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Field Works This
exhibition brings together the work of two artists – Vancouver photo-based
artist Ken Jeannotte and Saskatoon painter Grant McConnell. Ken Jeannotte
was born in Vancouver and grew up on a farm north of Ft. St. John, B.C. He
studied painting and printmaking at the Kootenay School of Art, Nelson, B.C.
(1966-69) and painting and photography at Emily Carr College of Art and Design
in Vancouver (1984-86 and 1998-2000). Grant McConnell was born in York County,
Ontario. He studied Fine Arts at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New
Brunswick, and received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of
Saskatchewan in 1994. Both artists
have exhibited their work in group and solo exhibitions since the mid 1980s. The
exhibition Field Works brings the work of Ken Jeannotte and Grant
McConnell together for the first time. It is also the first time the work of
either artist has been exhibited in Kelowna. The works
of Jeannotte and McConnell share a common interest in issues involving land use
and ownership and, in particular, the Canadian landscape, its settlement and its
history. Both artists are interested in the impact on the land made by
colonization and human settlement, the exploitation of natural resources, the
development of agriculture and the increasing use of technology in the name of
progress. While they choose to work in different media (photography and
painting) and reside in different provinces (British Columbia and Saskatchewan)
the works of Ken Jeannotte and Grant McConnell are connected by an awareness and
regard for the significant personal, spiritual, social, political and economic
relationship we all share with the land. Two independent
bodies of work are included in Field Works. Ken
Jeannotte’s (Arrogation) The Full Weight of Reason, 2000, is comprised
of 10 landscape-based panoramic photographs with text. The landscape depicted in
these works is of the area around the Cutknife-Poundmaker Reserve and the
farming community of Cutknife, Saskatchewan, where the artist’s father grew up
in the first half of the 20th century. Jeannotte made a pilgrimage to
this familial place in the late 1990s to locate the house his father grew up in
and his experience and memory of this journey inspired this series. The
panoramic format of Jeannotte’s work references the sort of historical
photographs one expects to see in the local museum. But the inclusion of the
personal stories and narrative written in long hand along the bottom of the
images invites the viewer to imagine beyond the prairie landscape depicted. For over 15
years, Grant McConnell has continued an ongoing investigation into the
representation of the Canadian landscape and the portrayal of its history and
people. Often using 19th and 20th century history texts
and school books as a starting point, McConnell has developed an extensive body
of work that deconstructs official versions of Canadian identity and culture
that were common in many of these early texts but which frequently marginalized
or omitted the histories and experiences of many people. The focus of
McConnell’s new work, entitled Far From Montreal: Fresh Machine, is on
the intersection of technology and the land that occurred during Canada’s
early history and settlement, and an examination of the influence this
occurrence continues to have on our relationship and use of the land today. In an
attempt to bring some of the issues Ken Jeannotte and Grant McConnell address in
their works closer to our own home and history in the Okanagan Valley, a
selection of historical books, pamphlets and photographs borrowed from the
Kelowna Museum are also on display. Linda
Sawchyn Exhibition Images
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