Teresa Burrows and Larry Hall of Thompson were first and second at the Rural and Northern Art Show in Winnipeg for a mixed media and beadwork sculpture and a wire representation of a bonsai tree respectively.
Top prize went to Burrows’s Disappearance of Shaking Tent Sisters – The Damoiselle Siren, which explored issues relating to missing and murdered women in Manitoba.
“I looked at the strength of and power of women who came through the darkness and, like the caribou in their migration north, bring he light back in their antlers,” said Burrows in her artist’s statement on the work, which focuses on recognizing victims, confronting systemic abuse in Manitoba’s northern community and engendering respect for all women and the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer) population.
Hall got second prize for Cliff’s Edge, a wire sculpture inspired by the fragility of the bonsai tree.
“I am primarily a photographer and as such pay close attention to detail in nature,” Hall said in an email to the Thompson Citizen. “My current endeavour in art is focused primarily on something new - wire tree sculpture in the bonsai styles, mirroring the real bonsai I also grow.”
Despite their beauty, living bonsai trees can be difficult to keep alive, Hall said, while his sculptures are not so constrained.
“Many people love bonsai but do not have much success keeping them alive,” he said. “These fill that need to see the organic in a permanent form. In metal I mimic the wild growing trees in the northern wilderness with wire ,and have evolved my technique to great success.”
The prize-winning sculpture was inspired by wild trees struggling to grow on the edges of cliffs and Hall said he was not expecting to win in what is not his usual medium.
“It came as a pleasant surprise to place second as I have only been producing these trees for less than a year,” he said. “And while my photo that also went to the Rural and Northern Art Show did not win provincially I look forward to getting the jurors’ critique.”
Pieces entered in the art show included more than 30 artworks by the best emerging artists in rural and Northern Manitoba, some of which were selected from regional juried exhibitions held this year in the central, Westman, Selkirk/Interlake and northern regions of the province.
The Rural and Northern Art Show is attended by more than 3,000 people every year and offers artists exposure to an urban audience, which gets the opportunity to see what is being created outside the Perimeter highway. It is put on by the Manitoba Arts Network, a non-profit charitable organization that presents 60 performances and art exhibitions in 25 locations through the year. The Manitoba Arts Network represents 35 member organizations that work collectively to bring the arts to the heart of Manitoba.
