Local Ottawa artist Jennifer Stewart unveiled Stills from an Unfinished Film at Blink Gallery in Major’s Hill Park on Sept. 1.
The exhibition continued throughout the weekend, ending on Sept. 4.
Blink Gallery features a weekly arrangement of work from local artists, according to their website. They provide a mix of the Ottawa arts sphere to the public. The venue space is a quaint brick house situated at the edge of the park, the interior lined with cream coloured worn walls.
Stewart opened windows to allow photos hanging from the walls to turn, producing the illusion of a moving piece. The film also hung loosely from the ceiling curling at the ends.
According to Stewart, the stills depicting self-portraits were inspired by a past relationship.
“I really do like eeriness and horror films. It lends itself to the image of black and white and making the moving image static,” Stewart said.
Along with the photographs, the artist played a 19-minute track consisting of conversations from the relationships, distorted by the sounds of pedals. Included was a penned copy of the conversations playing in the background.
“It all kind of plays onto that same idea that I’ve always been struggling with where I’m trying to keep a sense of self while putting myself into a partnership as well,” Stewart said.
The effect of the black and white photos in combination with the sound track created a very emotional and haunting scene for viewers, according to Liam Greer, a second-year English student at the University of Ottawa.
“It was definitely eerie but not in a creepy way, just very interesting. It captured my attention right off the bat,” Greer said.
He added the lack of colour in the images was a particularly good choice.
“The use of black and white images is really moving,” he said.
Within the collection there hung several pieces with religious connotations, including stills of the Virgin Mary, as well as photos positioned to represent a cross.
“I’m not religious per say, but I am drawn to the aesthetic qualities of religious symbols and there’s something about the Virgin Mary . . . she represents loneliness as she’s a little bit isolated but she’s also strong,” Stewart said. “The cross holds personal significance . . . it identifies something sort of watching over me. Not necessarily God but something—a presence.”
According to Stewart, the progression of her project took about five years, coming together piece by piece until she was prepared to apply to Blink Gallery for the show.
“The process went in stages because the audio was recorded during the relationships,” Stewart said. “Once I left that relationship, I shot the Super 8 film and then I printed all [the] work and edited it when I was getting out of another troublesome relationship.”
