Very pleased to be exhibiting my work at Studio Sixty Six in Ottawa with MaryAnn Camps and Angelina MacCormick.
I look forward to greeting you at the opening on Friday June 14, 2019 from 6-9pm and at the Artist Reception and Social on Friday June 21st, 2019 from 5-7pm.
Barbara Brown and Cynthia O’Brien
Judith Parker, curatorial collaborator
Documentation of Returning video installation
November 8, 2018 to January 9, 2019
Vernissage: Thursday, November 8, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. 2018
Death Café: Wednesday, November 21, 2018 at 5:00 to 7:45 p.m. and Sunday January 6th, 2019 at 3:30 p.m. in the gallery
Death Café is an opportunity to talk about all aspects of death over a cup of tea, coffee and cake.
Artists’ tour and catalogue launch: Sunday, December 2, 2:00 p.m. 2018
Curatorial talk: Sunday, January 6, 2:00 p.m. 2019
Karsh-Masson Gallery Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue West
LifeCycle Conversations is inspired by the theme of memento mori – a reminder of human fragility, mortality and the inevitability of death. In traditional Western painting it is represented symbolically by flowers, fruit and other objects, but here memento mori has been transposed into immersive installations created collaboratively by Barbara Brown and Cynthia O’Brien.
This is the first time that Barbara Brown (photography) and Cynthia O’Brien (clay sculpture) have chosen to work in a collaborative manner – their new works are the fruit of their combined artistic vision. Though the artists work in different media, both employ the changing beauty and delicacy of plants and flowers as a commemorative act and as an observance of transience, loss, memory, decline and rejuvenation in all living things. Brown and O’Brien’s installations also reflect the emotional impact that working as artists in a long-term care residence, where they befriend individuals who are near the end of their lives, has had. Their work reveals profound insights gained from this experience.
– Excerpt from the essay by Judith Parker
Barbara Brown’s recent exhibitions include Red Oak Labyrinth, an outdoor installation in Beyond the Edge: Artists’ Gardens, Experimental Farm, Ottawa, 2014 (Canadensis Botanical Garden Society), and Desire for Acadia, a solo exhibition at David Kaye Gallery, Toronto, 2018 (Contact Photography Festival). Residencies include Kingsbrae International Residence for the Arts, Saint Andrews, NB, 2017; the Art Collaborative Residency, Jaipur, India, 2017; and Alchemy: An Artist-Led Residency, Hillier, ON, 2018. Recent grants include support from the Ontario Arts Council.
Cynthia O’Brien’s clay sculpture is collected by the Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan, the Canada Council Art Bank and the City of Ottawa. O’Brien’s recent grants include the Explore and Create Program, Canada Council for the Arts, 2018 and Arts Funding, City of Ottawa, 2015. Residencies include Tanks Arts Centre, Australia, 2012; Watershed, USA, 2013; Ayatana Artists’ Research Program and CPAWS-OV Dumoine River Art Camp, Quebec, 2017; and MASS MoCA, USA, 2018.
Judith Parker is a curator and art historian. Exhibitions include: co-curator, Beyond the Edge: Artists’ Gardens, Experimental Farm, Ottawa, 2014 (Canadensis Botanical Garden Society); two artist-in-residence exhibitions at the Bytown Museum, Michèle Provost – Rebranding Bytown, 2012, and Cindy Stelmackowich – Dearly Departed, 2011; and Freedom of Association: Dennis Tourbin and Other Artists, Ottawa Art Gallery, 2012. Residencies include Elsewhere – Living Museum, North Carolina, USA, 2014. The Ontario Arts Council has supported her work.
The artists gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Ontario Arts Council.
KARSH-MASSON GALLERY Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue West
Alchemy 2018: A Recipe for an Artists Residency in Prince Edward County
Background:
Alchemy 2018 was a summer gathering of selected visual artists hosted by Claire M Tallarico and Tonia di Rico, set in the quiet rural community of Hillier in Prince Edward County, Ontario. In its 4th year, the artists’ residency is a mix of social experiment, communal cooking, studio practice and culinary exploration all wrapped up in remembering and sharing family recipes and stories of those who made them.
