dedicated research, a contribution to the workings of the system – the world we live in.

This exhibition is organized by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery and curated by Courtney Faulkner. Faulkner is currently undertaking her BFA in Studio Art at the University of Lethbridge. Funding assistance provided by Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the City of Lethbridge.

Curated by Courtney Faulkner.