Viewfinder

Comment

Viewfinder

Heather Cline, ‘Viewfinder- Grasslands’, 5’ x 10’, 2024, Acrylic/Panel

‘Viewfinder’ is a collaborative project between artist Heather Cline and the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Cline is creating paintings inspired by viewing the landscape through a conservation lens, walking the land with staff and stakeholders of the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The initial project fieldwork consists of a series of one-on-one encounters in the environment. Cline is compiling ‘Field Notes’ for the project that consist of photographic documentation (land based and aerial) and audio recording. The goal is to have meaningful exchanges on the land that shift how Cline views the landscape. These encounters are being translated into large-scale paintings from the aerial viewpoint that depict this layered experience of the spaces. Painters can capture not just the reality of the scene but the emotional impact; they can layer possibilities with reality; simultaneous capture macrocosms, microcosms and explore a more evocative view of the land.

The artwork created for this project will be exhibited and toured as the ‘Viewfinder’ exhibition through the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery starting in the fall of 2025.

This painting, entitled ‘Grassland Pastures’, is the first work in the Viewfinder series. In June of 2023 Cline walked the land for three days with Krista Ellingson, MSc, Pag, Natural Areas Manager-Working Landscapes NCC. They visited an area in Southern Saskatchewan managed by the Val Marie Grazing Corp who are working with the NCC on sustainable agricultural practice to protect natural grasslands. Cline then returned to conduct an aerial survey of the area with private Pilot David Stanchuk and Krista Ellingson. This painting combines multiple images, viewpoints, and is a visual representation of the rich experience of viewing the land with the help of someone deeply connected to the landscape.

Nature Conservancy of Canada

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is Canada's leading national land conservation organization. In Saskatchewan, NCC has secured more than 170 properties and has helped to conserve over 198,219 hectares of ecologically significant land and water in Saskatchewan.

Grasslands are one of the rarest and most at-risk ecosystems in the world and are a critical part of Saskatchewan. They filter our water, help prevent flooding and droughts, sequester carbon, and for thousands of years have provided sustenance for humans. Over the past 25 years, Saskatchewan has lost more than 809,000 hectares of native grassland and now less than 20 percent remain intact. With a high diversity of species and some large tracts of native grasslands still intact, Saskatchewan has an opportunity that is not possible in other parts of the world – and opportunity to conserve grasslands forever.

Comment

Waterways

Comment

Waterways

When I first started documenting the landscape from the aerial perspective, I wanted to act as a witness to the constant change that human activity has on our environment. I was interested in trying to capture the impact that the initial survey of the land, the construction of the grid road system, and the ongoing practice of agricultural production, have on the prairie landscape. As I continued to view the landscape from the sky, it became more and more noticeable that it was in the small coulees, glacial valleys and river beds that natural habitat was more intact. It was this growing awareness that led to body of work entitled ‘Waterways’.

When I was a child, the most important geographical feature of my world was the South Saskatchewan River. The river was a constant in my life. There was nothing like the view from the centre of the CP rail bridge, a few kilometres from my home. It allowed me to see the city, the river and the river habitat from a Birdseye view. I felt linked to the river and was clearly aware that it was the source of water for our home.

I’ll never forget the Sundays when we go out to visit my grandparents in the small town of Zelma. Their source of water was a well, and the water was heavily laden with minerals and iron. We drank copious cups of tea, and occasionally we were allowed the treat of a Pic A Pop from my grand-parents root cellar. The water was not considered palatable by myself and my siblings. I have vivid memories of arriving home and running to the sink to turn on the water to the coldest setting and let it run until the pure cold water filled my glass. In my child’s eye I felt the connection from the stream of water running from the tap directly to the river.

When I moved to Southern Saskatchewan, I felt less connected to the water sources that provided me with my daily needs. As I contemplated the Waterways series, I decided to try to understand more clearly how the water flows to my home and other communities in southern and central areas. Somehow it seemed appropriate to start at a historically significant confluence. One of the most important water points recognized by the Hudson’s Bay Company was the area where the Qu’Appelle river meets the Assiniboine River. It was in this place that the company established Fort Ellice in 1831, prior to settlement on the prairies. Waterways is a body of work that follows a route from this starting point down the Qu’Appelle water system through the Regina area continuing on to the Diefenbaker dam. I then followed the water from River Landing, up the South Saskatchewan River to my childhood home in Saskatoon.

