LOST. BIRD. COLLECTING. | DAGMAR DAHLE
09.23.2006 | 11.12.2006
In her exhibition, Lost. Bird. Collecting., Lethbridge artist Dagmar Dahle brings together various bodies of work she has created over the past six years. Her diverse interests are intricately bound to one institutional ethos: that of the museum. Whether dealing with the world around her, the archival remnants of natural history or the pathos of worn and degenerate thrift store merchandise, Dahle’s interests coincide within the parameters of museum display.
This artist’s museum, however, is filled with objects fabricated by her own hand and the hands of numerous anonymous hobby artists; these may be either original or altered in nature; what binds them together is intent. Works as seemingly diverse as water colours of extinct birds, re-configured found paintings, original paintings, ceramic pieces, gessoed found objects and sculpture, in their very excess, challenge the margins of studio production to directly address museum display and collecting practices. Objects are displayed conventionally (paintings hung salon-style) or as though in storage (on shipping crates and shelves). The gallery is transformed into a hybrid space of exhibition display, storage room, workshop and studio; it is a site in transition, in the process of developing or disintegrating.
Dagmar Dahle has produced 132 watercolours depicting birds paired with images of fashionable gowns from the period of extinction. Inspired by visits to the Natural History museums in London and Oxford and the fashion history display at the Victoria and Albert Museum, these images evoke a poignant sense of loss in their depictions of avian extinction paired with the passing fad of fashion.
Dahle’s practice embraces theories of social ecology in which constructions of nature and the constructions of the social are seen as describing each other. Her research has focused on historical and contemporary representations of animals, decorative art and craft practices that intersect with fine art, and the role of the museum in the construction of knowledge.
The representation of birds and bird extinctions in historical time is a common thread running through the many layers of Dahle’s practice. She has used the bird image as a universally recognized symbol of the natural world, representing diverse ecologies, migrations and trans-migrations. Its image has transcended natural boundaries to become a decorative motif --a fixture in popular culture and more recently, a suspected carrier of viral infection. Bird extinction, the artist feels, points to all mass extinctions in historical time and is an ultimate form of death, framing a desire to preserve and a need to mourn.
The artist’s work addresses the bird image within multiple contexts: art and craft, domination and colonization, gender, natural history, museology, and ecological issues.
Dagmar Dahle studied at the University of Victoria and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Her work has been included in exhibitions across Canada. She has been a professor in the art department at the University of Lethbridge since 1997.
Organized by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery and curated by Joan Stebbins. Funding assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the City of Lethbridge.
