Always Seeing Something

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“Always seeing something, never seeing nothing,” 2019, installation view at Platform Centre, Winnipeg.

(Works on wall, left: Michael Mogatas, both “Untitled,” 2017, mixed media. Sculptural works on floor: Reza Rezaï, “gluing a cigarette to a tomato,” 2019, mixed media. Works on wall, right: Chanelle Lajoie, both “Untitled,” 2017, C-print)

The five Winnipeg-based emerging artists in the group show Always seeing something, never seeing nothing take the medium of photography in varied and passionate directions.

They offer new perspectives on the role of the viewer and the artist in lens-based work – context, gaze and point of view become everything. And their images, on view until May 24 at Winnipeg’s Platform Centre, are given enough space to breathe and be appreciated – something that can be forgotten when curating photographic works.

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Michelle Panting, “Petroleum Jelly + Plastic Wrap Self Portrait #1 and #2,” 2018

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Michelle Panting’s two self-portraits – Petroleum Jelly + Plastic Wrap #1 and #2 – both give and take, playing with the viewer’s gaze as they explore perspectives of self within the confines of gender expectations.

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Graham Wiebe, (left to right): “A Car, A Home,” 2019, C-print; “Preteen Smoker (ADHD),” 2015, C-print; “Crown of Thorns,” 2018, C-print; “Chantel’s Mask,” 2019

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Graham Wiebe’s snapshots are more immediate. His work seems to lend itself most to the show’s title – it feels as if he is always searching, lens open, for the next moment to capture.

His images, reminiscent in subject to those by documentary photographers of the past, like Lee Friedlander, seem to care less for precision or sharpness and more for emotional quality. For instance, a dusty car being reborn after a winter of rest and neglect is a common and relatable image in Winnipeg. Yet Wiebe was able to find newness through his lens.

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“Always seeing something, never seeing nothing,” 2019, installation view at Platform Centre, Winnipeg.

(Works on wall, left: Michelle Panting, “Petroleum Jelly + Plastic Wrap Self Portrait #1 and #2,” 2018, C-print. Sculptural works on floor: Reza Rezaï, “gluing a cigarette to a tomato,” 2019, mixed media. Works on wall, right: Graham Wiebe, left to right: “Crown of Thorns,” 2018, C-print; “Chantel’s Mask,” 2019, C-print)

Reza  Rezaï's multi-faceted acetate and mirrored sculptural surfaces – complete with a beautifully poetic artist statement – confront viewers with images of experience and identity. Visitors must walk around the mirrored cubes to view photographs attached to each side. They end up seeing themselves in the works, something that feels both metaphorical and political.

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Chanelle Lajoie, both “Untitled,” 2017

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Chanelle Lajoie’s two images examine urban settings. She takes inspiration from the visual culture of colonialism, where signs dictate rules and demand obedience amidst the layered familiarity and often overlooked imagery of inner-city life.

Texture and subject meld and interplay in the work of Michael Mogatas. Exploring hyperactivity in daily life, his screen-printed photo canvases at once soften and brighten his theme.

Chantel Mierau’s Three Chores, a video work that plays in a separate show in a second smaller gallery, should not be missed. Mierau has created three chaotic and mesmerizing imaginings of housework that reflect the absurdity of the situations she chooses.

Do we now take lens-based work for granted? It seems like a cliché to discuss how most of us today carry a camera. But this can help rather than hinder contemporary photography. Explorations of immediacy and the politics of perspective, as well as a reimagining of the gaze, are creating a new and engaging world for lens-based artists. ■

Always seeing something, never seeing nothing is on view at the Platform Centre in Winnipeg from April 12 to May 24, 2019.