It quickly became apparent that many of the waterways are also being deeply impacted by human activity. Agricultural production crowds up against the small streams and the harvesting of hay impacts the river valleys. Recreational sites alter the banks of the larger bodies of water. Smaller streams and rivers have their courses altered by drainage, ditches and diversion. In many ways this body of work bears witness to the dwindling resource of natural habitat near water in South and Central Saskatchewan. I hope these artworks inspire people to think about how we interact with the waterways that are an important part of our daily life on the prairies.

Comment

Above Below

Comment

Above Below

About the Series…

On the prairie the view through the car windshield often reveals a never-ending roadway. Landscape painting in Canada has frequently been dominated by work less rooted in human geography; exploring the wilderness and generally downplaying or naturalizing the human reconstruction of the Canadian prairies. The body of work featured in the exhibition ‘Above Below’ started with a series of landscapes, the ‘Dashcam’ paintings. The roadway is central in these artworks, placing the viewer on a constructed path. As the work progressed, I was also drawn to places where more organic backroads and prairie trails intersect with the grid often following along streams, riverbeds and glacial pathways. The ‘Skyhawk’ series explores a wider view of the prairie landscape as seen from above. This viewpoint reveals the patchwork grid, a geometric system of organization imposed upon the land. This collision of the carefully surveyed grid system and the reality of geography seems an apt metaphor for the complex implications we currently face in our interaction with the landscape. ‘Shifting Grid’ highlights the aesthetic interplay of the grid roadway system with the organic contours of the land, as a way of considering themes around land use and the role we play in the constantly changing geography of the prairie landscape.


The view of the prairie landscape from above is a series of disappearing lines, created by the grid road system bordering the strong patterns created by human passage through the landscape. The light and clouds move across the land breaking up the geometry and revealing small counterpoints of habitat and housing. Throughout the year the terrain shifts with the cycles of agricultural activity. Large tracks of land in south and central Saskatchewan have been reformatted by monoculture but more diverse plants and grasses still remain in small areas like the valleys left by the passage of glaciers and waterways. Viewed from above there are islands of marshland, coolies, groves of trees and shelterbelts; like a strange code dotting the terraformed landscape. Below we move through a more contained landscape.

When I was a kid, we made frequent trips on the grid to visit my Grandparents, my Dad would challenge us to be the first to see the town elevator; reward a Nickel. Depending on which backroad we took you could usually see it from about 10km away. Now I find myself looking for different signposts along the way. The micro habitats left along the roadway, slough and poplar grove. A row of evergreens planted along the road into a farmyard. I find I now experience even more of a sense of isolation on the grid roads as more and more home quarters are abandoned or serve merely as installation points for grain and equipment storage. On the backroads there is often dust in the distance, indicated an approaching vehicle, this is always an event as you slow down to save your windshield from the spray of stones, the gravel that coats the roadway. This ritual has become more infrequent over the passing years. My passage through the roadways built along the grid has an edge of nostalgia built on secondary memories of rural life gathered from family and wider oral story collection. This emotional response to the landscape shifts with complexity in the aerial views. When I view the terrain from the above I feel pushed past reminiscence to reflect on land use and the every changing geography of the prairies. Both experiences act as testimony to the history of land use in Canada. To paint these views from Above and below is to act as a witness to the blend of the manufactured and the natural in the prairie landscape.

The process of viewing the landscape from above and below gives us the opportunity to consider both historic and contemporary land use. I feel that the process I am using to create my landscapes mimics my complex feelings about this human interaction with the land; applying layers of sculptural paint, carving, and sanding to rework the wooden surface of my panels. I feel like my colour palette and the shift between loose paint application and small precise details captures the very evocative experience I have observing my habitat. Pushing between abstraction and the real, trying to explore the impact of human intervention on the land.

