The Shape of an Echo: Selections from the Permanent Collection

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Left: Jin-me Yoon, 'Souvenirs of the Self (Lake Louise)' (1996). Transmounted C-print. Collection of Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Accession #P96 0102 P.

Right: Duncan Darroch, 'Lake O'Hara' (1928). Oil on canvas. Collection of Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Accession #P81 0332 A.

The Shape of an Echo: Selections from the Permanent Collection assembles works from the 1920s to present that centre on questions of land and its representations, primarily focused on artists’ engagements with Banff National Park. Taking inspiration from Rebecca Belmore’s seminal work, Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother (1991), the exhibition invites consideration of how the experience of an echo through repetition and reflection can allow one to situate themselves in relation to land. Titled in Anishinaabemowin and its English translation and produced by the artist in response to the historic land dispute that has become known as the Oka Crisis, in 1992 Belmore's work was activated at gatherings with Indigenous communities and people across the country who were invited to speak to the land through the sculpture; with the edited recordings included in the sound work of the same name. [1] Moving between image, object, and sound, the selection of works are also intended to open readings of potential echoes within and across the collection; be they between the work of faculty and student; made in response to another's artistic legacy; or which take the form of an instruction that invites re-performance, creating future iterations through its design.

The exhibition includes rarely-exhibited works dating from the early 20th century, many of which were produced by some of the first faculty members at what was then known as the Banff School of Fine Arts. These include works by A.C. Leighton and George Pepper shown alongside influential landscape artists of the period such as Carl Rungius and Frederick Varley. Relationships between early faculty and students are also traced, with a selection of watercolours by Walter J. Phillips paired with those of Lila Dicken, Louella Downing, Doris Livingstone and George Wago who were students during Phillips' tenure as instructor from 1940 to 1959. The work of Janet (Holly) Middleton, a student at Banff School of Fine Arts who eventually went on to teach at the institution until the early 1970s is shown alongside works by her student, George Weber, considering the echo in relation to lineages of intergenerational exchange. Reflective of the legacies of art education and production at Banff Centre but in contrast to the more British and European-influenced depictions of local landscapes are two works by the influential artist and educator Takao Tanabe, head of Visual Arts at Banff Centre from 1973 to 1980; sculptural works by Les Manning who led the ceramics area from 1974 to 1994; and a photographic work by Kahty Chenoweth produced while an artist in residence in 2002.

Curated by Jacqueline Bell