The Bowman Art Gallery is exploring its wild side this weekend , with two animal themed exhibits opening Saturday, Sept. 25.
The first exhibit from Edmonton based, University of Lethbridge student Bekk Wells poses the question “What Kind of Animal Am I?” Wells is taking his boilermakers ticket in Edmonton, but will be back at the University of Lethbridge to earn a chemistry degree.
“It is fibre installations and soft sculptures. It investigates the way animals are portrayed as soft, cuddly stuffed animals,” described Bowman Arts Centre Darcy Logan examining a variety of home made stuffed animals including a lynx, a tiny bear, a giant shrew and several different types of birds.
“Or animals as science experiments,” he continued pointing to a line of technicoloured mice coming from the radiator of the exhibit room.
“That’s actually inspired by a real experiment of photoluminescent mice where scientists changed the colours of mice by playing with their DNA and chemicals,” he continued.
“It’s a different sort of exhibit. There are three main pieces including a tent in the middle of the room,” he continued.
“It makes you think because on first observation, it seems playful and fun,” he continued.
He is looking forward to the other animal themed exhibit, The Bestiary Project, which is the fruit of a workshop several months ago which called for local artists to create their own fantastical creatures.
The result will be displayed at the Bowman Art Centre, Sept, 25 with creatures from Rick Gillis, Frater Tham, Troy Nickle, Aaron Hagan, Kelaine Devine, Alexis Bialobzyski and Leila Armstrong who submitted several works each.
“The works were either conceived at that workshop or created right there,” Logan enthused.
“I was impressed with the fact that the people who came to the workshop were so invested in the project that they came up with such amazing creatures,” Logan continued adding in addition to two and three dimensional works, each one comes with a description of the creature and it’s background.
“Historically a bestiary was an encyclopedia of fantastical animals, so these works also offer that allegorical description. So each piece has a text component to it with a description of their habitat and history. Some of them are completely fantastical and fun while others have political commentary” he continued.
The reception for both exhibits is Sept. 25 from 7-9 p.m. at the Bowman Arts Centre. Both exhibits run until Oct. 30.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