- Heather Cline

Comment

Shifting Grid

Comment

Shifting Grid

On the prairie the view through the car windshield often reveals a never-ending roadway. Landscape painting in Canada has frequently been dominated by work less rooted in human geography; exploring the wilderness and generally downplaying or naturalizing the human reconstruction of the Canadian prairies. The body of work featured in the exhibition ‘Shifting Grid’ started with a series of landscapes, the ‘Dashcam’ paintings. The roadway is central in these artworks, placing the viewer on a constructed path. As the work progressed, I was also drawn to places where more organic backroads and prairie trails intersect with the grid often following along streams, riverbeds and glacial pathways. The ‘Skyhawk’ series explores a wider view of the prairie landscape as seen from above. This viewpoint reveals the patchwork grid, a geometric system of organization imposed upon the land. This collision of the carefully surveyed grid system and the reality of geography seems an apt metaphor for the complex implications we currently face in our interaction with the landscape. ‘Shifting Grid’ highlights the aesthetic interplay of the grid roadway system with the organic contours of the land, as a way of considering themes around land use and the role we play in the constantly changing geography of the prairie landscape.

Comment

Skyhawk

Comment

Skyhawk

An aerial view of much of the Canadian prairies is a patchwork grid, a geometric system of organization and division imposed upon the land. There is a long tradition on the prairies of documenting the land from the air. Small planes like the Cessna Skyhawk have been used since the 1950s to capture aerial views of countless homesteads, colourized and sold back to the farmers as an opportunity to display a portrait of home. Heather Cline’s Skyhawk series continues from this tradition, zooming out to take a wider view of the prairie landscape as seen from above. Highlighting the aesthetic interplay of the grid with the organic contours of the land, her works consider themes around land use, home, and what it means to inhabit the land.

Artist Statement

To observe the land from the sky is to be a witness to the blend of the manufactured and the natural. There is a profound beauty to the landscape and a strong sense of the history of land use. I feel that the process I am using to create my aerial landscapes mimics my complex feelings about human interaction with the land. Applying layers of almost sculptural paint, carving, sanding, and reworking the surface of the wooden panels I use as my working surface. I feel like my colour palette and the shift between loose paint application and small precise details captures the very evocative experience I have observing my habitat from the air. Pushing between abstraction and the real, trying to capture the impact of human intervention on our landscape.

- Heather Cline

Comment

Quiet Stories

Comment

Quiet Stories

The-Office-of-Identity-Collection-Regina-2009.jpg

‘Quiet Stories from Canadian Places’ was a roughly 10-year project (2008-2018) that involved collecting everyday stories and creating painting of places in response. The work involved community engagement, audio recording anecdotal interviews, and filtering my perception of geographical spaces through other people’s life experience. I used multiple types of technology to document place (including drone shots, GoPros, HD video and high quality still shots). I then manipulated this imagery and translated it into paintings.

Project activities included setting up a ‘Story Collection’ office from an inner-city store front in Oshawa, Ontario and riding along on combines in rural Manitoba. I viewed the exhibition as an installation, a large audio-visual collage. This approach mimicked contemporary museum practice, sites like the Canadian War Museum, where Canada’s War Art collection is displayed along-side historical analysis, artifacts and first-person accounts. I wanted people to experience how I felt as I collected stories from a series of smaller, yet oddly diverse communities.

I didn’t seek out specific demographics or large centers. The project focused on smaller communities, often in a state of transition. A small shrinking town in the middle of the central Manitoba, a community of 200 people grappling with the impact of the shifting nature of the agriculture business on the prairies. A GTR community facing a changing auto industry struggling to rebuild itself as an educational centre while battling a major inner city drug problem. An Okanagan city just starting to experience the effects of transitioning from fruit growing and ranching to a resort community for often absent multi-millionaires.

