Heather M. Cline: Quiet Stories from Canadian Places

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Heather M. Cline, "Quiet Stories from Canadian Places," 2017

Public reception and tour with the artist Friday, November 17. Doors open at 7 pm. Event starts at 7:30 pm.

This project involves interviewing local residents in communities across Canada, collecting personal and regional history. The one on one interviews are recorded. Excerpts from the audio collection will be exhibited with paintings of the different geographical locations to create the exhibition ‘Quiet Stories from Canadian Places’. The exhibition will feature salon style groupings of small to mid-scale paintings of different locations in the participating communities, grouped together by themes that relate to descriptions of places and activity in the communities, rather than geography. The audio will be played through parabolic speakers creating sound spots that viewers will enter as they view the paintings. The audio will consist of short excerpts from the different interviews combined together to create theme based story arcs that will change the viewing experience for gallery visitors, adding depth to the imagery through the voices of people who are connected to the subject matter. This body of work explores shifting the traditional role that painting has played in documenting history from official portraiture and pivotal historical moments to documenting Canadian places that are significant to everyday people and simple moments. It also explores how the public interacts with the work creating a space of active viewing as the public reflects on the paintings in relation to the audio content. 

Heather Cline lives and works in Regina, Saskatchewan. Growing up in the Saskatoon community of Sutherland, she witnessed a small town being consumed by a city. This limbo between prairie past and prairie present continues to inform her multi-media practice. Since completing her MFA at the University of Saskatchewan in 2001, Cline has continued to work in painting and new media, exploring narratives around place and personal history.

Organized by the artist and toured across Canada. Presented at AGSC with curator, Kim Houghtaling. This is a Canada 150 project for AGSC.