HERMES ARTISTS GROUP SHOW
Making Do: Creativity in the Time of Pan(dem)ic
October 10 — November 1, 2020
Online Artist Talk: Friday, October 30
This impromptu exhibition is the result of conversations by HERMES artists about how we, as creative people, processed public alarm and embodied personal panic in our studio lives during the past 6 months of life during COVID-19.
Some of us ‘froze’ for months until psychologically able to return to pre-existing studio projects; others produced pandemic-specific new work; yet others pursued multiple, parallel (but materially disparate) explorations.
Alongside their recent studio projects, each artist will provide a few sentences about their pan(dem)ic state of mind and consequent production.
Participating Artists:
Robert Bean
Barbara Berry
Thierry Delva
Peter Dykhuis
Barbara Lounder
Jessica Wiebe
A collaborative HERMES project initiated by Peter Dykhuis
Barbara Berry
Karma Yogini
acrylic and oil on masonite, 2020
Karma Yogini was begun in the spring and finished in the green richness of summer, as the world became active again after the lockdown. Moving within a flowing stream of colors and paint; animals, humans and plants arise and dissolve.
Mamos
oil on wood, 2020
The painting Mamos was begun and completed during the province wide lockdown. This painting is a swirling combination of corona virus cells, masked figures, an animal known as a pangolin with images derived from Tibetan Vajrayana Buddism of wrathful female deities called mamos. The mamos are considered to be among the main natural forces which may respond to human misconduct and environmental misuse by creating obstacles and disease. SARS-CoV-2 made the jump to humans at one of Wuhan's open-air “wet markets.” The pangolin was an animal sold at wet markets so it could possibly have been a host to spread the virus. In short, when the environment is out of balance, due to the actions of humans, nature will send out distress signals to try and bring balance back to the natural world.
Barbara Lounder
3 untitled paper studies
paper, watercolour
These three small paper constructions are from an ongoing series of studies that I am making with a punch that I acquired at the beginning of lockdown. I’ve been punching holes in book covers, drawing papers and watercolours, and connecting the resulting ovals by cutting slots and fitting them together. They can be taken apart, packed flat and reconfigured very easily. My aim is to create sets of ovals to mail to an artistic collaborator in England. Working simply, incrementally, mutably and on a small scale suits my anxious moods these days. In addition to the punch tool, I got a new set of watercolours from Beam Paints (beampaints.myshopify.com) this spring, which has provided most of the colour in these studies.
Jessica Wiebe
To Make A Sniper Suit
acrylic paint on linen, thread, and dirt
Diving into the history of camouflage I discovered surrealist artist Roland Penrose. He developed the Home Guard Manual of Camouflage in 1941. The booklet is a thorough analysis of the nature and application of camouflage. He described how camouflage can be applied by the British Home Guard in the event of an invasion of Britain by the Germans in WW2.
I made my own sniper suit based on his directions To Make A Sniper Suit. Though, as in war and in pandemic, I had to make do with the materials I had at home. Instead of a 6ft x 10ft piece of hessian, I used my 4ft x 6ft linen curtain. This material became very hard and stiff once the paint dried and was not effective for ease of movement, nor was it long enough in the arms or along the bottom. I chose the “Camouflage Design 2” suited to rocks, stone, earth, and sandbags (dark brown, warm grey or light earth, and white). I chose the rocky landscape around Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia to test the suit in. At the location, I rubbed dirt across the white sections because it was too bright. For the most part the camouflage suit blended into the landscape.
From the Forest Floor to the Canopy Above
acrylic on canvas, 36x30”
In a previous series of paintings, I expressed the human condition and the many ways we grapple, physically and emotionally, with external forces that we face on a daily basis. These paintings directly reference a variety of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu techniques that are used to create figurative repeat patterns. The patterns repeat across the painted surface and are further broken down using shape and colour to disrupt and camouflage the repeat pattern. The pandemic has forced me to slow down and reassess many things and while painting this new piece, I found myself digging deeper into my initial concept.
The figures in this painting represent people grappling with global issues; the pandemic, the environment and climate change, polarized political stances, racial inequalities, economic disparities, basic survival needs like food and shelter, etc. The palette is inspired by nature; the colours of the forest floor to the canopy of trees above.
While painting, I listened to the audiobook The Invention of Nature about scientist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), a German naturalist and polymath whose discoveries forever changed the way we understand the natural world. His radical conception of nature led to his prediction of human-induced climate change and foresaw the negative impacts of colonization. His ideas form the foundation of modern environmentalism.
By weaving elements of nature and the grappling figures together, I want to reiterate Humboldt’s conception of nature as a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. His ideas of nature are just as prescient and vital as ever today.
Thierry Delva
Maiastra
wood, astro-turf, plaster, 2020
“Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Nothing Blue…”
The work is a combination of a cast (one of several) that I made quite a few years ago combined with a new plinth and a borrowed title. It is more or less an impulsive piece.
Overall, for the past few months, I have been concentrating on completing older work.
Robert Bean
Étude (pour Marey) #1, #2, #3
June 2020
The three images that comprise Étude (pour Marey) were made specifically for the exhibition Image envoyée/Image sent at the Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris.
The work is an homage to the French scientist and chronophotographer Étienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904). Marey’s time/motion photographs reveal the curious attributes of human perception in relation to temporality, movement and space.
The multiple flights of a Red-tailed Hawk presented in Étude (pour Marey) are discontinuous and utilize non-linear moments that fragment temporality. The work considers the human relation to the environment, the atmosphere and the ancient divination associated with the flight of birds.
The photographs used in the montage were made on June 1 & 16, 2020 during two visits to Caribou, Nova Scotia to carefully visit friends during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic.
Peter Dykhuis
Stars + Scopes (Study #1)
encaustic on 15 panels, 2019
Stars + Scopes (Study #1) is the most re-worked painting that I have produced in my career. Finished in 2019, it was months in production because I would not compromise on a single brush stroke anywhere. It represented a study piece, almost a painting/mark making sampler of sorts in preparation for the next series of paintings titled The Powers That Be.
Stars + Scopes (Study #2)
encaustic on 15 panels, 2020
Stars + Scopes (Study #2) started out as a companion piece that was also intended as a lead-in for The Powers That Be. I believed that it was 2 black paint strokes away from completion when COVID-19 descended on our physical, social, cultural, and psychological spaces.
Overwhelmed with day-job related pressures, anxieties, terminal illness and consequent death in the family, Study #2 sat on my studio wall for almost 6 months, almost taunting me. But for those 6 months, I was incapable to melt wax paint and finish it off. When I finally went 'back at it', it was almost with a ‘devil-may-care, fuck it’ attitude, that resulted in a crazy reworking of the piece with audacious additions that I would never have gambled on before COVID-19.
I also decided to completely rewrite the 3 pieces from my 2018 solo show here at HERMES into a single, contiguous piece, (not in exhibition) something that I never would have considered 2 years ago.
All bets are off and everything is open for reboots, reworks, and rearrangements.