Lisa Jackson
Jonathan Schipper

Public Reception
Friday, November 2
6:30pm – 8:30pm
Gallery Talk:  Jonathan Schipper,  7:00pm

Please join us for the opening of our 19th Exhibition, Reclaim.  We are delighted to present the work of two exceptional artists:  Biidaaban : First Light  by Lisa Jackson, Can, (with Matthew Borrett, Jam3 and National Film Board)  and Detritus by Jonathan Schipper ,USA.   Jonathan will give an artist talk in the gallery at 7:00pm.

Lisa Jackson and Jonathan Schipper have created two landscapes : one in the digital realm, the other in the physical realm.  Biidaaban; First Light uses virtual reality (VR) to guide you through a future, fallen city being reclaimed by nature.  This renewal is seen through the lens of traditional languages — Wendat, Mohawk and Ojibway.   Detritus uses mechanical + digital processes to build and rebuild a geographic terrain of mineral salt into uncanny, crystalline structures.  One work reflects the value of connections, the other reflects the value of objects.  Both are suggestive of the anthropocene, revealing the shadows of pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial apparatus and the systems that define past and possibly future landscapes.  Each of these places describes a reclaiming of earth, time and meaning; exposing cycles of destruction and renewal.
Lisa Jackson 
Anishinaabe artist Lisa Jackson explores issues of First People identity and language in her works. InBiidaaban; First Light she has created a Virtual Reality (VR) animation.  Visitors wear a VR headset to watch the 7 minute film which depicts a future landscape in flux: a great fallen city is being reclaimed by nature.  Jackson has said  “Biidaaban First Light grew out of my musings on what a future would look like guided by the ideas in Toronto’s original languages. Indigenous North American languages are radically different from European languages and embody sets of relationships to the land, to each other, and to time itself.”  “These languages grow on this land in the same way that plants do. The languages have been spoken here for thousands of years; they capture this land more than any other languages,”    Biidaaban is the Anishinaabemowin word for dawn, but more specifically the first light of dawn; the feeling of night still there: yet the new day is coming.

Jonathan Schipper
Jonathan Schipper focusses on the desire of humans to shape, and reshape the world in a bid to find permanence.  Detritus shows an environment being actively constructed from rock salt and technology.  The installation consists of nine tons of salt heaped in a terrain that covers 1000 square feet of gallery space. A large 3D printer connected to a robotic extruder is suspended from the ceiling by cables. By varying the length of the cables, the extruder is able to move around the room and print small objects out of the salt mixed with water.  Schipper has noted that these salt constructions represent the human-made objects in our physical world.  They are fragile and unstable constructions, crumbling almost as soon as they are built.  With sisyphean effort, the extruder labours; constantly building new constructions to replace those which have fallen.  Those which have collapsed return to their natural state only to be scooped up and rebuilt again.

ARTIST TALK 
Jonathan Schipper (NYC)
Nov 2 – 7:00pm  –  In the Gallery

VR HEADSETS 
During the opening reception only 35 people will have a chance to use our VR headsets.
If you would like to experience the VR experience please register!  Otherwise come again.
contact@newmediagallery.ca  (or)  604.875.1865

EXHIBITION HOURS 
10am – 5pm (8pm Thursdays)    Closed Mondays
Nov 3 – Dec 9
Jan 4 – Jan 27

RECEPTION BAR
Opens at 6:15
Cash