Ingredients:
-12 Visual Artists from Canada and beyond (Korea, Ireland, Sweden and USA)
-Pecha Kucha – illustrated introductions by each participant
-10 days in full summer at the peak of the harvest season
-Rural setting with 3 residential houses in wine county
-Large Community Hall transformed into a temporary studio
-Well equipped community kitchen
-Communal dinners made from local produce
-Pasta making workshop and dinner
-Visits to local wine makers and organic gardens
-A beach picnic at sunset
Method:
Bringing together a group of strangers who have accepted to travel from near and far and hoping they will gel into a functional community in a 10 day period takes some tending and some time. This is what the hosts Claire and Tonia provided. They cared for all the logistical details and made introductions. Once settled in our houses and our communal studio, Claire and Tonia hosted a welcome dinner. Claire is a master chef and knows how to host a conversation that draws each person into the mix. Tonia has her eye on all the details and works to sort out the myriad issues and challenges that arise.
Each house was asked to host a dinner and also to contribute to pot-luck dinners during the week. The meals were occasions for house mates to work together to plan and shop then cook the meals. Attention to all the details including the story of the food was always apparent and as each meal was presented there was something of an unspoken competition arising between the houses. The table settings were always a sight for the eyes, the aroma from the kitchen was very fine and the conversation was woven between cooking and the practice of art making. This is the Alchemy of the residency!
Summary:
While the focus of the residency was on the gathering of community through the making and hosting of evening meals we also found time for yoga in the mornings, touring the local wineries and making art in-between.
My project was to make a recipe book of sorts from the experience of the residency. Initially I thought I would document each meal and the recipes and stories involved but soon realized that was far too ambitious. I settled on one recipe for Cinnamon Buns made jointly by Liz from Ireland who grew up in Sweden and Adrianna from NYC whose Swedish grandmother made a similar recipe. With the 200 or so images collected during the making of the Kunel Bullar (cinnamon buns) and the stories from each of us highlighting our memories and family traditions around this recipe, we three artists will collaborate over the internet to make an artist book which might be called “A Storied Recipe”. I look forward to continuing the spirit of the residency with this collaborative project. Stay tuned for news of the publishing date.
Very pleased to be exhibiting Desire for Arcadia with David Kaye Gallery, Toronto. The work is printed, framed and ready to go for an opening on May 3rd 2018. Stop by on Saturday May 5th for a reception when I will be in attendance.
Gratitude to the folks at the School of Photographic Arts Ottawa (SPAO) and especially Michael Tardioli for generous support and encouragement as I prepared the work for this exhibition.
Thanks also to the Ontario Arts Council for their support.
Arts Collaborative and Residency
Diggi Palace, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
October 18 – November 6, 2017
On the Creative Process and Project Development
I used to worry that I didn’t have any or enough ideas to work with. This feeling often arises at the moment when one is required to have an idea for a project. I realize that it’s not that I don’t have ideas, but that I am very harsh and reject most of the ideas that come to me. Over the years I have learned to stop and record any and all ideas when they arrive with me. Ideas can be very ephemeral! When an idea lands, it wants to be held close, to ferment and develop before being brought into the light for examination.
Kala Chaupal loosely means “art village, conversation or community.” The organizers set as the overall theme Water and concerns about water. I arrived in Jaipur with a general idea about how humans relate to water and wondered how we can enhance that relationship. I wanted to understand what happened to the water that flows from the faucets in my home that rendered it no longer sacred? But I had no idea how I was going to turn that noticing into a project.
Connecting the Various Bodies of my Artwork
Over the past several years my art-making has revolved around exploring and enhancing our human connection to nature. Raised in the modernist age of the machine, I was taught to see myself apart from nature and that we humans have dominion over nature. Now in a post-colonial time, I am learning that we are an integral part of the web of all life, made of the same molecular components as the world that surrounds us. We are nature! Through my art practice I explore this connection and relationship and find ways to amplify and personalize how I relate to the world around me.
How to Balance Socializing, Working, Site-Seeing and Learning?
In Jaipur we were a gathering of 43 artists from many countries along with a team of local student volunteers and a group of dedicated apprentices and organizers. There were a lot of people to get to know in a short time. Balancing all the competing interests and keeping the work on track is always a concern during a residency. It’s important to look around and discover the place where you find yourself and to some degree, let it influence you. A ten-day residency is a short time to develop, explore, execute and produce finished work for exhibition, especially photography. And so, there was a palpable sense of anxiety present among the artists.
Each afternoon at 5pm we would gather in the great hall to hear lectures, presentations, and panel discussions. We had an opportunity to learn about local historic practices with water, and to see some of the work done by participating artists. It was also a time to catch up with each other and hear how work was progressing at the various sites as not all the artists were working on site.
-Talks by participating Artists.
