Water is an important part of our lives and the latest exhibition at the Mann Art Gallery explores that and more.
Susan Shantz is a noted Saskatchewan sculptor and visual artist from Saskatoon. Her exhibit
“Confluence” presents Shantz’s more recent explorations into the water sources that sustain us on the Prairies.
Shantz took part in an artist’s talk on Saturday at the Mann Art Gallery to discuss her exhibition. She said the idea for the work came from a walk to her job at USask where she crossed the CPR Bridge. She said that because of the height of the bridge you can see the vast expanse of the prairie and that made her think of where the water was coming from.
“I live near the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, so I’ve always loved the river, but then … I was walking over it to go to work on the really high bridge and I started thinking about where does the water come from and where does the water go?” Shantz explained.
“It’s coming from Lake Diefenbaker, Calgary, the mountains, so that’s the source of the water and then looking north thinking where does it go? (I thought,) ‘well I think it goes to Hudson Bay. I better check that out’ and it does but it kind of goes to the (Saskatchewan) Delta, which I’d never heard.
The Mann Art Gallery exhibit is unique because it includes a blue tarp portion spread out to form a “drip”, something previous versions of the exhibit haven’t included.
“The tarps are based on watershed map of the Saskatchewan River—both the north and the South—and then I just enlarge them,” Shantz explained. “You can see the drawings on the wall.” or actually taken from road maps where I was looking for the water and dropping away the roads,” Shantz explained.
To create the tarps, Shantz created grids on the four 12 foot by 16 foot tarps based on road maps, where she removed the roads, but kept the lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water.
Shantz decided to create the unique look after finding out she couldn’t hang the tarps the way they were meant to be displayed.
“I lifted them up and I wasn’t sure what would happen, but they dripped and they created negative spaces and when you put lights above them, they create like a watery feeling underneath and light and shadow,” she explained. “You don’t really see the map exactly, but you get a sense that you’re underwater.”
Shantz said some viewers felt the tarps were like water is slowing down because it’s higher at one end where the mountains are and it drops down to the deltas at the other end.
“I was really happy with how that worked, and then in the gallery here at the Mann the movable walls allowed me to create that stepping pattern through the space, and then some low areas like the glacial stream at the back is on the floor,” she said. “That’s kind of the mountain source of some of our water. (It) comes from the glaciers, but I think the tarps are the most immersive where you feel like you’re underwater.”
During her talk, Shantz noted that the tarps created an Atmospheric River sensation like has been experienced in British Columbia. When the work was created in 2017 that term did not exist.
“The watershed that is above us now is potentially really a river that’s above us, not just at our foot level or below us,” she said.
The last exhibit in the main gallery is white shorts stitched with water flow placed over ironing boards with a projection of a movie of Shantz doing the stitching to the side.
Shantz said she enjoyed working in the space of the Mann because of the way the main gallery is like a cube.
“There’s all these experiences inside the cube of the gallery, so some are at floor level, some are at your body level and some are overhead,” she said.
Shantz recently retired as a professor at USask and is now a Professor Emeritus. Shantz was a Professor in Sculpture and Extended Media at the University of Saskatchewan and she was the Department Head of Art and Art History from 2007-2013.
“My first degree was English, actually, way back I mean. I love poetry and I think in my work there’s often a bit of a poetic sensibility. I don’t like to spell everything out. I like to leave space for people to think and things to resonate a little bit.”
The exhibit opening and artist talk was originally scheduled for earlier in November on the day of a major snowfall. She changed it to an afternoon talk on Saturday after discussions with interim artistic director Jesse Campbell.
Before the show there was Sound/Water Wave Meditation with Sandhi Irvine that had meditation in the space.
“I wanted people to have a meditative experience to think about water outside us, water inside us, and the vibrations of water,” she said. “We can feel those in our body.”
During her talk, she also discussed how people forget we drink the water we are near.
“Here in PA, you drink the North Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. We drink the South Saskatchewan River but we tend to forget that, so it’s kind of interesting to actually reflect on that and think about our water, the water in our bodies (which are) kind of like a river of veins,” Shantz said.
During her research, Shantz was able to work with scientists, including Dr. Graham Stricker, and take students to tour the Cumberland Delta.
“I’ve learned an awful lot,” she said. “It was fabulous. I learned so much working with scientists. I read a lot of kind of popular science because I’m really interested as source material for thinking about making art and how you might convey it differently, and increasingly scientists are interested in artists and writers being able to communicate complicated things to a wider audience. They realize the urgency of getting more people to understand.”
Campbell introduced Shantz at the artist’s talk. Campbell studied under Shantz at USask. The crowd was engaged and asked several questions and engaged in discussions.
Confluence is on display at the Mann Art Gallery from Nov. 14 until Jan. 11, 2025.
