The University of Lethbridge art gallery opens a new exhibit today (Nov. 1).
“And Yet We Still Remain” features a series of photographs from Group of Seven member Lawren S. Harris who took the images throughout the eastern arctic with fellow Group of Seven member A.Y Jackson in the 1930s, and curator Lisa Hirmer who has contributed selections from her ongoing Dirt Pile series.
The University of Lethbridge art gallery website notes her photographs capture the extracted earth of engineered building sites that loom on the fringes of new construction, heaps of exhumed soil, rock and plant material often left forgotten and abandoned to be absorbed back into nature to become mound features in the landscape that are eventually read as natural.
“Hirmer’s framing of these fabricated features in the landscape suggests the signature images of Lawren 
S. Harris, his mountains, islands and icebergs of the 1920-30s, works that pushed him to abstraction, a space where few Canadians ultimately wished to venture (and so Harris remained trapped in a heroic nature-based story of a nation of his own making). More than simply documents of a marginal aspect of the built environment, Hirmer’s photographs stand as compelling statements, articulating a subtle iconic framing of subject matter, plotting a precariously detached, at times ethereal engagement with the landscape, a landscape with which Canadians remain ambiguously connected.
They are positioned here with historical works from the University of Lethbridge collection and photographs by Lawren S. Harris (the source of his iceberg paintings).
What this exhibition proposes is that Hirmer’s works are a far more authentic representation of the Canadian landscape, a terrain that has been consistently altered, shaped and manipulated, but that remains hidden behind a projection of a more palatable story of place,” it continues.
Hirmir is a designer/photographer/artist/writer based in Guelph, Ontario. She has a Bachelors of Architectural Studies and a Masters of Architecture from the University of Waterloo. Her masters thesis On Wilderness focussed on the significance of nature and wilderness in contemporary culture – work which won an Ontario Association of Architects Award of Excellence and was placed on the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Honour Roll. Her photographic and graphic work has been exhibited in projects in Canada, Europe and the UK. Her photographs, which are often paired with writing (whether her own or that of a collaborator), have been featured in numerous publications including: OnSite, FUSE, Horizonte, PLAT and nomorepotlucks.
Co-curator Andre Hunter is an artist/writer/curator/educator based in Hamilton, Ontario. He has exhibited and published widely in Canada and internationally (including exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of Alberta and Dubrovnik Museum of Modern Art) and has held curatorial and programming positions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Kamloops Art Gallery and McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
For a number of years, Hunter has been engaged in a critical exploration of dominant ideas and myths of Canada including such projects as The Other Landscape (exhibition and catalogue, Art Gallery of Alberta, 2003), Mapping Tom (published in the catalogue for the exhibition Tom Thomson, Art Gallery of Ontario/National Gallery of Canada, 2002) and Emily Carr: Clear Cut (published in the catalogue for the exhibition Emily Carr: New Perspectives, National Gallery of Canada/Vancouver Art Gallery, 2006).
This exhibition can be considered an extension of his ULAG publication Cul-de-Sac, published in 2004, based on selections from the gallery’s collection and the touring exhibition Sea to Sky (curated by Josephine Mills).
Lisa Hirmer and Andrew Hunter are also principals of DodoLab, an art and design based program that researches, engages and responds to contemporary community challenges, with a focus on the natural world, social systems, the built environment and cities in transition. In 2010 they received a Canada Council for the Arts Independent Critic and Curators in Architecture grant for their collaborative project Marginalia.
The opening reception for “And Yet We Still Remain,” is Today, ( Thursday, Nov. 1) from 4-6 p.m. It runs until Dec. 21.