-Film & Photo Essays on Water symbols and associations in Art
-Workshops & Displays by Artisans (Meena Art, Mandanas,)
-Panel Discussions by Art Historians & Experts
-Art for Healing- The Alchemy Vessel Project
-Music & Theatre performances
-Residency and Productivity report and updates
Having all or most of your basic needs met and three meals a day laid out leaves quite a lot of time to work. It’s surprising how much you can accomplish when your internet connection is weak and you are given an assistant to work with. Working with another person required establishing some kind of schedule. In a way this helped me to stay on track. Before I knew it, I had developed and was working on 4 different and separate project ideas. Yikes…., that’s 2 or 3 ideas too many! It was important to make a start on all the ideas to see how they played out visually before deciding on the ultimate project. In fact, it was the reaction from others that helped me refine and choose which direction to pursue. When there are tears from viewers, you know you are on to something!
On Portraiture and Printing
The kind of relationship with water that I was seeking is an embodied one. It’s not formal, intellectual or academic. It’s visceral, tactile and personal. In Canada, we have learned of the North American First Nations understanding of women being water carriers as well as the female body being a carrier of water. In India, especially in rural settings, one sees women carrying large water pots on their heads and in their arms. These pots have a consistently round, big bellied shape. So, I went to the market to purchase a few. When I picked one up, I understood the correlation to the womb! This is not a symbol of a womb, it’s real, it’s a real live vessel for life! We contemporary Westerners know nothing of the tradition of women as water carriers. Our contemporary media continues to subjugate the function of the female body and sexualizes it for profit. The subject is loaded!
As I made my first test images, a series of portraits emerged. I have never been interested in portraiture and was surprised to find myself engaged in this age-old practice. It seemed to be the right answer to the question being posed and I was on the far side of the globe. Let’s remember I was in India! Sometime being out of your familiar setting gives licence to do things one might not do at home.
Once the idea fleshed itself out, (pardon the pun), the work just rolled along. When the first image was ready I was anxious to get established with a local photography printer. Jaipur does not have a professional printing service but it would take another week to find that out. The real challenge with photographic residencies is printing, and printing away from home and away from your usual support system. I had experienced the same issue this past summer on a residency in New Brunswick. The other two photographers in the group and I persevered and with the pressure of an upcoming exhibition we made the best of a poor situation. My final image arrived at the exhibition the day after it opened. Oh well, ……..no one died.
In Summary
It was a remarkable experience all around! I made many new friends; saw a slice of life on the other side of the world; produced new artwork; made developmental leaps that would not have happened at home; and took another step on the creative path as an artist. Now, where on earth will I exhibit this body of portraiture and the many accompanying images and stories? Maybe this project will turn into a book? In the meantime, I have two other projects to produce for exhibitions in Toronto and Ottawa in 2018, so you may not see this work for some time.
July 2017
Saint Andrews by the Sea, New Brunswick, Canada
I was very pleased to be accepted for a month long residency in KIRA’s inaugural year along with 4 other artist from England, NYC, New Hampshire and Missouri.
An artist residency is an intense period of time filled with excitement, ambition and some degree of trepidation. My time at KIRA this July was a greater gift than I had imagined it would be.
To get settled and start working in the studio took some doing. The new space, the new surroundings, and technical challenges all came into the mix. My daily routine was to wake early, make a cup of coffee and head to the studio usually just after sun rise. I particularly like the potential of early mornings. On a good day, I’ve done my best work before breakfast.
By the third week I was in a serious groove and producing work at a great pace. The intensity of time, the continuous days, the lack of interruption and the focused intent were all having their way with me and it began to show up in my work. The company of the other artist who also put in long hours helped to establish a pretty serious work ethic. We seemed to bring each other along without a conscious intention to do so.
The first week and the last week were filled with distractions, disorientation and wrapping up. The middle weeks were highly productive and I felt truly in the flow. The benefits of uninterrupted time are truly the gift of a residency. I will seek further opportunities for artistic residencies in the future and would one day like to consider returning to KIRA. The greatest gift of the residency is the momentum built within the art practice which comes from day after day after day of work in the studio.
Deep gratitude to Mrs. Lucinda Flemer and all the KIRA and Kingsbrae Garden staff who helped to create the possibility of the residency and the warm welcome that allowed for a tremendously successful month of creative work.
It will take me sometime this fall and winter to edit the work and finish it. I look forward to my winter days being accompanied by the images of my work made at Kingsbrae Garden.
In July 2017 I am one of the artists at the Kingsbrae Garden’s International Artist Residency at Saint Andrew’s by the Sea, New Brunswick. This is the first year of Kingsbrae’s Artist Residency Program and I am excited to be spending time in a well established garden with 4 other artists for the entire month. Stop in for a visit if you find yourself in New Brunswick this summer.
Barbara Brown 