sandra vida
About the Artist
Calgary artist Sandra Vida has been an important contributor to the coming of age of performance, film and video practices. She is known for her feminist principles and as a supporter of equity and diversity. Born to parents active in Calgary’s theatre scene, Vida is of Celtic/Norse background. A graduate of the University of Calgary, her interest in Psychology, English, and art continues to this day. In 2018, she was honoured as a Canadian “Eminence Grise” (respected elder) in the 7a*11d Performance Festival in Toronto. In addition to her art practice, she is known for her dedication to other artists through Calgary’s artist-run centres and as an advocate for the arts and arts groups, for which she was awarded the mayor’s Established Artist award. Her short video works recently won awards at the Paris ShortFest and California Indiefest and will be featured in a festival in Ireland later this year.
WAY STATION
Stantec Tower – 10220 103 Ave NW
Sandra Vida, Loom from WAY STATION, 2012, Video
ARTIST STATEMENT
“Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning…”
T.S.Eliot, Little Gidding, Four Quartets
For over three decades, I have built a successful career in video, film, performance, photo-based work, and digital collage. Most recently, I worked in multi-media installation, bringing together sound, text, video, and sometimes still images and objects to construct experiential spaces within a gallery setting, where time, space, and interaction can be creatively shaped.
The space created by art, especially installation work that brings together several disciplines to create a total sensory environment, can act as a space for the imagination to discover alternate meanings and options.
My work has been called performative and painterly. I may appear using my own performing body or adopting a persona, affirming the transformative alchemy of ritual actions. I use collage, montage, and juxtaposition, abstracting and layering multiple images, ideas, and objects into a coherent whole. Text is often included, with reference to poets like Eliot, Larkin, and Cohen. I create soundscapes from original music and ambient or natural sound.
My projects are informed by restorative impulses regarding social issues, speaking to how the personal and political are intertwined. I admire Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious, as well as Rupert Sheldrake’s idea of the morphic field -- a unifying memory or identity as an agent of patterning new modes of behaviour.
As I move into my 70s, I consider how aging is experienced and perceived, especially regarding women, and have become aware of how ageism operates as an aspect of intersectional oppression, while remaining sensitive to the challenges of other forms of injustice.
The piece shown at The Works this year, WAY STATION, continues many of these pre-occupations, and considers the complex themes of identity, ancestry, and cultural heritage.
