Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years - a great art exhibition

Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years is an international exhibition of contemporary indigenous art presented by Winnipeg Cultural Capital of Canada 2010 and organized by Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art with a number of other Winnipeg galleries.




I attended the exhibition opening Saturday, January 22, 2011. It was at the Close Encounters Main Exhibition Site, so I’ve only seen so far the part of Close Encounters that is there. The program guide says that “Close Encounters invites engagement with the speculative, the prophetic and the unknown.” It did not disappoint.

There is a deep work by Mary Anne Barkhouse entitled “The Four Horses of the Apocalypse and the Donkey of Eternal Salvation”. The main part of this work is four riding horses – the kind you would find at a mall and ride for 25 cents. Each was mapped to an apocalyptic element, which was displayed on a banner behind the horse. The banners were exquisitely done. The detail was well worth the examination to see elements of doom that the artist had worked into them. The donkey was small, white and did evoke the image of redemption. Very thought provoking.



After the speeches to open the exhibit, each of the four curators of the exhibition: Candice Hopkins, Steve Loft, Lee-Ann Martin and Jenny Western, mounted a hose and rode to the thunderous rapture of the audience. See attached video. They did not however come anywhere close to the ride made earlier in the evening by Rebecca Belmore, who rode to orgasm to the rapt satisfaction of the onlookers. It was very reminiscent of “When Harry Met Sally”.



But my favourite was the work, Time Traveller, by Skawennati. She is an artist “who is currently focused on creating projects for the World Wide Web, which she believes, is an extraordinary art delivery system”. When you think about it, the digiverse is a marvellous medium for art. One might even say the medium is the art (with apologies to Marshall McLuhan). Time Traveller is an imaginative machinima (“video” in old timey speak). Very creative, entertaining and probing – particularly of some past political events involving aboriginal peoples (e.g. Kanehsatake 1990). I was blown away by the segment “Pow Wow of the Future” which is set in Winnipeg on July 23, 2011. It is set in a stadium and had a lot of the look and feel of the 1999 Pan Am Games, the opening ceremonies for which occurred in Winnipeg on July 23, 1999. The coincidence of date was just too much. When I talked of that with Skawennati it turns out it is truly just a coincidence. But things do happen for a reason, right? The episodes of the work that were on display can also be viewed on her website www.timetravellertm.com .



Major congrats to Anthony Kiendl and his team at Plug In ICA for their work in mounting this exhibition.