Different variation of The Wild gets a new look at Medalta

By Chris Brown on August 16, 2018.

cbrown@medicinehatnews.com @MHNBrown

Teams strive to get home-ice or home-court advantage in sports, with familiarity, the crowd and other factors benefiting the home team. Jenn Demke-Lange has something of a home-gallery advantage with her latest exhibition, The Wild.

Currently showing at Medalta, where Demke-Lange is a studio co-ordinator, this version of The Wild is a variation of an exhibition at the Esplanade in the spring of 2017. The unique space and specifically the gallery’s natural light give a new look to a large one piece.

“There’s an installation piece with a tent and the shadows play really neatly on top of that when the light hits it. It’s similar to being outside,” Demke-Lange said this week.

Another variation is that what was a hand-drawn mural on the wall at the Esplanade exhibition is a vinyl wrap on the wall in the Medalta exhibition.

Overall the theme of The Wild, at Medalta until Aug. 22, is the artist’s recollections of personal experiences spending time outside camping as a child and now having her children experience that same kind of environment.

“It’s a body of work that celebrates the experience of wildness and its ability to de-civilize,” she said.

Much of the exhibition is ceramics with drawings on the surface showing childhood wonderment and connections with nature. There are also larger installation pieces and an interactive piece.

The exhibition is at Medalta as part of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program. So far it’s been to a variety of rural schools and Demke-Lange has taught workshops to students.

“It’s really accessible and relatable to a broad audience and age groups as well,” she said.

It’s so accessible that Demke-Lange has posted tutorials for the projects on her personal website mikindstudio.com.

“As a ceramic artist I’m really drawn to the process in how I’m making things,” she said. “So I like to make that available for people to see not just the finished object but kind of the story behind it of me as an artist making that work.”

Also running at Medalta until Aug. 22 is White Nurse by Blair Brennan. It’s described on the Medalta website as a series of 20 artworks that portray Blair Brennan’s battle and rehabilitation from the addiction to prescription pain medication.

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