Erika Germain, Detail of What Could This Ever Mean to You, Oil on canvas, 2021, 5’ x 5’. Don Wheaton Family YMCA, Edmonton AB. Photograph by Au7umn.

Upon initial viewing, what may strike people about Erika Germain’s Collected Translations is the expansive plethora of colours, lines, and objects that inhabit the coloured canvas of each work, which lack any conventional visual cues or signposts to guide people’s interpretations of them.  Instead, these works encourage people to approach them without preconceptions and to arrive at their own understandings about what they mean and how the images within each work relate to each other.  Prompting reflection, these works encourage open-ended articulations of meaning and points of significance that resonate with viewers. 

Erika Germain, Detail of Ever-Patterned Collapsing Grid, Oil on canvas, 2021, 6’ x 18’. Don Wheaton Family YMCA, Edmonton AB. Photograph by Au7umn.

Different layers of meaning emerge from Germain’s works, depending on whether each work is considered as one part of the entire series, as an individual entity with its own meanings, or as a collection of individual objects that occupy the same physical space.  The largest work in this exhibit is Ever-Patterned Collapsing Grid, a triptych consisting of three separate canvases that can be observed separately and together as a whole.  Its sheer enormity prevents one from viewing the whole work unless one were to step farther back; yet, doing so will cause the work’s finer details to become less distinct and meld into the background.  Closer inspection of specific areas within this painting, and others in this series, facilitates the emergence of new meanings among the shapes, lines, and colours when they are viewed in relation to each other. 

Erika Germain, Ever-Patterned Collapsing Grid, Oil on canvas, 2021, 6’ x 18’. Don Wheaton Family YMCA, Edmonton AB. Photograph by Au7umn.

The title of this series, Collected Translations, gestures towards the themes that Germain engages with.  She is interested in exploring how art can function as a form of visual translation and representation—evoking and embodying language in ways that extend beyond the confines of words, nurture new narratives of meaning, and open pathways for social connection.  Indeed, language can be regarded as a context-specific system of codified signs that become meaningful for people who subscribe to it and the shared sense of reality that it constructs.  Drawing upon textual sources for their inspiration, the “collected translations” in Germain’s works reimagine these in a visual manner and suggest possibilities for people to establish shared understandings and modes of connection, whereby the images themselves become a basis for language.  Although the act of translation may result in some loss or gap of understanding, it also opens possibilities for new meanings to emerge. 

Sandra Vida, WAY STATION, video, Stantec Tower, Edmonton, AB, 2023. Photo by Liisa Otchie.

The phrase “way station” is defined in dictionaries as an intermediate stopping place, a stopping point on a journey, or a place where people stop to eat and rest when they are on a long journey. 

Sandra Vida’s video work WAY STATION evokes the meanings associated with this phrase and takes viewers on a multi-layered, symphonic journey through an immersive polyphony of intersecting narratives and psychological landscapes. Exploring themes related to identity, ancestry, and cultural heritage, Vida generates nuanced and complex meanings for viewers to contemplate. Beginning with the title screen and accompanying words origins, explorations, and resolutions, the film conveys a sense of momentousness that is heightened by atmospheric music. Interwoven, overlaid images of rural landscape, nature, historical carvings, and ancient stone formations fade in and out, melding with images of a woman walking through a grassy field, picking up a suitcase as if she is embarking on a journey, and holding a decorative bowl.  

This first third of the film fades into the second third with contemplative instrumental music that accompanies images suggestive of domesticity and roles associated historically with women: making clothes, making bread, and weaving.  These evoke an idyllic existence that is shattered by discordant sounds and interwoven images of soldiers, explorers, warships, and ancient stone structures.  Through this, Vidal appears to subtly critique narratives of progress and nationalism that favour a positive trajectory defined by wars, monuments, and large-scale cultural achievements. 

However, these sounds and images fade quickly into the background and are taken over by the same atmospheric music that opened the film. Strongly suggestive echoes of mythology emerge within this final third of the film. A woman places stones into a formation, as if to create a memorial. In addition, the pouring of water from a pitcher into a cup and walking through the sea are images that connote rejuvenation, the giving of life, and unity with the natural environment. 

Vida’s atmospheric work affirms the persistence and resilience of alternative ways of being and knowing that fall outside conventional historical narratives as well as stories excluding women’s perspectives and experiences. Challenging linear narratives and ways of understanding that devalue the personal and domestic, Vida constructs empowering narratives that inhabit multiple times, histories, and geographies—all of which inform and re-shape each other continually within a fluid conception of time that melds the past, present, and future. 

Jonathan Monfries, CANOPY, Plywood, 2023, Churchill Square, Edmonton, AB. Photo by Melanie Andony.

The built environment in downtown Edmonton is replete with glassy office towers and concrete buildings and spaces such as Churchill Square, the site of this year’s The Works Art & Design Festival. Amidst the sterile and depersonalizing connotations associated with these human-made structures, Jonathan Monfries’ installation CANOPY injects evocations of the natural environment into these surroundings by providing a functional, yet aesthetically eye-catching, group of wooden structures for everyone to experience and enjoy. 

Viewers of Monfries’ five-piece installation may recall last year’s edition of The Works, in which Agatha Chacinski’s A Grasp for Love and Breanna Barrington’s Nature First Aid both explored the relationship between people and the natural environment. Monfries explores similar ideas but does so from a design perspective. His installation evokes images of leafy trees clustered within a forest clearing, with its wide bases suggestive of tree roots and cone-like structures resembling tree leaves that extend upwards towards the sky. Clustered together, these five pieces are identical and convey a sense of symmetry that is pleasing to see.  

CANOPY occupies a central, visible location in the middle of Churchill Square. At any particular moment, one will see patrons of all ages and backgrounds sit down. With its functional qualities, it may not be apparent to people that this is a festival installation. However, perhaps that is part of what Monfries achieves through this work—that artistry is not simply, nor does it have to be, delimited within conventional forms of creative expression that culminate in works of art. Instead, aesthetic qualities can emanate from creations such as CANOPY, which also include the potential for revitalizing collective public spaces. Offering a place for people to congregate, CANOPY is akin to a transition stop or urban oasis—a place for people to pause for a while, reflect, converse, or recharge before moving on. Extending beyond its original functionality, it becomes a locus for the continual affirmation of a shared community.

Veronika Marks, Sigils of Sovereignty, 2023, Churchill Square, Edmonton, AB. Photo by Liisa Otchie.

Engagement, reflection, and connection: these are some processes that drive Veronika Marks’ artistic practice. In her interactive performance Sigils of Sovereignty, Marks encourages possibilities for storytelling and community, through which she explores how art can facilitate opportunities for people to connect and heal.   

Although people may feel uncertain about what to expect, Marks’ friendly and open manner will put them at ease. Invited to join her circle, people are asked to reflect on what they may desire, or what is significant to them, and then to leverage these moments of reflection to create symbols of intentional mindfulness that may signify or signal towards a possible resolution.   

People can create their own sigils with the paper and markers that Marks provides. Depending on their life experience and background, people will take away something different from their experiences with Marks.  What her performance seems to reveal is how seemingly mundane and individualistic actions within a shared space can, collectively, facilitate the emergence of positive energies and new opportunities for interpersonal interactions.  While working on their sigils, people may converse as much or little as they wish with Marks, whatever makes them feel more comfortable.  Once people are finished, they are asked to drop their completed sigils into Marks’ container.  With the collected sigils, Marks will conduct a ritual performance in honour of the people who created them. 

Like Ryan Wispinski’s We Will ART YOU! in this year’s festival, Marks’ work emanates from a very personal place, through which she explores how art can function as a form of therapy and healing.  Motivated by interests in the mystical and spiritual, Marks is interested in exploring how negative experiences and energies can be channelled and transformed through acts of artistic creation into something positive, meaningful, and empowering. 

For people who have not experienced Veronika Marks’ performance yet, one more opportunity is available on Saturday, July 15th, from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm.  Marks can be found around Churchill Square’s northeast corner, near The Scream. 

Bushra Yousaf, Beauty of Nature, 2023, Oil on canvas, 30" x 48"

In the current global climate, debilitating forms of conflict and violence—stoked by cultural differences, economic disparities, regional tensions, and scarcity of resources—continue to impact communities around the world. Amidst these entrenched divisions, it can be challenging to maintain a sense of hope for the future. Bushra Yousaf’s intimate series of portrait paintings evoke optimism and encourage self-reflection by reminding us of our common humanity. Aptly entitled Humanity, Yousaf’s large-scale portraitures feature close-up views of individuals from different ages and backgrounds, each of whom exude their own unique personalities and appearances. As the person in each portrait gazes outward from the canvas, it creates the impression that they are looking directly at the viewers, thereby encouraging a sense of personal connection and engagement.

Notably, these individuals do not have any specific identifying markers in their appearance that may connect them with a specific community, geographical location, or cultural group. For example, Harmony of Hope: A Glimpse into Innocence depicts a young woman with red hair and a face that is coloured light blue, with a vivid, yellow streak of paint running across it. Similarly, in Radiant Resilience: Illuminating the Human Spirit, the woman’s presence is accentuated by the multitude of background colours that sweep across her face and the background behind her.

Displaying these portraits within City Hall imbues them with an additional resonance. Besides being a civic institution and public space, City Hall also signifies as a public space in which everyone is heard and represented and functions as a symbolic focal point for communal life. This is apt in relation to this exhibit, which also calls for unity around a shared sense of humanity. Yousaf’s series nurtures a genuine curiosity among viewers and invites them to consider the portrait subjects as unique, valued individuals in their own right whose presence deserves recognition. Various questions may come to mind: Who are they? What are their stories and experiences? What shapes them as people? They encourage viewers to engage with people in their own lives that originate from a place of respect, absent of assumptions and preconceptions, within which one not only speaks but also listens.