Lethbridge artist Bev Mazurick explored the themes of creation and people's cultural interpretation of it in her new exhibit, “ Visual Portal.”
Her exhibit as well as Amber-Jane Grove's exhibit 900: Drawing with the Brain opened at CASA, June 28. they both run until Aug. 30.
“ It’s the result of a proposal I did to Darcy (Logan, CASA curator) a few years ago when I was interpreting music with colour, shapes and turning them into abstract art,” Mazurick said.
She did a lot of research into the creation stories of several different cultures and religions including Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Muslim, Taoism and several different First Nations and became inspired by the language they used to convey the stories.
“ I became interested in the language they used and wanted to convey the images and concepts into abstract art,” she said.
She emphasized she did not want to offend anybody or denigrate any belief system
In addition to creation stories, she also decided to use the same process to interpret Hans Christian Andersen stories “ The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “ The Little Match Girl.”
The exhibit also includes a larger, three dimensional piece inspired by “the lyrical beauty of Hubble space telescope photos and the systems, analysis, logic and mathematics used to explain the incomprehensible cosmos.”
“I was inspired by the language used describe math and physics
She incorporated visual representations of some of the images in the texts for her works.
There are 12 pieces created over the past two years, for example, the Buddhist inspired piece features the Buddhas of receding sizes reflecting the different planes of enlightenment. One of the First Nations pieces inspired by the Haida legend “Salmon Boy” features a colourful salmon.
The other exhibit at CASA is Edmonton based University of Lethbridge graduate Amber-Jane Grove.
“ 900 Drawing with the Brain” is a mixed media exhibit of works created by her non-dominant hand.
“ She made them with her left hand instead of her right,” said curator Darcy Logan.
“ And they were all created in the past 900 days,” he continued.
The exhibits run June 28-Aug. 30.
