Kelowna Art Gallery and the Kelowna and District Arts Council present
Rare Spirits
A Personal Tribute to Vintage Elders
May 17 to June 20
Rare Spirits- A Personal Tribute to Vintage Elders is an art exhibition celebrating the individuality of twelve highly accomplished and recognized Canadian seniors. This exhibit highlights the strength and determination of each and focuses on the value of their wisdom and spirit. Their lives have spanned most of the twentieth century, a period shaped by remarkable social and technological change. These elders serve as touchstones for those of us looking forward, with trepidation, to living our own twilight years in the twenty-first century.
This exhibit serves at once to celebrate the lives of some exceptional people and to illuminate the different aspects of their characters. Pastel has been chosen because it captures particularly well the character in the faces, and gives a greater sense of their humanity than other media.
Each person is represented in two separate images, one in black and white, and the other in colour pastel.
The black and white drawings project strength and establish the timeless authority of the documentary image. They are also a kind of visual metaphor for the treatment older people receive in our society, forcing us to confront issues about aging most of us would rather ignore: fears of isolation, of losing hold, of being infantilised and treated with condescension.
The colour pastels give a sense of the personalities and enduring qualities that the process of living has imparted like so many layers and hues.
Thank you to the Central Okanagan Foundation, National Gerontological Nursing Association &
The Vancouver Foundation for their support.
Exhibition images
