Inspiring New Art Installations At Fieldwork

May 29, 2013

Spring is the time for renewal, and organizers of the Fieldwork project, the art gallery located in the fields and forest of Susie Osler's farm near Maberly, took advantage of that idea with their opening of a spring installation that features the work of five Canadian artists. Fieldwork is now in its sixth season.

The opening was held on May 18 but the artists who descended on the site from their various regular roostings around Canada had already spent many days exploring the land and its natural materials, and installing their art pieces, which are as different conceptually and visually as are the countless flora and fauna that make the site home.

Winnipeg artist Leah Decter, who likes to “tamper with Canadian cultural icons” spent days traversing the site, locating and hauling beaver stumps to create her piece, which mimics the floor plan of a house. “With this piece I was thinking about how we inhabit the land through colonial histories and I wanted to collaborate with the beavers by using and relocating the materials left behind by them,” she explained. This work is the third in a series where Decter has used the beaver as a spring board for her work.

On a related theme, Saskatchewan artist Laura Hale used natural materials she found on site to create three kid-sized, cub scout-like “pup tents”, each with its own unique feel and charm. The first appears friendly, green and furry due to numerous pine boughs and it invites onlookers to creep inside. The second is more austere, delicate and less interactive, made with carefully strewn together dead maple, oak, and birch leaves that Hale gathered from the forest floor. The third tent is made from sections of horse tail, a hollow tubular plant, which she cut and strung on sinew along with delicate maple keys. This last tent draws particular attention to the natural elements of the piece by placing them in an architectural context.

Uta Riccius' piece, titled “Subdivision”, is a series of three oversized artificial habitats, each woven from foam backer rod, a flexible, lightweight, malleable material, which the artist and her students created off site and then later installed in trees at Fieldwork. The work is “a comment on the model homes in today’s housing markets and represent a new-fangled type of animal/insect home based on urban architectural design and natural birds’ nests.” The piece is also interactive and Riccius has invited onlookers to choose their favorite model of the three styles and to locate them on a map of the site - in a sense creating a new virtual kind of subdivision for animals and insects.

Erin Robertson's work, titled “Ephemeroptera”, speaks to nature as “fragile and ever changing”. The piece includes three giant mayflies cut out of old 1970s style paneling, which she harvested from a home she is currently renovating. The flies are graceful from afar, less so from up close where the blobs of glue that hold them together speak more of their industrial origins. Unlike the real flies, whose lives span anywhere from just 30 minutes to 24 hours, Robertson’s will remain intact for the upcoming year.

Sheila MacDonald lives and works in McDonalds Corners and her offering, titled “Ear to the Ground”, is an elegant sculpture made from curved cedar of an ear, complete with earring, ear drum, and a bench. The piece is designed to be interactive and onlookers can sit on the ear bench and either ring the earring, or with the sticks she's provided play the ear drum, a pink, painted satellite dish. The piece also has its conceptual side, Sheila explained “It's about sending a message to the underground through the drum.”

For those who have never visited Fieldwork, this unique outdoor gallery makes a great outing for those interested in exploring both nature and art. Along with the new installations (most of which will be up for a year) are permanent installations from previous seasons scattered throughout the grounds and there are maps and signs directing visitors to many of the more hidden artworks on site. Fieldwork is located just past 2501 Old Brooke Rd. For more information visit www.fieldworkproject.com