A library of memories becomes an art gallery
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A new cat is sleeping in the Eastern Edge Gallery
near its latest poster. The
cat has the privileged of napping there because it is owned by a staff member. Melissa Wong//My Online Journalism Blog |
By Melissa Wong
My Online Journalism Blog
A red reading lamp along
with two other lamps by the door brings light to a new room in the gallery.
The books in the new David Tuck Memorial Library lean on each other, against the walls, or lie on their sides on shelves. Next to a book titled The Meaning of Modern Art is a cup filled with coloured pencils. On the side of the cup reads the words "F–k Oprah 2010".
Hanging on the wall are two
pieces of an art exhibition called Awake
in the Dark that the Eastern Edge Gallery will be showcasing October 27 to
November 4, 2018.
"It's a library and a gallery, why not both is what I say," Devin Shears, the chair of the board of Directors for Eastern Edge Gallery, said. "The way I see it, it's another space, with space on the wall. We might as well put art in there."
"It's a library and a gallery, why not both is what I say," Devin Shears, the chair of the board of Directors for Eastern Edge Gallery, said. "The way I see it, it's another space, with space on the wall. We might as well put art in there."
According to Shears, the
gallery originally kept the David Tuck Memorial Library’s art books on the wall
of the rOGUEe Gallery, until a storage room in the Eastern Edge Gallery
current Harbour Drive location became available.
The library downtown
A Grenfell student gutted
the storage room and transformed it into an art library.
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Devin Shears Board of Directors’ Chair for Eastern Edge Gallery helps organize the directors, who make decisions about the gallery and is found helping to put up lights before the exhibitions’ shows. Melissa Wong/My Online Journalism Blog
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"Charlotte Hobden, who
was a summer student here…kind of took that on," Shear said. "(She)
just organized it, made it a more sort of welcoming inviting space and yeah,
we're really happy to have it. I think it's a great resource that was--that was
sorely lacking in this town.
"There wasn't anything
close to it," Shear added. "Especially in downtown St. John's, where
there weren't any libraries at all."
David Tuck was a friend of Eastern
Edge Gallery, according to Mimi Stockland, the artist whose art show Awake in the Dark will be on display in
the library. He passed away a couple of years ago, and some members initiated
the project and named the gallery’s library room in his memory.
"It is a unique library.
Yeah, and it is very new, and it's supposed to be a place of
contemplation," Stockland said. "They can just- yeah- they can just
come here… look around and be inspired."
When asked about what she
thought about presenting her art show in the art gallery’s library, she said it
was a good venture for her smaller show, which has allowed her to play and
experiment.
"This is a new gallery
in a kind of a non-gallery in a way," Stockland said. "It's the
alternative gallery and I think it's great because it fits with the idea of
collections and you know… Umm, it is small and intimate, which is what I
wanted."
What's in the library?
One of the hung pieces of
the collection is Wunderkammer, which
according to Stockland is a "fancy name for a curiosity cabinet."
A cabinet of curiosities is
a mini-museum filled with fantastical objects like "say a piece of unicorn
hair… It wasn't necessarily true," Stockland said. "But the story was
what was important and the kind of wonder that was set off in your imagination."
A green drill sits on a
wooden bookcase with other tools nearby; helps Stockland hang her third piece
of art which she called Three Vessels.
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Awake in the Dark the new
exhibition by Mimi Stockland will be shown at the David Tuck Memorial Library from October 27 to November 4. Stockland is from Montreal, Quebec and studied
at Concordia University, but now works at St. Michael's Printshop in St.
John’s, NL.
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The vessels were lined up
on a clay, beaded frame just like dead insects on a mounting board. The first
vessel was crocheted, the second made from clay, and the final one is a devil's
purse or a shark's egg sack.
"It is called a
devil's purse because it kind of looks a little bit… you know, evil,"
Stockland said and laughed. "There is no specific symbolism or meaning –
it is just that there is something about the three of them together that makes
sense."
"Awake in the Dark"
Awake in
the Dark is not just the name of Stockland's exhibit, but it is also the
name of the third piece in her art exhibit.
"I was thinking deep
sea creatures," Stockland said when describing the colourful shapes on a
dark background. "The fish that live in the dark and they have no eyes… what's
below the depths and it kind of looks like a dream place.
"It is all dreams and
memories and you know things that feel real but maybe not quite physical,"
Stockland added. "That is kind of what art is I guess, making things that
are invisible, real physical objects."
That is why Stockland's art
show is called Awake in the Dark.
Eastern Edge Gallery is a non-profit organization that has been displaying art since 1984 and is coming up on its 35th anniversary.
Eastern Edge Gallery is a non-profit organization that has been displaying art since 1984 and is coming up on its 35th anniversary.
"It's been around for a
long time," Stockland said. "I also work upstairs at St. Michael's
Printshop, so I am here in this building all the time. It's a really crucial
place in my life and my practice so this is, you know, this place has been good
to me."
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Journalist.wong@gmail.com
@MilsongWong
©Melissa Wong
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