The third of three exhibitions at the Mann Art Gallery which had an opening reception on June 22 is 53.2033° N, 105.7531° W.
This exhibition on Prince Albert / Kistahpinanihk (Cree – “the gathering place”), represents key sites of work, leisure, education, respite and reverence.
Summer interns Mikaela LeBlanc, who is a collections assistant, and Tekla Mattila, an education assistant, were tasked with creating the exhibit.
“Marcus (Miller), Lana (Wilson) and (Registrar) Cydnee (Sparrow) gave us the theme of Prince Albert, and then it was up to us to come up with the rest,” LeBlanc said. “We had lots of discussions on how we wanted to show Prince Albert. Previously other summers I’ve worked at the Prince Albert Historical Society, so I’ve got a good idea about different buildings, what they were, where they’re located and the history of them. When I was looking through the database, I found lots of images of buildings and different locations.”
Mattila said they came up with the idea of setting the works up on the wall geographically related to their actual location in relation to the North Saskatchewan River. The works were all donated to the Mann Art Gallery by the artists themselves, their children or members of the community.
The exhibition tells stories of a city that has always been the subject of artistic inspiration and a home to many remarkable artists.
On one side is the riverbank and it also features images of Little Red, the Historical Museum, the bridge, Exhibition Grounds, the Prince Albert Golf Course which is now Cooke Municipal Golf Course, King George and PACI. Mattila is a graduate of PACI and made sure it was included in the images.
“It’s very nice to look over and be like ‘I did that,’” Mattila said. “We had a group (on June 28) that was teachers from PACI. Lots of them knew me, and so I got to show off what I did here. It was really cool because they had me two years ago and now I’m showing it off and they can see where I’ve come from there.”
The images also include the downtown on Central, the former Central School, the EA Rawlinson Centre, St. George’s Church on 12th Street and St. Mary’s Church and Cemetery.
This is the first time both of them have curated their own exhibit. They each enjoyed it in their own ways.
“It was very stressful but also very fun,” Mattila said. “It was super, super cool to just watch it start coming together because it was a process of over two weeks. We came up with the idea and then we kind of had convince the people like Marcus and Lana to actually let us do it this way because they were a little bit hesitant, but we (said), ‘no, we have the vision.’”
This became a process of selling the vision for the project.
“It was a process of figuring out the sizes for everything (and) how it would actually look when it was on the wall,” LeBlanc said. “Then we had to frame some of them.”
The artworks are more than representations of landmarks. They are memories that contribute to the navigation and remembrance of communal and regional histories.
The work is on display in the education space on the left-hand side of the gallery where Mattila also works during the day.
Different historical and imaginative perspectives are depicted in the works of J.S. Base and William Gordon Griffiths in the 1930s, Frances Hanson in the 1950s, and Alex Mullie and Ken Lyons in the 2010s.
The two interns said the exhibition aspires to ground viewers in the present and inspire them. Whether a person is new to Prince Albert or has lived here their whole life, both interns said 53° N tells stories that go well beyond the information given on a map.
This exhibit works directly with what LeBlanc is studying as she is taking a Masters of Library Information Studies and wants to be an Archive Librarian. Meanwhile, Mattila is studying psychology, but still found the project interesting.
“Working here isn’t super in my career path, but I still like it,” Mattila said. “It’s still fun. It’s not where I was expecting myself to work, but it’s still a job and I enjoy it quite a bit, getting to teach people how to do art and spend the day being creative.”
The unique name featuring the coordinates was inspired by a conversation with Sparrow and Miller where the concept was suggested. The coordinates are specific and point directly to Prince Albert City Hall.
53.2033° N, 105.7531° W runs at the Mann Art Gallery from June 22 to August 19.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
