Author: mindenhillsculturalcentre

Navigations of Iron
by Gary Blundell

Agnes Jamieson Gallery
August 12 – September 26, 2020

Between 1870 and 1900, there was a great hope that the iron ore found between Kinmount and Tory Hill would bring prosperity to the area. Many men came here seeking the location of valuable iron deposits, digging test holes in the ground and setting up mine sites. The most notable was Chalres Pusey, who as a young man had worked for the new railways in both England and the United States. He came in hopes of becoming a true mining and railway baron. Sadly, despite setting up a home here, building a church in Irondale and the IB&O Railway linking Howland Junction to Bancroft, the iron deposits were poor at best and the entire venture went from hopeful to abandoned.

The area today is littered the the remains of these activities. The mine test-holes and mine sites can be found throughout the woodlands. There are still the remains of railway beams, intact bridges and decaying waiting rooms.

As an artist interested in the collision between human and natural patterning on the Earth’s surface this local endeavor has intrigued Gary Blundell since moving here in 2000. This exhibition is all about what remains.

Artist Bio

E. G. Blundell was born in London, England and immigrated to Canada in 1962. Gary is a hyrdogeoloist by training and has a degree in Earth Sciences. In 2014 he received the Chalmers Fellowship. His work has been exhibited across the country, the UK and can be found in numerous public and private collections throughout Canada.

Artist WEBSITE

Interlace
by Carolyn Wren

Agnes Jamieson Gallery

Carolyn Wren offers three parts to this exhibition. In the large gallery area handwritten in cursive, the transcribed text of Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” (1929) was lovingly embroidered by many women. Sixty-four 3’ x 5’ panels were sewn together to revive Woolf’s extended essay. The work appears to come from out of the wall and spill around the room, mimicking a factory production. The second installation, “Lost Knowledge”, also involves cursive writing. Exhibited in the hallway, this display becomes a transition from “A Room of One’s One” and The Ghost of Emily.  It ties the threads between embroidered work and crochet work revealing the base line nascent in Wren’s practice. The work represents Wren’s need to remember by obsessively writing out the first few pages of books , she attempts to collect, preserve, honour, and ritualized knowledge.  The third installation involves a wall-mounted display of words, suspended by pins, and created by crocheting, the entire poem by Emily Dickinson “Because I could not stop for Death”.

With Carolyn Wren’s exhibition is a selection of Andre Lapine work, some of which are original letters written by Lapine to his dear friend Annette Brunelle and her family.

Artist Bio

Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Carolyn Wren studied visual art at the University of Western Ontario. Wren has been exploring themes of lost knowledge and metanarratives in her recent work of transcribing iconic texts to create her installations. In the past she has used relief print methods and processes in non-traditional ways. Key exhibitions include: Rodman Hall Art Centre- Brock University. Kelowna Art Gallery. The University of Sherbrooke. Cram International Gallery, St. Catharines. Open Studio, Toronto. Linen Biennale- Portneuf, Quebec. She has been exhibiting her work since 1990 in group and solo shows across Canada in public galleries and in artist-run centres.

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