Jessica Richter

Saskatchewan artist explores the experiences of German-Canadian immigrants.

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The kitchen of the derelict Saskatchewan farmhouse near Nokomis, a 90-minute drive north of Regina, may evoke memories of grandma’s house – until you check out the walls. The black-and-white silkscreened wallpaper features small, repeating images of a headless woman surrounded by frightened, rearing horses. In adjoining rooms, a spooky rendition of the Black Forest – complete with murals and trees cut out of steel – awaits. The house is surely haunted. Or is it an art project?

Nokomis is Regina artist Jessica Richter’s hometown. It’s where her grandparents, and other German relatives, settled after the Second World War. The two-storey farmhouse was once owned by her great aunt and uncle, and the project, which Richter calls Einwanderin, the German word for immigrant, is an exploration of her conflicted feelings about her ancestry.

Richter’s family includes loving relatives. Yet books, news stories and Hollywood films often portray Germans from that era as monsters who ravaged Europe and killed six million Jews. Many Canadians of German descent struggle with similar feelings of disconnection.

“I knew my grandparents,” says Richter, who recently became the director of the Art Gallery of Regina. “They were such great people, wonderful people. I found it hard to reconcile what I knew of them with the message I was receiving about Germany and the Second World War.”

The war hovered in the background during Richter’s childhood. Her grandmother had painted the scene she saw as she joined a caravan of refugees fleeing the advancing Soviet army at the end of the war. The painting, which hung in her living room, depicted sheer terror, with fire, smoke, tanks and dead horses. Richter has never forgotten it.

As an artist, Richter is best known for mining her German heritage. She and fellow Saskatchewan artist Waltraude Stehwien recently created the exhibition Scissor Cuts / Scherenschnitte, which explores German folk culture. The show is touring the province for three years, thanks to the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils. 

It will be on view until Sept. 23 at the Grand Coteau Heritage and Cultural Centre in Shaunavon, before hitting 16 other communities, including Moose Jaw, Prince Albert and Lloydminster. It includes Richter’s cut-paper works in an aesthetic reminiscent of fairy tales.

A similar aesthetic is found in the Nokomis house, once you leave the kitchen and head into the Black Forest, a.k.a. the dining room and living room. There, figures representing different generations of German women are painted directly on the walls. Ten steel floor-to-ceiling trees populate the rooms. It’s a place to ponder the German-Canadian experience.

Richter was mentored in this project by Saskatchewan artist Heather Benning, who created Dollhouse in an abandoned farmhouse near Sinclair, Man. Benning removed the entire north-facing, outside wall and replaced it with Plexiglas so visitors could see inside, just like a toy dollhouse. The eight-year project was completed in 2013.

The Nokomis will house will be open to the public the weekends of Aug. 10 to Aug. 11 and Aug. 17 to Aug. 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. After that, it can be viewed by appointment until mid-October. For directions to the house, check Richter’s website at jessrichterprints.com.

After October, Richter will remove the trees but leave the rest of the art to decay along with the house. The roof is already falling in. The house is uninhabitable and will remain so. She hopes curious teenagers will wander into the house in 20 years and marvel at the remains of the Black Forest. ■

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Grand Coteau Heritage & Cultural Centre

44 Centre Street, Shaunavon, Saskatchewan S0N 2M0

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