The new year symbolizes a fresh start, a chance to shrug off last year’s bad choices. But it also rings in prime season for diet culture. Almost as soon as that clock strikes midnight we’re inundated with weight loss ads, gym promotion, “fitspo” and a sea of before-and-after pictures, all there to remind us that […]
Mollie Cronin
Posted inArts + Music
The year in visual art
In a year commemorating many anniversaries, 2017 is a landmark, for better or for worse. And with so much political upheaval it often felt like a landmark to come, history in the making. So with a historical lens pointed in all directions, it is no surprise that some of the most interesting exhibitions reflected this […]
Posted inArts + Music
Revisionist Landscapes: Luminary Forestation
Exhibit 136, Museum of Natural History, 1747 Summer Street In this interactive piece, viewers are invited to assist in reconstructing a forest by travelling the city with paper lanterns. The ecosystem of an Acadian forest is a unique combination of evergreens such as red and white spruce, as well as deciduous trees like sugar maple […]
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Folded River
Exhibit 400, Common Roots Urban Farm, Bell Road at Robie Street In Folded River, artist Alex Balkam’s creative process is mined to create an immersive piece of expanded cinema. Working with Thomas Evans and Jonathan Mandeville of Passage Studios, Balkam reconstructs a version of a landscape he’s known since childhood, one that he returns to […]
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Opera From Scrap
Exhibit 304, RBC Waterside Centre, 1871 Upper Water Street This interactive opera will require audience participation: A collaboration between performer Janice Isabel Jackson and visual artist Arianne Pollet-Brannen, Opera from Scrap is a durational performance whereby an opera, a character and a costume will be constructed out of scraps throughout the night. In transforming into […]
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Long and White, ‘the road twists like a snake toward the far-off blue places’
Exhibit 303, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, 1675 Lower Water Street In Long and White, ‘The road twists like a snake toward the far-off blue places’, artist Sarah Burwash’s animation takes us down a strange and looping path, causing us to wonder, “Have I been here before?” Burwash borrows the title from the autobiographical writings […]
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Toqolu’kwetijik
Exhibit 108, Public Gardens 5665 Spring Garden Road With this year’s group of anchor artists all working to activate the Public Gardens, Ursula Johnson and collaborators will be kicking up dust along the gravel paths encircling Griffin Pond. These clear paths, strict rules and enforced designated sitting areas that make up the Public Gardens are known […]
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Pushback
Exhibit 105, Public Gardens, 5665 Spring Garden Road The wrought-iron gates of Halifax’s Public Gardens are an icon in the city’s landscape, but for Nocturne anchor artist Habiba El-Sayed, they also stand as a fruitful metaphor for decolonization. Throughout the night, El-Sayed will push hundreds of pounds of clay back and forth through the wrought-iron […]