I talked with people from the age of 5 to 92, with diverse demographic and cultural backgrounds. I heard triumphant immigrant stories and bitter tales of unfulfilled expectations. I heard profound stories of identity reclaimed by first nations and Metis people. Aspects of sexism, poverty, displacement and diverse family life were illuminated through the simple stories told by the project participants. Students from an alternative school in southern Saskatchewan talked about their struggles with drugs, domestic battery and coping with being transgendered. These stories were often interwoven with a profound love of community and the natural environment. People also spoke about local, and frequently mundane, landmarks as a backdrop to their stories.

This is the subject matter that I weaved together into my own commentary on how we construct institutional history.

The participating communities included Regina SK, Oshawa Ontario, Inglis Manitoba, Vernon BC, Swift Current SK, Strathcona County Alberta, Moose Jaw SK and Kelowna, BC.

I have included selected paintings from the different regions in the following slideshow. Scroll down to listen to audio clips and view some video content about the project.


Artwork Slideshow (21 Images)


Audio Playlists


Video Playlist

Comment

Pathways and Portents

Comment

Pathways and Portents

About 6-7 years ago I started thinking- what John Prine would paint? Prine, an important musical figure in our household is known for his body of subtle and profound songs rooted in everyday life. This exhibition features two bodies of works influenced by Prine- Dashcam and Neighbours.

Dashcam is a series of landscape paintings featuring roads. The view through the car windshield seems like a ready-made Prine song. Roads speak to freedom and possibility; the unknown; and the passage of time. Routes have been incised into the landscape by imperialists and dreamers. They take you home and allow you to escape your everyday.

Read More...

Landscape painting in Canada has frequently been dominated by work less rooted in human geography; exploring the wilderness and generally downplaying the human reconstruction of the western prairies. John Prine was whispering in my ear as I started the dashcam series, placing the roadway firmly in the center of these artworks. Casting the viewer as the main character in a journey through the landscape altered by but not contained by human intervention. The works vary in size, exploring how shifting scale contributes to the visual impact. All the works feature acrylic paint layered on panel.

The series uses multiple layers of paint, often combined with carving and sanding, reworking the surface, literally reconstructing the landscape. I hope that this process of building up the surface of the artwork translates into how people experience the paintings, as the layers and shifts in the surface texture slowly are revealed over a longer period of contemplation. As the work progressed, I started to remove certain elements concentrating on placing the carefully delineated structure of the roads and signage in contrast with the loose dense painting of the landscape. Emulating some of the inherent contradictions in human interaction with our environment.

I strive for these works to be emotive paintings, rooted in physical journey but trying to build on the poetic nature of simple life experience. Geography as metaphor, with the acknowledged influence of the many writers, musicians and artists who have explored the rich terrain of our passage through the landscape.

And then in the spring of 2020 journeys suddenly became infrequent, as we all grappled with the necessary changes created by the COVID 19 pandemic. As the weeks of reduced city traffic continued, I started to observe changes in my environment. Local wildlife started to openly dominate my surroundings, brazenly travelling the local roadways and freely carousing throughout the neighbourhood. I started to ponder the importance of animals as portents in classic stories, religion and literature. The result is a body of work entitled Neighbours.

This is a series of block-prints that feature the animal visitors that I observed from my studio. It is a playful attempt to cast the animals in the role of portents, the imagery is simple and generally open ended. The work was created in the context of our current situation of a world-wide pandemic and on-going environmental crisis. I believe that the animals provide a moment of hope and perhaps wisdom in their ready adaptation and celebration of freedom in the midst of human crisis. Their behavior, perhaps, showing us all a pathway forward.

You can view a 3D tour of the show at: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=RFm14Z1C6WN


Comment

Pop Up 2018

1 Comment

Pop Up 2018

Opening/Closing Pop Up Downtown 24/7: 2018

Pop Up 2018 is an exhibition created through a partnership of the Downtown Regina Business Improvement District, the Dunlop Art Gallery and the Creative City Centre. The exhibition is shows in 8 downtown storefront windows from June 22, 2018 - September 30, 2018.

My Pop Up Downtown Regina 2018 project ‘Opening/Closing’ examines how people’s relationship with their environment is influenced by their accumulated experiences of a space.

