Amalie Atkins: where the hour floats

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Amalie Atkins, "Ukrainian Dancers Huddle from where the hour floats," 2019

photograph

Opening reception: September 27, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Artist talk: September 27, 8:30 pm

Atkins’ alluringly anachronistic photographs, short films, and fabric sculpture offer insights into the bonds — at times tender and at others antagonistic — between women and the social rituals that provide this connection. Inspired by tales spun by the Mennonite matriarchs of her childhood, Atkins casts relatives and friends in tableaus that subject the occurrences of daily life to the cockeyed logic of the folk tale. Scenes from her photographs include: a mother and daughter in matching yellow pinafores hanging skeins of braided hair on a laundry line; a pair of elderly sisters clad in the uniform of their childhoods gingerly embracing, tilting their identically short-cropped heads of silver hair toward each other; a dark figure stalking the forest, crowned with onion-shaped headdress and draped in the orthodoxy of the church.

where the hour floats, which takes its title from a poem penned by Winnipeg-born poet Jennifer Still, is anchored by a makeshift fort constructed from willow branches and an assortment of aprons, the sort of transformation children at-play would enact. Viewers can learn more about the characters stilled in the photographs along the walls from a fantastical narrative in Atkins’ signature Prairie Gothic style projected on the nearby wall.

The artist will speak about the patchwork of influences and inspirations that give rise to her images of women coloured by nostalgia and magic to open the exhibition on the evening of September 27.

Located on Treaty 4, traditional territory of the Cree, Saulteaux, Nakota, Lakota and Dakota peoples, and the homeland of the Métis people, the Art Gallery of Regina (AGR) promotes the development and appreciation of contemporary art created, primarily, by Saskatchewan artists. AGR provides a range of opportunities for Regina’s citizens and visitors to engage with contemporary art through its free exhibitions and artists talks.