17 June 2010

In Your Sight Line

by Robin Schroffel in Arts Feature SEE Magazine

Sights To See peeks further into the personal relationship we all have with art

Photo Supplied

Powerscourt Blue in Green, by Nola Cassady.

Sights to See
Common Sense
10546 115th St.
Opens June 19, 1-4 p.m; runs till July 19
Call 780-482-2685 for an appointment

Art has a way of entangling itself with memory. The harmonies of a certain song might draw up bittersweet playbacks of old summer flings, an oil painting’s thick texture could call to mind the smell of your grandmother’s bread dumplings and a photograph of a childhood haunt can conjure up the face of a long-lost best friend. Like it or not, art often becomes saturated with personal recollections: those of the artist, those of the owner, and those of the viewer.

For Edmonton-based artists Nola Cassady and Ryan McCourt, this notion lays loosely under Sights to See, the latest exhibit at their downtown gallery Common Sense.

“We were talking about the nature of a collection of art that spans over peoples’ lifetimes and represents different personal things in their lives. So we started looking at our collection in a different way. It’s kind of the everyday person’s art collection,” explains Cassady over the phone.

On the surface, it’s a selection of landscapes from the married couple’s personal collection; scratch that lightly and you’ll discover deeper, personal themes that tie the pieces together.

From vibrant vintage Japanese woodblock prints originally purchased by Cassady’s grandmother, to Rob Willms’ stark line sketches of the alleyway behind the gallery and McCourt’s own scenic brass sculptures hewn of Goodwill-bin rescue ornaments reworked into new life, the show is at once a broad roundup of local and international artists and a subtle narrative of Cassady and McCourt’s life together to date.

As McCourt guides me through the gallery, it’s hard not to be struck by this undercurrent. Here, the Terry Fenton painting McCourt gave Cassady as a traditional paper gift on their first wedding anniversary; there, part of a dreamy Cassady series depicting the gardens of Ireland’s Powerscourt Estate, visited by the couple on their honeymoon; and finally, in true fairytale fashion, a small McCourt photo acquired by Cassady through the U of A’s BFA auction close to the time the two first met.

The concept of subjective meaning really wowed Cassady during a visit to the former Henry Clay Frick House in New York City, now an art museum housing the Frick Collection while preserving the atmosphere of the original family home. It was there in the Living Hall that she saw Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert, just hanging there.

“You walk into the living room and there’s a big lumpy velvet chesterfield; behind it is this painting that you’ve learned about in art history class,” says Cassady. “It’s how these people lived, they had these major pieces of art just hanging up, hanging out with them in their everyday lives. I was really struck by that — they’re not just decorations for your house, they’re part of your life.”

This idea is echoed on Common Sense’s gallery walls, albeit on a smaller scale. Part of Cassady and McCourt’s everyday life, the art is infused with the couple’s personal memories and, as always, those of its creators and appreciators. But for those as yet unacquainted, they’re landscapes, Sights to See, memories to be created and images to be interpreted anew.