“Travel into Subconscious” is a fitting title for the current exhibit at the Gallery at Queen’s Park in New Westminster. Artist Vladimir Kolosov’s canvases create dream-like scenes that seem familiar and foreign all at once.
Kolosov finds a real sense of liquid movement in his pieces that parallels how thoughts and emotions can lead into each other without pause. Forms float in liminal space, while faces and eyes hover above humanoid figures and shapes. In the painting titled “Time collapsed. Still life with two rhinos”, hourglasses drift through the air as if encased in a lava lamp. A reflection on time and space similar to the melting clocks in Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory.”
The write-up for the show follows the surrealist tone of the work, by presenting nebulous musings on the collection. As the description says, the exhibit presents “his (Kolosov’s) perception of the spaces we live in, and our knowledge about inner and outer worlds that surround us.”
We always appreciate it when galleries and curators leave a space for the viewer like this. By allowing for interpretation, there’s no wrong or right in experiencing the show. It further speaks to the feeling of the show in that you can let your thoughts flow in a constant state of consideration, much like the shapes and scenes that Kolosov creates.
Travel into Subconscious is on until April 30
For more details, visit artscouncilnewwest.org/gallery
Gallery at Queen’s Park: Take the Skytrain to 22nd St. Station, and catch the #155 Braid Station via Hospital bus to 1st. Street. It’s about a ten-minute walk from there!
To further plan your route, you can use the TransLink Trip Planner.
This exhibit is a continuation of the journey of reclamation and rebuilding bonds of cultural knowledge. An original reboot of the Tāpis exhibit, it adds three new makers now holding the knowledge of tāpis/tuppies (dog blankets).
When Adele ᒪᐢᑿᓱᐤᐃᐢᑵᐤ asked to be taught this knowledge from her mentor, it was with the intent of restoring important cultural knowledge taken from so many Northern Nations. For this cohort, Adele ᒪᐢᑿᓱᐤᐃᐢᑵᐤ chose makers who exhibited personal and cultural ethics close to her own, along with levels of skill necessary to undertake such a large project. “Each of these blankets takes a minimum of 200 hours (or more) to be brought to completion. It is with great pride to be able to showcase this exhibit. It has been created to show the beauty and celebration of dog regalia as completed by Michif, Dene, and other Nations to celebrate our valued dog kin.”
Originating from the Métis, Northern Cree, and Dene communities, ‘li tāpis’ (small carpet), named by the French Michif and known as ‘tuppies’ by the English and Scottish Michif, are dog blanket regalia created to celebrate dogs. Tāpis are made from wool and embellished with intricate beadwork, silk embroidery, moose or caribou hair tufting, fringed with ribbon or yarn and adorned with bells. Showing respect for sled dogs, tāpis were draped over the backs of dogs.