Through the Body
Jessica Wiebe & Caitlin McGuire

March 12 — April 10, 2022
open Saturdays and Sundays, 12-6pm

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 10th 5-8pm

Artist Talk: Sunday, April 3rd 2:00pm (click here for link)

Jessica Wiebe and Caitlin McGuire bring together a body of work that explores their shared cultural heritage, and the ways they attempt to connect to the culture, place, and migrations of their families. Both are descendants of the Russian Mennonites, a pacifist agricultural religious group who settled in the Ukraine in the 1700’s. Both Jessica and Caitlin’s families immigrated to Canada during times of hardship; Caitlin’s family at the end of the Russian Revolution and beginning of the Soviet Union, and Jessica’s family post WWII. 

The title of the show, Through the Body, comes from conversations they have had about their families’ histories, knowing we pass trauma through our DNA – are there other aspects of our lives that get passed down through the body? This question arose after Caitlin discovered the work of artist Margruite Krahn, an artist from Manitoba, who uncovered floor paintings in early Mennonite settlements. Floor paintings were done in winter, while the other seasons were devoted to farming and harvesting. This practice was familiar to Caitlin, who grew up with her mother gardening in the summer, and painting the floors, ceilings, and walls of their home in the winter. Their mother did not grow up knowing of this practice, as they did not grow up in a Mennonite community in Canada. Yet the connection to the little-knownpractice remained. 

As Jessica has seen firsthand upon returning to Ukraine, the Mennonite colonies post WWII were broken down and taken over by Ukrainian farming communities. It is unknown if the practice of floor painting was engaged with in the old country. However, finding it in the early settlements in Canada seems to indicate it was not a new practice.

Jessica and Caitlin honour the temporality of this with their site-specific floor installation, and engage with their shared history through video, paintings, and drawings which explore the location of the place, Soviet symbology, agriculture, and domestic craft of their families.

Caitlin McGuire (they/she) is a visual artist from Miꞌkmaꞌki/Nova Scotia, the traditional and current territories of the Mi’kmaq people. They are currently based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, where they recently completed their MFA. Working within an expanded painting practice, Caitlin engages with their immediate environment through explorations of intimacy, human behaviour, and how people interact in and with public and private spaces. Their focus spans the subjects of everyday life; mining the archive; women’s histories of art, craft, and labour; and the development of queer identity.

Caitlin is fueled by curiosity of the human experience, especially those of women and queer folks. They are interested in quiet, introspective moments we may miss, rather than loud, sensational events that tend to capture our immediate attention. Caitlin’s work invites connection by invoking common experiences and memory through visual cues in paintings, drawings, installations, and animations. They employ colour as a visual language, often taking subtle moments and amplifying their expression through high chromatic values. Their current body of work focuses on translating the geometric structures and imagery of traditional Mennonite craft, such as quilting, cross stitching, and floor painting, to explore real and imagined narratives; as well as using these structures as the framework to tell their own stories and formation of identity.

Interdisciplinary artist Jessica Lynn Wiebe (she/her) is a former artillery soldier in the Canadian military whose body of work centres on reflections of militarism, military life, memory and commemoration. Her interdisciplinary approach investigates the mechanisms of war, including the complex politics around gender, economy, architecture of war, and the human condition. By engaging and challenging deeply-held beliefs and emotions about the military and war, her work generates dialogue among members of the public, government, and those who serve. In 2018 Wiebe participated in the Canadian Forces Artist Program (CFAP) and was embedded with the Canadian Armed Forces on Op Unifier in Ukraine. Since then she has developed an ongoing body of work that digs into the history of war and conflict in Ukraine and how it continues to impact the current war in the Donbas region and now the whole of Ukraine. The history of the Soviet Union is an integral aspect to this work and to understanding her ancestral connection to the land in Ukraine. Jessica was born and raised in Brandon, MB on Treaty 2 territory and currently practices in K’jipuktuk/Halifax, NS.

Note for Visitors Regarding Covid-19: All visitors to the gallery must wear a mask and provide proof of vaccination. No more than ten visitors in the gallery at any time. Please respect social distancing by keeping 6’ft away from others.