Headless fabric sculptures and a technicolour Virgin Mary lure people into La Petite Mort gallery. The walls are a mixture of paintings, sculptures, and multimedia projects addressing a single theme: are we alone in this world? It’s this contrasting view that Carleton grad and curator Missy Marston said she finds most exciting about the exhibit.
“It’s the idea of this benevolent force that enters people. And maybe it’ll make people feel better, or scare them, depends on which work they’re looking at.”
The exhibition, The Visitors: Aliens, Ghosts & Saints, looks at visitations from other-world beings.
The topic was inspired by Marston’s book, The Love Monster, which was released May 2012.
The book deals mainly with alien visitation, but the exhibit goes beyond the extra-terrestrial and into the spiritual. Marston said this is because she believes visions of saints, ghosts, and aliens are the result of bad or stressful situations.
“Often when things get really bad, [humans] go into a cry uncle mood and maybe have hallucinations or delusions.”
And unlike many other exhibits, Marston came up with her theme beforehand and had each individual artist create works specifically for this exhibit.
Participating artist Natalie Bruvels said part of the reason she chose to be part of the exhibit was because she was interested by the idea. She said she believes in the psychology of visitations, the idea that “seeing things” can help people with their problems.
“I think it can get people through things they probably thought were insurmountable,” she said.
“I like the idea that sometimes it helps people to let go of the situation because it feels like it’s in somebody else’s hands.”
While the theme of the exhibition was connecting with the “other,” its curation was marked by a more common connection: friendship. Marston took a unique approach to this exhibit, gallery director Guy Bérubé said, in choosing artists that were her friends.
“Some curatorial exhibitions are very much based on who’s hot at the moment, who’s important to get visibility or even press,” Bérubé said.
“But this exhibit is based on what she feels a close connection with, and quite a few of the artists are friends.”
Even Marston’s husband, Peter Schmelzer, had two pieces in the exhibit.
He said while he mainly chose to participate in the exhibit because his wife was curating, like Bruvels he was drawn to the concept.
“I love the idea. I thought it was a really juicy concept, the idea of visitations, aliens, saints, and even demons I suppose. That’s something I’ve always thought about and dealt with in my work,” Schmelzer said.
And it seems Marston’s close relationship with the artists hasn’t hindered her curatorial abilities.
“The show is masterfully put together,” Bruvels said.
“Individually, the pieces look really, really good by themselves and they’re really strong, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to look good together. And they do.”
The exhibition runs until Jan. 27.
