Next Year’s Country
to
REMAI MODERN 102 Spadina Crescent E, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7K 0L3
Marlene Creates, "Points of Interest, Saskatchewan," 1999
detail, 12 vintage colour Endurochrome photographic prints, 61 x 91.4 cm each. Collection of Remai Modern. Purchased with the support of the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation, 2019.
Remai Modern to reopen to members on August 6, the public on August 13
Next Year’s Country explores ideas of place, belonging and history on the Prairies.
“The exhibition offers a lens through which to engage with the collection and the historical space it occupies in Saskatchewan. Knowledge is acquired, bonds are established and communities are formed through the accumulated experiences of inhabiting a place,” said Sandra Fraser, the exhibition’s curator. “Some of the artists in the exhibition have deep roots in the Prairies, while others have been selected to convey similar experiences and offer a view of this region from a distance.”
The title of this exhibition is a reference to Saskatchewan’s settler history. The expression originates from their experiences of learning to live and farm on what they considered to be a land of promise, even though neither success nor survival could be assured. The common refrain “next year things will be better” conveys both a tireless optimism and a struggle to belong. Such an attitude has shaped the province’s political, social, economic and cultural activities. However, it fails to address the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and the displacement and assimilation associated with settlement.
The exhibition uses the historical Prairie perspective “next year things will be better” to frame an impulse to resist the present moment and the anxieties that accompany it. How might this impulse generate a desire to return to the past or to dream of the future? The exhibition considers ideas about collectivity and progress with an eye to current environmental, economic and political issues.
The newest acquisition is a work by Brian Jungen, Mother Tongue, a sculpture purchased in 2020 that will be displayed just outside the main entrance of the Collection Galleries. In this work, Jungen uses childhood memories and traditional practices in his home territory of Dane-zaa First Nation to create a sculpture that also engages aesthetically with Western art history.
The oldest acquisition in the exhibition is from the original Mendel Gift in 1965, an oil painting by Jean Paul Lemieux of a haunting landscape. Through more than 30 artistsand mediums including photography, sculpture, video, painting and installation, Next Year’s Country offers viewers the chance to explore the evolution of Remai Modern’s collection from its beginnings to today.
Featured artists:
- Kim Adams
- Grant Arnold and Randy Burton
- Lorne Beug
- Raymond Boisjoly
- Eleanor Bond
- Victor Cicansky
- Dana Claxton
- Marlene Creates
- Wally Dion
- Joseph Fafard
- David Garneau
- Gregory Hardy
- Richard Holden
- Geoffrey James
- Brian Jungen
- William Kureklek
- Jean Paul Lemieux
- Mary Longman
- Tanya Lukin Linklater
- Ken Lum
- Lynne Marsh
- WC McCargar
- Fred Moulding
- Ann Newdigate
- Louise Noguchi
- Graeme Patterson
- Edward Poitras
- Richard E. Prince
- Allen Sapp
- Danny Singer
- David Thauberger
- Alex Wyse