Tanya Lukin Linklater’s Hair Prints exhibition, which opened on April 22 at Open Space, features mono-prints made by Linklater coating her hair in strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry pigments and transferring them to archival paper. The prints are then displayed in the gallery; exhibit curator Toby Lawrence says that the large structures in the gallery that hold the prints carry significant meaning.
“They’re both sort of meant as structures or supports for the hair prints, but they also stand alone in and of themselves,” says Lawrence. “They’re sort of a very clear reference to the different berries that Tanya’s considering in terms of harvesting and that ancestral knowledge that’s found within the process of harvesting berries itself, and also thinking about these structures as signals of plants as ancestors.”
Lawrence says that her and Linklater clicked right away. She says that she’s worked on similar projects in the past where there’s been difficulties or personality conflicts, but in this case, she connected with Linklater “quite deeply, quite quickly,” she says.
“I had actually gone over to Vancouver in December to see two different exhibitions of her work that also contained an earlier series of the hair prints and then also to attend an earlier series of the open rehearsals, so we were able to really spend some time together in person before we started meeting on Zoom regularly. So that really helped build the relationship and establish a dialogue between the two of us, so we were continuously working through problems as opposed to confronting problems that may arise when you’re not building such a close relationship.”
Lawrence worked closely with Linklater to ensure that her vision for Hair Prints was made possible.
“Tanya actually produced the series of prints that are in Open Space right now on site,” says Lawrence. “So we did some online shopping together to ensure that we got the right pigments and walnut oil and that kind of thing shipped to Open Space, but we also went to Opus and looked and talked through the different possibilities for different paper. That was really important because she was shifting the size so much from the original prints.”
Lawrence says that the different layers offer many avenues into Linklater’s work.
“There’s the surface aesthetic layer, but then once you start looking at the different components, you start to gain an understanding of how much research or cultural knowledge or personal association are indicated or implicated in each of those components,” she says, “and for me that provides a really expansive opportunity for many different conversations around the specific elements within her work and the specific themes, or concepts, or knowledges within her work.”
The poetic aspect of Linklater’s work is what really interests Lawrence.
“Not only does she often use poetics for her titlings, but there is sort of an aesthetic component that is poetic and really quite beautiful that she’s utilizing throughout her work,” says Lawrence, “and this is also often seen as something that is too feminine for the art world, which is something I like to play with and kind of disrupt.”
Lawrence hopes that people will want to dive deeper into Linklater’s work and the different concepts that can be explored throughout it.
“I mean, I know that people will come into an exhibition with many different perspectives and then will leave with many different perspectives, and that’s okay,” she says. “But I also hope that people will leave curious, that people will want to do further research both into Tanya’s work [and] also into some of the ideas that are present within the work, that maybe they’ll leave feeling a little bit invigorated.”
Hair Prints
Until Saturday, July 29
Open Space
openspace.ca