A Bond Beyond Words at the Art Gallery of Regina

[00:00:01]Now, let's go to the Art Gallery of Regina with Janelle Lipski where a new summer exhibition is exploring the complex bond between humans and animals.

[00:00:12]Janelle, good morning.

[00:00:15]>> Good morning, Jeremy. Tons of gorgeous art around me that we're going to be discussing here this morning. Bruce Anderson is with me who is one of the artists, the artist specifically to all of these gorgeous pictures surrounding us. Bruce, thank you so much for being here.

[00:00:30]>> Oh, thanks for having me.

[00:00:31]>> So, let's start off with a little bit on what these paintings mean to you.

[00:00:36]>> Well, the the genesis of this particular series of work comes out previous work.

[00:00:44]And I've been using horses in my work for many years now, but the inspiration for this this body of work was book I had of old maps that were developed you know, as much as 5 600 years ago by often by people who who didn't have a full understanding of the the actual landscape and and what was there. There was so a lot of old exploratory maps where they had a good sense of you know, the the sort of the ports or the outline of the country, but not a lot about what was inside. So, it's about uh people discovering new lands and or thinking they've discovered a new land when in fact, there's already people and animals and all kinds of things civilizations there existing previously.

[00:01:42]>> Right. Okay, so that kind of plays into to the exhibition where we're talking about that bond between human and animal. Thank you so much for all of this wonderful information. We are not done yet either. We've got lots more to talk about. We'll be back in about an hour or so. We've got more art to show you.

[00:02:00]>> All right, Janelle. Looking forward to it. See you in a bit.

[00:02:05]All right, let's head back out now to Janelle Lipcsei at the Art Gallery of Regina for more on the Best Friends Forever exhibit.

[00:02:15]>> That's right, Jeremy. Good morning.

[00:02:17]Bruce Anderson is back with me. Now, Bruce, we're talking a little bit earlier this morning about your beautiful pieces of artwork. The theme for this exhibition is that bond between humans and animals. So, talk to me a little bit about why you chose horses for your pieces.

[00:02:33]>> Well, I've worked with the the horse image for a number of years, and uh part of it is just flat out that I like horses. Uh but, the main thing and sort of the rationale is that the horses have such a strong bond with people and people such a strong bond with horses.

[00:02:54]And historically, this has been true in in pretty well every every society around the world. And uh in in some cases in my work, I use horses as a stand-in for people.

[00:03:09]Uh and uh but, also the reference with uh horses and the maps uh indicate the way that they've moved with people and on their own to populate the entire world, basically.

[00:03:23]So, that that's that's kind of the you know, the emotional aspect of me liking horses and the sort of the intellectual rationale for using them in the work and in the way that I do.

[00:03:39]>> All right. So, a huge significance then to the theme of this exhibition. For those who are watching, how can they come check things out?

[00:03:46]>> Uh well, the you'll need to talk to Sandy about the particular hours of the AGR, the Art Gallery of Regina, but it's open most of the time, and it's extremely welcoming place, and it's situated in a in the Neil Balkwill Centre, which is in the middle of Wascana Park. So, it's a great setting and easily accessible, lots of parking, all that sort of stuff. Uh so, and extremely welcoming.

[00:04:19]>> All right, Bruce, well, thank you so very much for this. Once again, there is so much art to come check out here at the Art Gallery of Regina. You can come see some of these beautiful pieces that really do highlight that bond between animals and humans.

[00:04:35]>> All right, once more, let's head back out to Janelle Lipinski at the Art Gallery of Regina. She's checking out the new Beast Friends Forever exhibit.

[00:04:45]>> Good morning. We are coming back to you from the Art Gallery of Regina. This time I've got Sandy with me. Now, Sandy, a very special artist as well had put a sculpture out in the courtyard right here at the gallery. We did take a look at it over the break. Beautiful display for the squirrels even. Tell me a little bit about it.

[00:05:05]>> Yes, an artist named Jeff Meldrum, who's also a provincial park ecologist, has been making art for animals for several years, and he made a special sculpture that's in the gallery or the Neil Balkwill Civic Art Centre's courtyard, and it kind of is at the scale of a squirrel and serves as a kind of focus for the daily feeding ritual between the centre administrator and the squirrel.

[00:05:28]>> So, we love that. Camera operator Ashley and I are big squirrel fans. Now, right beside us is a little bit more of Jeff's artwork here. Tell me about the exhibit, what it means.

[00:05:39]>> Sure, the exhibition is called Beast Friends Forevers, so with the addition of the letter A, we've kind of uh shifted Best Friends Forever to include more than human beings and uh the kind of various relationships that we have with uh animals and other beings including the land itself. And uh there's five prairie artists in the exhibition and they're all uh touching on the varied relationships that humans have with other animals.

[00:06:09]>> What does it mean to be able to have this exhibition right here at the gallery? What significance does it hold?

[00:06:14]>> People really want to connect with uh not just artists and the way that they help us see the world in different ways through their work, um but also with uh local artists and uh their their experiences. One of the artworks uh an animated video by Joanne Bristol uh details her experiences living on McTavish Street right by the gallery.

[00:06:37]So, we've projected it on the gallery wall facing that street as if it's dissolving the gallery wall. We're seeing right into McTavish Street and how all of the unseen animals are animating the world around us.

[00:06:48]>> I love that. The theme of this is so much fun, Sandy. Thank you so much for having us here this morning. And once again, that is the Art Gallery of Regina. There's tons of beautiful pieces of work to come check out.