Nicole Kelly Westman, Pastoral | Calamity, 2019. Image courtesy of the artist.

Nicole Kelly Westman: Pastoral | Calamity

One New Work

Exhibition
Overview

Organized by Glenbow

Curated by Nancy Tousley

With the tenth installment of the One New Work exhibition series, curator Nancy Tousley looks to the future of the Calgary arts scene and highlights emerging multi-media artist and poet Nicole Kelly Westman.

These non-narrative works can be seen as visual and aural tone poems in which Westman speaks of differing stages of loss and mourning. The quietly elegiac for every sunset we haven’t seen was shot at night. It follows the more turbulent imagery and sound of for nights bathed in sodium vapour, shot in daylight and darkness, in a continuous cycle that parallels the workings of grief.

First launched in 2016 at Glenbow, each edition of One New Work sees Tousley inviting a Calgary artist to produce new material. These fresh creations are often shown in the company of other works or objects selected to set them within a context. The aim is to illuminate aspects of the artist’s practice by emphasizing them.

One New Work - Nicole Kelly Westman: Pastoral | Calamity, October 19 - January 12, 2019, Organized by Glenbow, Curated by Nancy Tousley

The moving-image works, for every sunset we haven’t seen (2018) and for nights bathed in sodium vapour (2019), were shot on Super-8 film and transferred to digital video. With running times of seven minutes and 12 minutes, respectively, they will be projected in a continuous loop onto a curtain to give the illusion of a window. The soundtrack, created with her frequent collaborator Kurtis Denne, matches the style of the imagery with its subjective and sensory impressions.

Trees illuminated by sodium vapour street lamps sway in the wind, patterns of dappled light move across the floor, an unseen motorcycle speeds past: Westman collected the works’ montaged images and sounds on city streets, in parks, on crown lands, and along river banks to reflect inner states. 

The cucoloris, a special-effects device used in film noir, inspired the images of dappled light in Westman’s films. Two cucolorises, designed by Westman, and two drawings of cucoloris patterns accompany the films in the exhibition.

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