Gallery 1C03 rounds out its 2006-07 season with casualty, a small, yet visually enticing and intellectually dense show installed in the heart of the University of Winnipeg's busy inner city campus. Curated by Sigrid Dahle and featuring artists Lorna Brown and Bernie Miller, casualty offers gallery visitors a time and space for quiet contemplation on the conditions of contemporary life.
Says Dahle, "The word 'casualty' usually evokes images of war, disaster, accidents and loss and is generally associated with body counts and catastrophic extremes. casualty draws attention to another species of casualties - the ongoing social, intellectual and emotional losses that are an effect of everyday 21st century North American life. For the most part, these sorts of casualties are nearly invisible, largely because 'mind counts' and 'soul counts' are at stake and because the over-stimulation, speed and saturation that characterizes North American life is the status quo." casualty asks "how does one think (really think) or participate (critically participate) in the political process (or for that matter, simply get a good night's sleep) when there is no uncluttered time or mental space for contemplation?"
Lorna Brown is a Vancouver-based artist, educator and curator who has exhibited her work nationally and internationally since 1984. Brown's on-going research into the philosophical and political implications of boredom informs her current writing and art projects. Bernie Miller, who now lives and works out of Winnipeg, has exhibited his work in Canada and internationally. He has been commissioned to do major public artworks in Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton. Guest curator Sigrid Dahle, a graduate of the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, is an itinerant curator and art writer. Her 16-year practice meanders across disciplines and draws from diverse sources and methodologies.
casualty opens with a public reception on Thursday, March 1 from 4 - 6 p.m. and will be followed by a free artists'/curator's talk in the Gallery on Friday, March 2 at 12:30 p.m. The exhibit continues until March 31.
Gallery 1C03 and the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina will co-produce a publication related to this exhibition. Expected date of release is May 2007. casualty will be shown at the Dunlop in September 2007.
Gallery 1C03 gratefully acknowledges financial assistance of the Manitoba Arts Council.
 Lorna Brown, The Structure of Boredom (after Oden) (detail), site-specific installation, dimensions variable. |
 Bernie Miller, Rediscovered Furlong, 2003, |
For further information, contact University art curator Jennifer Gibson at (204) 786-9253 or j.gibson@uwinnipeg.ca.