Portrait with Protective Facemask (Dukovany Nuclear Power Station), Diptych, Archival inkjet prints, 2011.--IMAGE COURTESY THE ESPLANADE
A large portion of my role as the curator of exhibitions and collections at the Esplanade involves long-term relationship building with artists from across Canada.
Our galleries feature exhibitions by local, regional, national and international artists, who spend years creating a body of work.
A vital component to this process is the discourse between myself and the artists, which involves viewing works in progress as well as completed works. These studio visits occur both in person and virtually, depending on the location of the artist.
Our current solo exhibition, Living in the Zone, features Lethbridge-based artist Petra Mala Miller. This exhibition is a testament to two Canada Council artist grants, 11 years of research, documentation, creation and fabrication. The outcome conveys a visual narrative of the psychological complexities, impacts and personal lived experience surrounding nuclear energy.
Mala Miller grew up in Blatnice, Czech Republic, 20 kilometres from one of Europe’s largest active nuclear power generating facilities, a geopolitically contentious site that operated concurrently with the catastrophe at Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986.
She explains, “As a young girl I experienced the catastrophe of Chernobyl, not through the lens of broadcast media, but through the trepidation that filled my home and befell my community. I add symbolic residue to the past by staging scenes from my childhood in the present day.”
Over the last 11 years, Mala Miller has been travelling back to her village of Blatnice to document her family. These photographs along with videos, sound and a large installation of protective facemasks create a 3.000 square-foot installation that describes the complex relationship between nuclear power and its impacts on individuals and communities.
Mala Miller’s photographic abilities are unpretentious, skillfully executed, conceptually sophisticated works of art.
Her images capture and convey a quiet power, layered with emotional complexities. They describe narratives that are simultaneously overt and mysterious.
Compositionally minimal, they hold a meditative moment in time, a place where the viewer’s gaze becomes paralyzed with intrigue.
Living in the Zone achieves a refined balance between inconspicuous photographs and large-scale 3-dimensional installations. Her piece titled Protective Facemasks is Mala Miller’s first monumental sculptural endeavour. Each mask is modelled from replicas given to individuals living within the Dukovany emergency evacuation zone.
The sewn masks are sourced from Mala Miller’s familial home; worn tablecloths, bed linen, clothing and other domestic materials were repurposed for each of the one hundred masks.
Traversing 50 feet across the gallery, positioned side by side, ascending from the floor to the ceiling, Living in the Zone: Protective Facemasks metaphorically references the human life span and quietly haunts our psyche.
Living in the Zone is on exhibit at the Esplanade until Dec. 30.
Xanthe Isbister is the curator of exhibitions and collections at the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre
