Obscure = Secure: Revisioning Camouflage
Peter Dijkhuis, Barbara Lounder and Jessica Lynn Wiebe

February 11 — March 26, 2023
open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 12-6pm

Opening Reception: Friday, February 10th at 6pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, March 11th at 2pm

Dijkhuis, Lounder, and Wiebe, each with personal backgrounds that include past military conflicts (WW II Netherlands, Cold War Germany, and Afghanistan), investigate their fascination with camouflage as functional and instrumental visual treatments. The artists revision camo within a larger critique of military culture, inverting, subverting and reverting it for multiple narrative purposes, including netting for defense in Ukraine.

Peter Dijkhuis is a collagist and encaustic painter with a focus on how military interests and domestic economies overlap. His project for HERMES is titled Camo Canoe with Mourning Doves and expands his repertoire to include the refurbishment of a dented, 40-year old, 13’ Grumman aluminum canoe.

Barbara Lounder makes art using found objects, sites, words and images, addressing themes drawn from personal experiences and political histories. She has a special interest in walking and other embodied mobilities as methods for learning and expression.

Jessica Lynn Wiebe uses her lived military experience to create interdisciplinary work that centres on militarism, military life, and commemoration. This work is often gritty in terms of materials and approach. As camouflage conceals, Wiebe’s work reveals the messiness and chaos that is war in hopes of encouraging dialogue on war and conflict by listening to others' lived experiences – not to change an opinion or belief – but by knowing others we begin to know ourselves more deeply.

Note for Visitors Regarding Covid-19: Masks are preferred. Maximum 15-20 people.