Awakening
Awakening
Awakening presents works from Canadian and Indigenous artists held in the Canada Council Art Bank collection that shine a spotlight on our relationship with the environment. These works depict collisions between city and ecology, nature and nurture, consumption and conservation, ideals and actions. Together, they evoke a mixture of hope, despair and soul-searching, encouraging viewers to consider the urgency of sustaining life on Earth for future generations.
Artists featured in this exhibition are Germaine Arnaktauyok, Iain Baxter&, Fernand Bergeron, Eleanor Bond, Edward Burtynsky, Sid Butt, Ken Danby, Randall Finnerty, Antonia Hirsch, Marilyn (Molly) Magid, Jimmy Manning, David Morris, Norval Morrisseau, Kim Ondaatje, Bruce Paton, David Rasmus, Michael Snow, Takao Tanabe, Joanne Tod, Chih-Chien Wang and Shirley Wiitasalo.
“Now that we can do anything, what will we do?”
- Bruce Mau
Awakening seeks to answer this provocative question, addressing climate change and action with a focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for encouraging people to think globally and act locally.
Featuring artworks from the Canada Council Art Bank collection, Awakening challenges our perceptions on the environment and our relationship with the world around us. Produced by Canadian and Indigenous artists from across the country over a span of nearly 50 years, the works that make up Awakening were selected for their power to generate both soul-searching and hope, and to ignite the thought and discussion we need to secure a peaceful and inclusive future for all.
Artists have always raised questions, generated dialogue and shown us new ways of thinking. As such, their works can be pathways to change. Awakening is a catalyst for a deeper awareness of the ways in which we have used the world so far and whether our approach needs to change.
About the Exhibit
In the spring of 2017, the Art Bank partnered with the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario on an exhibition tied to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Entitled Awakening, the exhibition featuring 21 artworks from the Canada Council Art Bank collection was curated by Bruce Mau.
An international tour of Awakening brought these thought-provoking pieces to places where significant debates about the health and sustainability of the planet were taking place, providing new perspectives and keeping these issues top of mind. In 2019, the exhibition travelled to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, to the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, and to the World Conference Centre in Bonn for the United Nations Global Climate Conference. The supporting exhibition catalogue features essays by international luminaries, including the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, the President of the World Bank Group, and leaders of public and private organizations. Read now.
Awakening exemplifies the Canada Council’s commitment to connecting people, ideas and issues through the power of the arts with a view to provoking discussion and inciting reactions. It celebrates the work of Canadian and Indigenous artists, contributes to the global conversation about the environment and highlights how relevant issues can be made tangible and publicly engaging through the visual arts.
Learn more about the artists and artworks in the exhibition.
About the Curator
Bruce Mau is a Canadian-born, world-renowned designer, educator and author. He is currently the Chief Design Officer for Freeman—the world’s largest producer of trade shows and exhibits—and Co-Founder and CEO of the Massive Change Network, a global enterprise design consultancy based in the Chicago area.
Starting out as a graphic designer, Mau later focused on architecture, art, museums, film, eco-environmental design and conceptual philosophy. He has received a number of design awards and honorary degrees, including honorary doctorates from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Known as an innovator and visionary, Mau is dedicated to applying the power of design to transforming the world. He has written and/or designed more than 200 books.
Gallery
Germaine Arnaktauyok
Thunder & Lightning II
2001 / Ink on paper
Germaine Arnaktauyok powerfully visualizes the natural phenomena of thunder and lightning from Inuit oral mythology. In this image, two mistreated, orphaned sisters return to seek vengeance after their death by snapping dried sealskin and crashing two stones together in the sky.
Germaine Arnaktauyok is a drawer, painter and printmaker renowned for her contributions to Inuit art. She was born in Igloolik, Nunavut, and now resides in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
Eleanor Bond
IV Converting the Powell River Mill to a Recreation and Retirement Centre
1985 / Oil on canvas
Eleanor Bond uses landscape as a storytelling medium. She paints imaginary places where nature and culture collide. Here, she jams together a cluster of industrial archetypes at the confluence of two rivers and includes playgrounds and waterslides in an imaginary retirement centre.
Eleanor Bond is a painter, printmaker, drawer, sculptor and associate professor at Concordia University. She was born and raised in Winnipeg and divides her time between Winnipeg and Montréal.
Randall Finnerty
Wounded Moose
2004 / Charcoal
Randall Finnerty grew up in northern Ontario and works at the boundary of our human settlement of the natural environment, where city and ecology collide. Finnerty deals in this ambiguity. In this case, we are not sure if we are saving or punishing the beast in question.
Randall Finnerty is a visual artist specializing in charcoal and paint. His work has been widely published and is held in a number of public and private collections. He was born in Timmins, Ontario, and currently works and lives in Montréal, Quebec.
Antonia Hirsch
World Map Project: Equal Countries A - Z
2006 / Black & white giclée print
Antonia Hirsch creates a stark and simply brilliant image of a new world where every country is equal, forcing us to confront the strangeness of the idea of cutting our natural world into pieces. What seems like the most natural thing—the nation state with its borders and walls—is revealed as a temporary aberration slowing our progress to a sustainable future.
Antonia Hirsch is an interdisciplinary artist. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, she lived and worked in Vancouver from 1994 to 2010. Her work has been exhibited across the world and is held in multiple Canadian galleries. She now lives in Berlin.
Jimmy Manning
Gathering / Spring Fishing
1999–2000 / Colour photographs
Jimmy Manning uses his lens to document the extraordinary beauty of community life in the northern environment. These images—of the natural world and apart from it—are somehow timeless and contemporary. While the technology has evolved (snowmobiles replacing dogsleds), the community gathering seems anchored in history and an extension of the unforgiving natural ecology that sustains it.
Jimmy Manning is a photographer, drawer and carver. He was previously the manager of Kinngait Studios in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. He was born in Kimmirut, Nunavut, and raised in Cape Dorset.
David Morrish
Bird Box
2001 / Photogravure (intaglio)
David Morrish explores the rich and troubled history of the original museum, the wunderkammer, or cabinet of wonders. Bird Box harkens to a time not so long ago when “nature” was something to be owned, dominated, killed and collected.
David Morrish is a multimedia artist specializing in photography. He worked as a professor of art at the Memorial University of Newfoundland for 27 years. He has exhibited his work and lectured extensively, and has also co-authored a book on photogravure. He now lives in Ameliasburg, Ontario.
Chih-Chien Wang
Yushan Carries Shaore by Lake #2
2011 / Inkjet print
Chih-Chien Wang transports us to the moment of reflection where earth and sky mirror in the surface of stillness that stretches out before mother and child. Behind them, the arch of evidence of human presence is trampled into the sand across the foreground.
Chih-Chien Wang is an artist who uses photography, video, objects and text in his work. He has been featured in exhibitions throughout North America, Europe and China. He was born in Taiwan and has lived in Montréal since 2002.