Think of England

Marie-Claude Langevin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:52:00 +0000

Artwork identification

Artwork creator(s):

Knowles, Rachelle Viader

Artwork creator(s):

Knowles, Rachelle Viader

Text author(s):

Knowles, Rachelle Viader

Text author(s):

Knowles, Rachelle Viader

Installation year:

2008

Remarks on location:

Located across from the Dunlop Art Gallery

Artwork description

Source: Photo provided by Rachelle Viader Knowles

Description:

The sun never sets refers both to Regina's status as "The Queen City", named after Queen Victoria Regina, and the brilliant prairie sunshine that bathes its streets and parks. The name of Victoria Park connects it to colonial England, and places it in several contexts; a local context as the main downtown square and a global context as a member of a worldwide "club" of Victoria Parks. Similarly, the architecture that surrounds the park is influenced by international styles and trends of the last 100 years, with often regional characteristics that allow the buildings to co-exist and form the spatial edge of the park. New works by Rachelle Viader Knowles and Don Gill explored Victoria Park today: as a concept and a place, juxtaposed with a history of Victoria Park and the buildings which rose around it. Rachelle Viader Knowles' work included a video installation/link-up with her niece in Victoria Park, Cardiff, Wales, and an intervention in Regina's Park. The words "Think of England" were inscribed on the ground cover. Don Gill created a photo-based "archive" of the neighbourhoods he traverses, in and around Victoria Park, including the buildings examined in the exhibition.

Mention(s) légale(s) des illustrations:

Photo credits:

Text of the artwork:

Think of England

Text theme:

England

Artwork theme:

Colonization, British colonial assimilation, cultural and national identity

History

History:

Part of the Regina Public Library Centennial Celebrations, Think of England was left untended once the show was over, and gradually disappeared.

Organized by Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina. An exhibition by Rachelle Viader Knowles and Don Gill, curated by Elizabeth McLuhan with Bernie Flaman.

Date: July 25 - September 14, 2008

Event date(s):

2008

Dimensions

Height:

Width:

18m

Other information

Note(s):

"Specifically for this exhibition, I have made two new works that connect Victoria Park in Regina with the Victoria Park in my home town of Cardiff in Wales…another colonized country/people. As an artist, much of the work I do explores communication and relationships between people and places. Within the context of the Regina Public Library, I wanted to make works that use words. The text 'Think of England', inserted into Victoria Park which sits in front of the Dunlop Art Gallery, is both political in its historical instruction to respect and consider a ‘motherland’ and a critique as a question posed to the reader – what do YOU think of England? It is also a personal question posed to and by myself as someone born there, unsure of how to address nationhood, national affiliation, a sense of longing and belonging to place, as someone who grew up English as a ‘foreigner’ in Wales and lives as a ‘foreigner’ here, both places where local languages were systematically suppressed through acts of attempted eradication by the English."

Annette Hurting, Bernard Flaman (2008). The Sun Never Sets: Victoria in Context. Dunlop Art Gallery, 48p.

Artist's biography:

Rachelle Viader Knowles

Document(s):

The Sun Never Sets : Victoria in Context

Exhibitions. Past. 2008. The Sun Never Sets : Victoria Park in Context

Projects. The Sun Never Sets : Victoria Park in Context

Présences du littéraire dans l’espace public canadien - The Sun Never Sets : Victoria Park in Context

Think of England