Jen Allison | Contact Correspondent

Alumni Jen Allison reviews Contact's Dynamic Landscapes:

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art – “Dynamic Landscapes” by Vivane Sassen, Scarlett Hooft Graafland, Olga Chagaoutdinvoa, Dayanita Singh).

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art has organized a unique exhibit of four international artists called Dynamic Landscapes. Contact Festival describes the exhibit as ‘the confluence of physical and psychological factors that inform our perception of the world we inhabit’. The images were photographed in Africa, Russia, India and Canada.

Image by Jen Allison 

Of the four photographers works, I was equally drawn to two, who couldn’t have photographed in more opposing locations.

First were the images from Vivane Sassen photographed in Africa. Her use of bold and highly saturated colours as well as highly contrasted light draws you into the image instantly. Her portraits depict a duality as to what the subject is revealing. The images were beautifully mounted and printed on a high gloss paper.

The second photographer I was equally drawn to was Scarlett Hooft Graafland, whose images were photographed in the cold village of Nunavut, Canada. Vast landscapes of white and blue with solitary subjects draw you into the image in a much different way than those of Sassen. Graaftand’s sense of humour is very apparent within her images, but equally stresses the seriousness of her concern for the environment and the damaging effects of human interference. The subjects are mainly humorous and whimsical, but the vast landscapes ground you and remind you of the reality of humans effects on the environment. The images were printed on a semi gloss paper and framed in a beautiful natural toned frame.

Image by Jen Allison 

The other two photographers at this exhibit were interesting and also from opposing areas of the world. Olga Chagaoutdinova’s photographs and videos are described as an ‘examination of how we construct personal and cultural identities. Interested in globalization after the fall of communism, she investigates how domesticity can be positioned as a microcosm of society. Themes of pain and suffering are evident thought the artist’s practice, alluding to her heritage and traditions within Russian art and literature’. Personally, Chagaoutdinova’s images were aesthetically pleasing, but I felt it difficult to piece together the intention of the theme.

Image by Jen Allison 

Dayanita Sing’s nocturnal images are a drastic contrast to those of Chagaoutdinova’s. Singhs images are described as ‘transforming the notcturnal city into a surreal world, where the familiar is concealed by the unknown’. The images were printed on a high gloss paper in a smaller frame, which brought you into the image. All the images were dark, which further emphasized the world of the nocturnal city Singh photographed. The techniques Singh used with artificial colours, steams of light and shadows created a dreamlike feel to the images.

Curated by Bonnie Rubenstein.