I recorded audio interviews with 9 people who spend time in the downtown area. I also accompanied people on their typical walk through the downtown core. 7 paintings and multiple short audio works were created in response to the interviews. The installation also features a map of the downtown that sits outside of time, integrating contemporary and historical images of the area’s architecture. LED lights have been added to the map charting the participant’s daily routes. The map and corresponding painting light up simultaneously, linking the painting with the participant’s passage through downtown. Viewers can access the audio through multiple QR codes posted in the window in relation to the paintings. This work captures how downtown Regina is experienced by a variety of people and how our perception of habitual geography is layered with memory.

This project was created in collaboration with Dave The Technologist; providing construction and design of the Arduino control box.

1 Comment

Quiet Stories

Comment

Quiet Stories

Upcoming Exhibitions

‘Quiet Stories from Canadian Places’ opens in Kelowna on June 2, 2017
At the Okanagan Heritage Museum June 2-September 4, 2017

470 Queensway Avenue Kelowna, BC
Visit Website


Over the past ten years, Regina-based artist Heather Cline has been quietly gathering stories from local residents in communities across Canada, collecting personal and regional history. Through a series of artist residency projects and public engagements, she did such diverse activities as interviewing farmers on combines in Manitoba, fruit growers in Vernon and school children in Ardrossan, Alberta.

The interviews inspired Cline to paint different geographical locations, connecting with the subject matter through other people’s experiences of place. Excerpts from the audio collection are interspersed among the paintings to create the audience experience.

More Information...

The show will be touring in 2017-2018 through Yorkton SK, Moose Jaw SK, Kelowna BC, Strathcona County Alberta, Swift Current SK and Regina SK. It will also a feature a summer long installation at the Inglis Grain Elevators National Historic Site during the summer of 2017.

Media

  • CTV Yorkton 'Saskatchewan Artist Finds Beauty in the Ordinary', View Video
  • DZine Trip ‘Quiet Stories Packs a Powerful Punch’ by John Thomson, View Online
  • CBC Radio 'Regina Artist Set to Commemorate Canada's 150th', View Online




‘Quiet Stories from Canadian Places’ by Heather M. Cline

Exhibition Schedule

  • The Godfrey Dean Art Gallery, Yorkton SK. Jan. 15-Feb.25, 2017
  • Opening (Artist in Attendance) Sunday Jan. 29th, 2017 2-4pm.
  • Moose Jaw Art Gallery & Museum, Moose Jaw, SK. March 3- May 14, 2017
  • Opening (Artist in Attendance) Friday March 3, 2017 7pm-9pm
  • Kelowna Heritage Museum, Kelowna BC. June 1- Sept. 4, 2017
  • Opening (Artist in Attendance) Thursday June 1 4pm-
  • Strathcona County Art Gallery @ 501, Strathcona County Edmonton, AB. September 9-October 22
  • Opening (Artist in Attendance) Saturday September 9th 7-10pm
  • Art Gallery of Swift Current, Swift Current SK. November-December 2017
  • Opening TBA
  • Dunlop Art Gallery, Sherwood Gallery. January- March 2018
  • Opening TBA

Comment

Additional Recent Work

Comment

Additional Recent Work

Comment

Urban Forest

Comment

Urban Forest

Urban Forest is a body of work about location, memory and the desire to insert the forest into urban spaces. In the older neighbourhoods of Western Canadian cities the trees dramatically impact the light and shadow, visually breaking down the planned geography of the traditional street grid. Like the shelterbelts of the home quarter on prairie farms the trees shield and protect our homes, and transplanted species connect us to distant geographies. The trees defy containment, stretching out in organic irregular shapes, shifting shadow patterns change as each season brings new growth, density and then loss.

Read More...

It is part of a larger body of work that I have been exploring for the past decade. I am interested in creating paintings that give viewers a sense of a memory of place, not just a geographic location. My approach has been to create a more cinematic approach to documenting locations, using video and multiple camera angles and shots that are eventually stitched together into a digital drawing. Although at first glance the images suggest a specific reality, soon small visual details take on greater visual presence and proper perspective is frequently defied. This drawing is combined with multiple layers of opague and transparent acrylic paint, light and colour, the paintings appearance subtly shifting in different light and from different viewpoints.

In mid 1970’s my parents returned home from a trip to Ontario with a hand full of acorns, picked up from one of our original family homesteads. They nursed several frail saplings through several bitter Saskatchewan winter’s hoping that just one tree would survive and thrive. Eventually one tall rugged tree dominated our back yard. When I started creating the work for urban forest my attention was captured by the SOS Elms Saskatoon tree tour project. In their ‘Saskatoon Tree Tour’ booklet they highlight some of the rare and unusual species of trees growing in Saskatoon. I spent a day with my family visiting the various locations featured in the booklet. This tour through older neighbourhoods on Saskatoon’s east side was the starting point for many of the images in the ‘Urban Forest’ series.

Comment

Bird is the Word

1 Comment

Bird is the Word

‘Bird is the Word’ 2015 Mata Art Gallery

Co-Habitation: A series of paintings by Heather Cline exploring Robins and shared domestic space.

During the spring of 2010 a Robin pair nested in a tree outside our front window. We set up a Robin Cam to capture images and share them with our family and friends. This resulted in a body of work entitled ‘Robincam’, 50 paintings depicting the Robins over a 6 week period, from egg to flight. One of the interesting aspects of creating this initial body of work was how invested I became in the daily lives of the birds. I started to research the species and also gained a heightened awareness of the other birds that shared our outdoor living space. With this knowledge came a deeper understanding of the fragile nature of the Songbirds existence. The series Co-Habitation was painted based on a risky nest that returning Robins built on the exterior light fixture of our garage. The complex natural structure of twigs, leaves and found objects is a stark contrast to the white stucco exterior of the aging urban garage. It is a poignant reminder of how little thought we put into how our shared urban space impacts local wildlife.


1 Comment

Passages: Town and Country

1 Comment

Passages: Town and Country

This exhibition, ‘Passages: Town and Country’, explores the intersection between place and memory. It includes images from rural and urban areas of Saskatchewan. The images are acrylic and mixed media, including collage and digital imaging of maps of Saskatchewan collected by my father ranging from the 1940-1990’s. My dad had a particular fascination with maps. He spent his working life as a dairy inspector, hours in the car, farm to farm throughout southern and central Saskatchewan. He always carried multiple Saskatchewan grid road maps in his car and had obscure roads that he liked to take through both rural and urban landscapes. As I grew older I started to realize that he frequently traveled the path of memory, revisiting places that were important because of personal connection. Over the past several years I have also been spending hours on Saskatchewan highways, travelling to small communities to do educational programming. As I travel through these places I find myself charting my own passages. I collected the images used in these paintings along the way.


1 Comment

Inside Outside Fan

Comment

Inside Outside Fan

In November 2013 CFL fans gather in Regina Saskatchewan for the Grey Cup. This art project is part celebration, part observation. Are you an inside fan or an outside fan? Do you prefer spending game day at home in front of the TV or are you a die hard season ticket holder who attends every home game at Mosiac stadium. This exhibition combines views of the city from inside and outside the stadium with stories from the wide spectrum of people who follow the CFL.


Comment

100 Saskatchewan Symbols

1 Comment

100 Saskatchewan Symbols

2012 100 Saskatchewan Symbols

On May 28, 2012 Minister Kevin Doherty joined Artist Residency Coordinator Laura Hale to announce the seven other artists that participated in a special artist-in-residence program. The program was part of the province's year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building and was developed in partnership with the Saskatchewan Arts Board.

Read More...

Under the guidance of Hale, who served as the eighth resident artist, the participants explored the history and significance of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building through their own artistic disciplines.

Each artist hosted a community engagement project to encourage cultural exchange at the Legislative Building and also created a work of art that are displayed the alcoves in the Rotunda of the Legislative Building. The artwork was unveiled in December 2012.

