Rain Shadow
to
Nanaimo Art Gallery 150 Commercial Street, Nanaimo, British Columbia V9R 5G6
Charlene Vickers, "Woman Kneels Beneath Black Snake," 2020
acrylic on canvas, 4 x 5’. Photograph by Barb Choit, Courtesy of Macaulay and Co. FIne Art
Rain Shadow
Jonathan Forrest, Todd Gronsdahl, lessLIE, lichen with Natassia Davies and Danielle Stevenson, Jerry Pethick, Anne Ramsden, Charlene Vickers, Eliot White-Hill Kwulasultun
What do I love? I love the elsewhere of moving clouds
-Lisa Robertson, The Baudelaire Fractal
A rain shadow is darkness inverted.
Storm clouds buttress themselves against windward slopes, releasing precipitation before dissipating over summits and across leeward landscapes. The western shores of Vancouver Island and the mainland become saturated, while unburdened clouds scatter lightly and interact with other weather patterns over the island’s eastern coastline. Here on Snuneymuxw territory this effect manifests in a mix of sunshine, periodic showers, and an abundance of rainbows.
A rain shadow is a relationship.
It begins in dialogue between the slow moving topography of mountains and the perpetual motion of clouds. It is a conversation between here and elsewhere.The rain shadow effect illustrates place as both static and always becoming, as simultaneously ancient and new. Understanding place as process, the exhibition Rain Shadow responds to shifts in light and land, and how we come to know the topographies on which we walk.
Rain Shadow features ten artists from the Pacific Northwest.
Through painting, sculpture, video, and illustration, artists in Rain Shadow consider the places they live, and those carried from afar. Artworks engage notions of belonging, the hubris of marking and controlling land, light pollution, host/guest relationships, and healing the post-industrial landscape. Occurring one year into Covid-19, the pandemic’s effects on place and movement are present directly and indirectly within the exhibition.
Rain Shadow is the final exhibition in a year in which Nanaimo Art Gallery asks the question: What moves?