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Arts Visual Art

Future Station tours audiences across

Albertas visual arts community
3 months ago by Michelle Falk Add Comment

Anyone riding the LRT northbound travels through a non-place.

Labelled Future Station on city blueprints, in 1978 this station was roughed in around 103
Avenue and 97 Street while the other downtown stops were being constructed. Rumours of
its true function are as dubious as inmate transfer and as innocent as an anticipation of later
demand. For AGA curator Kristy Trinier, the legendary station serves as a metaphor for
contemporary art in Albertahiding in plain sight and awaiting the recognition it deserves.
Future Station became the inspiration and title for the 2015 Alberta Biennial of
Contemporary Art.

The Biennial is a major event in the province, hosted by the AGA every two years; each
years curator has a great deal of freedom in terms of the presentation and selection of artist.
The exhibit takes a look at what is happening artistically in the province and at what it means
to be an artist in Alberta.

I see the Alberta Biennial as a time capsule, Trinier says. This is a representation of what
has happened in the last few yearsit is inscribed in the contemporary art of these artists
works.

Trinier was interested in bringing forward works of new and lesser-known artists; of the 24
contributors to this years show, only four of them have participated in a previous Biennial.
This is not a collection of the most internationally or even locally famous artists that Alberta
has to offer; some of these artists are from underground scenes, up-and-comers and some
whose work is better known commercially outside the art community. The vast majority of
works are of an extraordinary calibre; the few pieces that do whisper of amateur are
inoffensive in keeping with the metaphors of the future station.

A number of themes emerge out of the exhibition, creating strong unity. Notable is the way
that Alberta seems to haunt the work of many of these artists, even those who no longer live
here. These artists are dealing with different aspects of place and belonging, but many of
them interact with these ideas in direct relation to this province. Some of the most poignant
examples of this include Tyler Los-Joness enormous, majestic re-photograph, which greets
you right as you enter the AGA building. The original panorama picture of a glacier near
Hinton has been folded and looped like a ribbon. Upstairs, Jude Griebels papier-mch
sculpture, Accident Mouth, personies winter vomiting out treacherous roads. In a small
dark room, Evan Prosofskys footage of the WEM waterpark depicts the mall opening and its
more recent years. Brittney Bear Hats digital prints on vinyl series, Home, documents her
personal experiences, including images of indigenous hunting practices. Walking through the
various locations of the exhibit, the experience for the viewer is as much about what it means
to be an Albertan as it is to be an artist here.
Another aspect that distinguishes this years Biennial is how it extends beyond the walls of
the institution. As a former Public Art Director at the Edmonton Arts Council, Trinier
appreciates how quintessential this is to contemporary art. Many of these works were created

out in the world, and several of them are being exhibited in public spaces. Los-Joness
aforementioned piece, A Panorama Protects Its View is also on a billboard near the site
where he took the original photo, on the highway to Hinton. Griebel also did an installation
called Feeder specically designed for display at the Gibson Block building, where the
windows were un-boarded specically to accommodate this piece. Jill Stantons wonderfully
creepy graphic-novel-style GIF animations Dream City Series took the Biennial national,
being displayed on PATTISON Onestop screens in malls and LRT stations across Canada.

Taking the art outside of the gallery is one of the strongest aspects of the show. It captures the
nature of contemporary art and represents what the artists in our province are doing in their
practice, both within and beyond the gallerys walls.

Until Sun, May 3

Art Gallery of Alberta

#Art Gallery of Alberta #Biennial #Contemporary Art #Edmonton Arts Council #Gibson
Block #Jill Stanton #Kristy Trinier

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