An Improbable Place: Part Three

The following is the third part of artist Richard Stanford's piece, An Improbable Place, a four-part series:

For anyone who believes in ghosts, the lands around Alexandria, Glen Robertson, L'Original, Glen Nevis, Blue Corners, St. Eugène is where you might find them.

Until I came to an intersection south of Dalkeith, I never believed in them myself.

Staring at the one-room schoolhouse that guards the intersection, you can hear the clanging of the bell under the teacher's steely gaze, eager for her children to continue reading Richard the Third, ringing them in from the field where Henry has just hit a line drive into the gap next to the quivering aspen and as he slides through the grey dirt into second base he is heard shouting, "My kingdom for a hit!"

South of Vankleek Hill, the Rigaud River rises then flows east to the province of Québec near St. Eugene.  This is not a river of romance. It is very muddy with such a non-reflective surface that it has the effect of a liquid brown crypt.  You can watch the motionless river from the high bank as it flows into Québec and ponder not only what this water may contain but what is in the building behind you - The Skelly Gallery (now known as Inkidoo Art for You).

Owned and operated by Nik Schnell and Philippa Lesniak, the gallery occupies the top floor of a converted coach house with the main floor being the 'bread-and-butter' business of a frame shop. Skelly curates four shows a year, two in the spring, and two in the autumn. Thus by the time you wend your way from the attractions of the river up the slope to the gallery, you may have a difficult time getting through the front door and it's not because of security.  It's because the gallery is packed, which puts another myth to rest - that the country is not a place to appreciate art or to meet people who love it.  On this day the art is ThRecycle, an exhibit made entirely from recycled materials.

Mac Williamson collected fruit juice can lids for 10 years, eventually creating The Iron Curtain:  620 metal lids held together with keychain wire.  The message is clear but sunlight and wind reconfigure any notion of totalitarianism as suggested by the title to create a vibrant, self-reflective curtain.  The temptation is to fold or rattle the curtain to make the sound of chimes.

Susan Valyi's Industrial Urn is sub-titled 1198891, Serial box, Industrial Urn, Cyclepath or Mac's old Peugeot. Valyi says of it, "My son, my neighbor and I took an entire retired old Peugeot bike and chopped it to fit into a display case...The serial number is on the stand and it looks like a plaque. The idea was a tribute to old technology inspired by the way scrap metal is compacted for transportation and recycling."

It may not seem unusual for artists in the country to be concerned with environmental issues. But recycling is easy; it does not require any significant sacrifice.  It does, however, ensure that whatever is soon to disappear may find another life as art or as truly another life.

Side note

In a report compiled by Hill Stratégies Research (January 2010), one-quarter of the 140,000 artists in Canada reside in small and rural municipalities (36,500 artists, or 26 per cent). This is almost exactly the same number of artists that reside in the cities of Toronto and Montreal combined (35,700).

Visual artists and craftspeople are the artists who are most likely to reside in small and rural municipalities. Almost one-half of artisans and craftspersons (47 per cent) reside in small and rural municipalities, while 35 per cent of painters, sculptors and other visual artists do so.

Census data is available for the 261 small and rural municipalities with 40 or more artists. These 261 small and rural municipalities are home to 21,100 artists, representing 15 per cent of all Canadian artists.

Look out for the fourth and final part of An Improbable Place, in the September 1 edition of The Review.