Creating one’s own paradise

St. Boniface

St. James-Assiniboia

A local exhibit is giving visitors a chance to immerse themselves, in some cases, in the wilder side of the Prairies.

Galerie Buhler Gallery, which is located inside St. Boniface Hospital at 409 Tache Ave., is currently hosting an exhibit titled Tending the Wild, which will run until Nov. 14.

According to the gallery’s website, the title of the exhibit comes from a line in Paradise Lost, a 17th century poem by John Milton that features the Garden of Eden: “Like gardeners, many artists tend the wild and the work contained in this exhibition touches on healing, subversion, pleasure, fecundity, and reciprocity, as well as history and politics.”

The gallery’s curator, hannah_g, said it’s about not adhering to a definition of what a garden or exhibition is, encouraging us to “tend to our own wild … and to see what can grow within us with a bit of work, dirt, light, and imagination.”

“Think about when you see a wasteland, and someone else sees it as a place of cultivation,” she said, noting the similarities between elements of drawing and gardening in terms of following lines and boundaries.

The exhibit features the work of around 20 artists, including Aganetha Dyck, Arefeh Zamani, Bev Pike, Bret Parenteau, Connie Chappel, and Cullen Bingeman.

As part of the exhibit, the gallery has also collaborated with the Living Prairie Museum (2795 Ness Ave). As part of the museum’s community art project called Paskwâwi-mostos: Caretakers of the Prairies, a large-scale bison sculpture was created by community members during a number of workshops, including knowledge keeper and educator Britt Ross, who contributed clay and seed beads as part of the collaboration.

The aim of the project was to connect community, art, and Indigenous teachings to promote biodiversity and the restoration of Manitoba’s tallgrass prairie. The sculpture is now located outside St. Boniface Hospital, and the idea is that the beads and seeds will fall off as the seasons change and the elements take hold, and germinate in the spring and eventually grow into a prairie garden surrounding the sculpture.

Josh Pearlman, the education co-ordinator at Living Prairie Museum, is delighted with the collaborative process that went into creating the bison.

“We invited people to join us … and we hit all our marks in a beautiful way. It’s been a really great process,” Pearlman said, noting the significance of the sculpture’s location.

“The hospital is a place for health, recovery and renewal, and it’s also a space for the prairie to prosper. It’s important to talk about caring for landscapes, so they can take care of landscapes, so they can take care of people.”

Ross said the hands-on, collaborative project is connected to the relationship animals have with the land, their environment, and habitat.

“It’s a really beautiful idea to try and bring back a lot of hope,” Ross said. “Creating the bison was a really cool thing to explore.”

Noting her gratitude for the trust the exhibiting artists placed in her to curate the Tending the Wild exhibit, hannah_g said she hopes people stop by and take in the showcase.

“I’d like everyone to see the exhibit. I hope they come along and feel really welcome … it’s for people who want to have a fun experience.”

Go online at galeriebuhlergallery.ca to learn more about the gallery.