CASA exhibits focus on photography

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Casa’s new exhibits feature photography.Darcy Logan examines Wes Bell’s exhibit On the Line, running at Casa until April 10. Photo by Richard Amery
“ We’re  featuring a series of photography exhibits which are here in conjunction with Exposure Fest,” noted curator Darcy Logan.
“So it’s a celebration of photography.”


U of L BFA graduate Angeline Simon looked into her family history for “With Warmest Regards” in the main gallery.
“Angeline explored archival photographs from her family history. She manipulated them to explore ideas of identity and culture,” he said, adding that examines the concept erasure.


“It’s about considering yourself while and your family while being separated by them geographically,” he continued.


“It’s about imagination and the effect of family moving,” he said.
 The other half of the gallery features four suites of photographs, which make up Wes Bells’ “ On The Line.”


“ it is four bodies of work that reflect impermanence,” Logan said.


 The first suite features stairs in various states of disrepair.
“He took these photographs of places people used to live in upstate new York,” said Logan, noting the Medicine Hat based  Bell was a fashion photographer in places like New York and Milan before he moved back to where he was born.
“ They are of place people used to live and then fell into a state of disuse and disrepair,” he said.

 The next suite,“Wrapped” features trees wrapped in wire, chain  and rope.

“These trees are in a state of natural encroachments. They are disturbing. They have been bound, but they also show the trees growing around the encroachment,” he continued, noting the third suite “Snagged,” is similar though they were shot in Southern Alberta.


“ These are photos of barbed wire and detritus. Including paper and plastic  caught on the wire And because he  shot them with such a fast shutter speed, they look like part of the landscape — like they are frozen in place. It is a pretty ubiquitous sight in Southern Alberta,” he said.


 The last suite —“Loss For Word” also features the ubiquitous sight of old signs on posts and trees like no hunting and no trespassing  signs.
“They’ve also fallen into disrepair, but they must have been important at one time. You don’t even know what some of them used to say,” he said, adding they also reflect the impermanence of human works.


 There are also  other photographic displays throughout Casa including  Thorsten Nesch’s  “Paris Calgary,” in the Passage Gallery about the  experience of a German citizen moving to Canada in the late ’90s.
“They are photos of the apartment building he lived in in the ’90s when he moved here, called the Paris,”Logan said.
 Upstairs  in the Concourse Gallery, the Lethbridge Photography Club   has a group work inspired by the  four elements.
 As soon as you enter the building, you will see Lexi  Pendzich’s “No Format.”
And  “Work” by Kevin Orr is in the FOCUS Gallery.
 The exhibits run until April 120. They opened on Feb. 29.

— by Richard Amery, L.A. beat Editor
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