A unique art and heritage exhibition opened August 31 in the Gallery at Kimberley’s Centre 64. Farm Fragments is an installation by Canadian award-winning artist, Jean Pederson, which depicts in paintings and collages, Polaroid photographs, farm documents, a video, and pieces of the actual fabric of her uncle’s old Prairie homestead the history of a century of rural farm life and culture on the Prairies.

When her uncle died and the family farm in Saskatchewan was put up for sale, Pederson, by then an award-winning, internationally recognized painter and author of Expressive Portraits: Creative Methods for Painting People, paid what she thought would be her final visit to the farm. But the visit brought back such vivid memories of the homestead and of the family who had lived there that it reawakened her strong attachment to the place. With the permission of the new owners she collected bits of the fabric of the old farmhouse and farm buildings – pieces of linoleum, doors, molding, shingles, and other fragments – and photographed and sketched the homestead and the landscape surrounding it, trying to capture the memories they brought back. She then created an assemblage of the farm fragments, made collages of old farm documents, painted abstract landscapes inspired by the colours, textures and forms of the prairie farmland, made Polaroid transfers of old and new photographs of the homestead, and painted portraits of many of the family members who had lived there, so creating a unique installation that visually represents the lifestyle and landscape of the family farm. Farm Fragments, an installation by Jean Pederson, shares with the viewer the artist’s affection for the farmland and rural lifestyle that nurtured her and her family and that, for the best part of a century, was the backbone of prairie communities, now rapidly vanishing. It depicts a piece of social history presented with all the artistic brilliance for which this artist is recognized. .

The installation has been exhibited in galleries in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C. since 2005 and comes to Kimberley courtesy of a grant from the Vancouver Foundation. An opening reception at which the artist will be present and to which the public is invited will take place in the Gallery at Centre 64 from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, September 10. The installation will remain on display throughout September and October and can be viewed from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Group tours of the exhibition are welcomed. Call Centre 64 at 250-427-4919 for more information or to book a tour.

Centre 64

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