Artists on The Wards: "For Artists on 'Not Artists'"

October 15 - December 1, 2024

When we walk onto your unit, or into your hospital room, we don’t want to put you to work by making you paint or clap your hands to a song. We want to learn who you are beyond ‘patient’. It’s okay if you are ‘not an artist’, we know you have interests and passions that can engage and inspire you. Though we are not ‘art therapists’, what we offer is therapeutic. Research continues to show that engaging in, or even chatting about, creative interests can have a lot of different benefits. 

As an embedded artist/researcher and Psychiatry graduate student, I curated this exhibition of both staff and patient work relating to the diverse ways that the Artists on the Wards engage the University of Alberta Hospital community, and have done so for 25 years.

-Jennie Vegt

The Chronic Illness Art Project - Allison Tunis and Collaborators

October 10 - December 2, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday, October 13, 7-9pm

Join the opening reception on Zoom: Click Here

The Chronic Illness Art Project is a collaborative portrait series between visual artist and community arts facilitator Allison Tunis (she/they) and nine other individuals throughout Canada who identify as chronically ill. Over the course of three years, Tunis individually connected with each collaborator through a back-and-forth conversational process, discussing their illnesses and the experience of being chronically ill in the world today. As a result of this process, ten double-sided embroidery and mixed media portraits were created, along with some new or strengthened friendships and opportunities to share our stories candidly.

Visually, one side of each piece is a representational portrait of an individual in cross-stitch embroidery, and the reverse side incorporates free-form embroidery, mixed-media collage, and installation elements to attempt to reproduce each collaborator’s experiences of chronic illness through the use of visual metaphor, colour, and texture. Accessibility was an important consideration throughout the creation of the works and for any subsequent exhibitions and displays.

This project sought to develop a more equitable and anti-oppressive approach to portraiture and art-making, specifically focusing on breaking down hierarchies often present in art practices – by listening to and centering lived experience, recognizing and addressing the power differentials between “artist” and “model, and reflecting on questions about elitism and exclusion within art communities, the value of creation vs. concept, insider vs. outsider art, craft vs. fine art, and art ownership and consent practices. The ultimate goals of the project were to benefit individuals living with chronic illness(es) by building community, providing meaningful compensation for sharing their experiences, challenging and breaking down artistic hierarchies and barriers, and widening the scope of the conversation about the identities and experiences of those who live with chronic illness – led by those with lived experience.

Euphrates Storyteller - Aboud Salman

May 27 - July 30, 2023
McMullen Gallery
112 St Entrance, UofA Hospital, 8440-112 St.

Euphrates Storyteller explores the life and experiences of Aboud Salman as a refugee artist. It tells the artist’s tale of displacement, from his struggles and experiences amidst political turmoil and war in his home city of Al Mayadin, Syria, to his quest for peace miles away in Canada. Through a series of drawings, paintings, videos, and fabrics, the exhibition showcases a body of work that is both a personal portrayal of the artist’s life, and simultaneously a visual exploration of traditional Syrian folk art and it’s cultural and historical symbols.

“My paintings are a reflection and commentary of my experiences and the life and environments that surround me. I express in them my Syrian Bedouin cultural roots, the people I have encountered, events I have witnessed and lived through, and my thoughts and impressions of other cultural influences and art as I travel my life’s journey through time and space. My paintings are a window for everything that I think and live.

A core focus in my paintings is the customs and traditions of people in their human heritage, especially the specificity of the beauty of life and love within these. Syrian folk art and the symbols and colours from my original home by the Euphrates River provide the roots and deep nourishment of my artistic expression. The use of my colours and drawing often incorporates the symbol of life, fertility, giving, and creativity. Sadly, they also derive from experiences of pain, suffering, and loss when I express the daily realities of people living with war, oppression, struggles as refugees, and establishing a new life in new cultural surroundings.

I aim to express the truth of humanity, place, and history in my artworks.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Aboud Salman’s career as a painter, plastic artist, educator, and writer has spanned more than three decades. Aboud has exhibited his art in 15 countries across Europe and the Middle East. He had a successful studio in his hometown Al Mayadin, Syria, where he lived with his wife Soaad and four sons and taught art to high school students. Soon after the Syria war started ISIS took control of his town. Aboud’s studio was bombed and much of his art destroyed. He also received death threats and in 2012 was forced to leave his family, town, country, and art behind.

On November 23, 2017 Aboud and his family arrived as refugees in Edmonton. Since his arrival in Edmonton, Aboud has been working to re-establish himself as a professional artist.

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Documentary Film - Journey from Syria to Canada (28 mins)