Project Description: Community Engagement Project

October 7 – 21, 2012

What does Saskatchewan mean to you? Over 100 years ago, architects, designers and craftspeople expressed the hopes and dreams of the people of Saskatchewan through the design of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building. For Cline’s legacy project people were invited to take part in a public art project that combined an exploration of symbolism at the Legislative Building with their ideas about how to symbolize Saskatchewan. Cline posted signs revealing symbolism at the 'Leg' and asked people to send her their symbols of what Saskatchewan meant to them. 100 Saskatchewan symbols were included in Cline’s legacy artwork.

Legacy Artwork - Artist Statement

“My legacy artwork is a mixed media work on canvas: there is a digital background (almost a quilt) of the images generated by the public and a surface painting of a view of the Legislative Building, as it appears today 100 years after the construction. I took a series of exterior images at the October 11 Official Anniversary celebration, showing people entering and exiting the building. I felt it is important that people be present in this painting of the Legislative Building,” Cline said.

“Structurally, the work consists of a digital print (archival ink) on canvas (this image contains 100 drawings and photographs created by the project participants). I then painted an image of the Saskatchewan Legislature Building in acrylic paint over-top of the digital print.

“The artwork has a carved wooden frame and the format matches the top curved archway of the alcove. Saskatchewan symbols are also carved on the frame, I felt that this attention to detail really suited the importance of this legacy artwork and the space the work will occupy.”

1 Comment

The Office of Identity Collection

Comment

The Office of Identity Collection

2012 The Office of Identity Collection

Over five days in the month of October 2011, artist Heather Cline, with assistance from performance artist Michele Sereda set up in-residence in downtown Oshawa, working on a project called The Office of Identity Collection. The project involved setting up a 1950’s inspired “passport office” at 16 King Street East and collecting stories and photographs from participants. A range of ages and interests were sought in order to provide diverse impressions of the city and its history. The immersive experience was designed by Cline to draw out memories and stories from residents of Oshawa, which in turn would be used as the basis for this exhibition. The interviews and photos collected at The Office of Identity Collection, along with historical images sourced from the RMG’s Thomas Bouckley Collection, make up the source material and inspiration for this exhibition.

Read More...

After returning to Regina, Cline began reviewing the stories and photographs she had collected, chronicling the project on a blog. In addition, Cline continued to follow Oshawa’s local media to gain greater understanding of the community. The works she has created for this exhibition include mixed-media paintings and multi-media presentations.

Heather Cline lives and works in Regina, Saskatchewan and has participated in group exhibitions throughout North America, with a solo exhibition at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon. This project is supported in part by the Saskatchewan Arts Board. Curated by Linda Jansma and Sonya Jones.

Heather Cline is blogging about the process behind this exhibition. Read more here: http://toicoshawa.blogspot.ca


Comment

Robincam

Comment

Robincam

2011 ‘Robincam’ Mysteria Gallery Regina, SK

During the spring of 2010 a Robin pair nested in a tree outside our front window. We set up a Robin Cam to capture images and share them with our family and friends. This project will consist of 50 paintings depicting the robins over a 6 week period, from egg to flight. Mixed media artist Heather Cline is happy to present 'Robin Cam' a selection of the paintings with unusual robin facts. View blog and video at: http://heatherclinepresentsrobincam.blogspot.ca


Comment

Populating Veduta

Comment

Populating Veduta

2010 Populating Veduta - Contemporary Cityscapes

Veduta, an Italian word meaning 'view,' is an art form in which the scene of a city, land, sea, or any other 'scape' is captured.

This project was launched with a pilot performance collaboration between mixed media artist Heather Cline and performance artist Michelle Sereda in 2009 at an installation entitled 'The Office for Identity Collection'. The performance included the collection of stories through written documentation, video interview and a performance program for school children. It culminated in a panoramic HD video shoot of the Cathedral Neighborhood in Regina, capturing portraits of the project participants on one of the main streets in the area.

Cline extracted stories from the documentation and audio/video interviews to create an exhibition entitled ‘Populating Veduta: Contemporary Cityscapes’ for the Art Gallery of Regina in the fall of 2010. Using the footage from the HD video shoot, Cline translated her research of the community - both past and present - into a series of large-scale ‘historic’ paintings and companion video shorts that capture the lives of everyday people in a diverse urban neighbourhood.


Comment