It’s Struck, it’s large and it’s Between
Go big or go home, as they say. Medicine Hat artist Wendy Struck has taken that to heart with her current exhibition Between.
When people step in the art gallery at the Esplanade they will be greeted by a mural measuring 12-feet-by-20-feet that she worked on for more than a week. She’s been painting it while the gallery is open, interacting with the public and answering questions about the work. The source material, the meaning behind it and how long it’s taken to paint it are the most common questions.
“I have three larger pieces that are figures, there are people in these images so people are very curious about who they are,” Struck said last week. She said the source material is photographs she takes of films she watches, pausing the film at a particular moment. She takes those images, breaks them down and simplifies them.
“Mostly they’re just very ambiguous moments where these two people are just in this space tougher and it’s up to the viewer to kind of decide what might be happening … what kind of relationship is happening between the two people,” Struck explained.
In contrast to the three larger pieces, the exhibition also contains smaller ones. Small boxes and frames, games pieces and little toys and dollhouses she’s painted over are among the pieces. Struck calls them dense, complex pieces that have a real opposition to the larger pieces.
“There’s a lot of oppositional things going on. Interior spaces and exterior spaces, urban and country, inside and outside, travel and home and all these oppositional things. So the title I have for the show Between kind of touches on that idea.”
Hatters are probably already familiar with Struck’s work. She has exhibited in Alberta and Saskatchewan, her work is in the TREX Southeast exhibition When We Were Young and has a studio at the Hive Artists’ Hub. She also has six outdoor murals in the city, most notably across from the downtown Dairy Queen and on the back of the Miywasin Society building.
Struck will be at a public reception for Between on Friday at the Esplanade. Part of Culture Days and the Downtown Art Walk, the reception starts at 7 p.m. and will feature music by Taking August.
Also currently at the Esplanade Art Gallery is Resurrection by Cree/Metis artist Kevin McKenzie. According to the Esplanade, McKenzie presents powerful sculptural installations with handmade cast buffalo skulls illuminated by neon and LED lights. He will also be at the Friday reception. Both exhibitions will close on Nov. 4. The travelling interactive exhibition Hockey, developed by the Canadian Museum of History, is at the Esplanade from now until Dec. 30. Local artifacts, photos and items from the Medicine Hat Cubs are presented in conjunction with Hockey.