Lay of the land

As a curator and head of collections and exhibitions at WAG-Qaumajuq, Riva Symko has been contemplating landscapes in art for a long time. But living in an ever-changing and ever-threatened one has altered her perspective on them.

Before coming to Winnipeg, Symko and her husband lived in Anchorage, Alaska. One day, seven or so years ago, they were out hiking when a sudden thunderstorm rolled through — “which is very unusual in Alaska,” she says — sparking a forest fire that ended up raging out of control. That summer, the whole city, save for the ocean side, was surrounded by fire and blanketed with heavy smoke. Climate change was viscerally visible.

“And since then, I really haven’t been able to look at a beautiful landscape the same,” she says.

With Terra Cognita/Incognita, a new exhibition opening at WAG-Qaumajuq Wednesday night, Symko wants to inspire and challenge viewers to look at landscapes differently, too.

Translating to “known land/unknown land” and curated by Symko, the show is composed of more than 125 artworks from the WAG-Qaumajuq permanent collection, braiding together different perspectives on national identity, geography and climate change through both Indigenous and settler Canadian lenses.

Obviously, there are more than a few landscape works in the gallery’s collection, so challenge one was dialing in her focus.

“I had at least double that (number of works), if not more. One thing with working with a permanent collection, you’re always editing down from, like, 30,000,” Symko says.

Still, she had a few guideposts. She knew she wanted a mix of media, a mix of cultural perspectives and a mix of time periods, so they could all exist in conversation with one another.

“I was thinking of it as a cabinet of curiosities in a way, just to show the breadth and scope of how much landscape is in the art world, and we kind of pass it by, or maybe don’t think about it, or we just assume we know what it is.”

The exhibition features Carl Beam, Eleanor Bond, Emily Carr, Sarah Anne Johnson, Norval Morrisseau and Tom Thomson, as well as photographers Edward Burtynsky and André Kertész.

And, of course, those most famous chroniclers of Canadiana, the Group of Seven, which are grouped together near the exhibition’s entrance. (In a canny bit of curation, Symko has hung a Carr just outside the group, acknowledging her association even if she wasn’t an official member.)

“Many of them came from a commercial art background, and very specifically were looking to create this Canadian identity out of the landscape that is now deeply embedded in our collective consciousness — and yet, it’s missing Indigenous communities, it’s setting up the land as though it’s this vast, open place, ready for exploitation, but really, that exploitation has come at the cost of the people that were here first,” she says.

Symko wants to get people thinking about the context beyond the painting.

“They are beautiful, and it’s no wonder that they became these national icons because they’re difficult not to love — even when you’re coming to them from a critical point of view. But you do have to come to them from a critical point of view, and think about them in relation to climate change and colonialism.”

Elsewhere, the works on view contend with landscapes not just physical spaces, but sites of identity, memory and connection. And some are not traditional landscapes at all; Keith Berens’ 2009-10 abstract encaustic works White Shell 1, 2 and 3, for example, draw upon his Indigenous ancestry and think about the land as layers of people, stories and histories.

And, as this is an exhibition about the land, its design and installation took environmental impact into consideration. The show features hand-painted signage from the Travelling Sign Painters instead of plastic-based text panels, rice wallpaper from Martha Street Studio and repurposed Manitoba Tyndall stone for display plinths in partnership with Alpha Masonry.

Terra Cognita/Incognita also features four pieces on loan from local contemporary artists Anna Binta Diallo, Sarah Fuller, Debra Frances Plett and Lourdes Still, who created a new large-scale commission for the exhibition.

Still owns and operates Masagana Flower Farm & Studio, a seasonal flower farm and natural dye studio near La Broquerie where she grows her own dyes (marigold, indigo, cosmos and more). Her piece, 12 Dips of Blue, is a naturally dyed textile installation in varying shades of indigo and symbolizes the 12 full moons we see in a year. (There is actually a 13th panel; 2026 has 13 full moons.)

Still moved to Manitoba from the Philippines in 2009, and says she didn’t really feel at home until she started sinking her hands in the dirt and gardening with her now husband.

“Something about tending the plants — because in Manitoba we have to start everything indoors, and then April, May we transplant them — and so something about helping the plants get rooted in the garden, I was also getting rooted.”

Still says she’s honoured her work is part of this exhibition.

“I’m really, really excited for the public to engage with it, walk through it, and also I hope that one of the things that they would wonder about is where in nature their favourite colours come from.”

Terra Cognita/Incognita is on view until November 2027.

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com