Dartmouth Halifax-based artist Emily Lawrence posted Aquarius Dessert on her Instagram (@emilylawrenceca) on February 1, 2021. An elegant, salted crème brûlée dessert is pictured like a dancer in a white fluted bowl situated slightly off centre on a white ground. Golden candied hazelnuts rest like fallen stars on the flame-crusted sugar surface of the brûlée,...
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In 2009, the preeminent Canadian craft historian Dr. Sandra Alfoldy wrote, “perhaps the fact we do not possess an instantly identifiable “Canadian” craft aesthetic is our aesthetic.” Beauty and truth are found in and among our differences, and authentic realizations come to fruition when we connect both because of and despite these differences. It is...
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My first time seeing porcupine quillwork was watching my Aunt Connie create pieces at her kitchen table when I was 16 years old. It was mesmerizing to watch her take tiny quills and insert each one meticulously into place. I still remember the rhythm she created. When I began my own exploration into Indigenous Arts...
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Originally from the historic Maroon Town of Accompong in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, artist Tyshan Wright now lives and works in Halifax. He is a traditional maker of Jamaican Maroon ceremonial objects, which are mixed media and created primarily with wood and natural forest products. Wright recently collaborated with his wife—beloved Halifax poet and writer Shauntay...
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Just beyond the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Prince Edward Island, the late September sunset washes the sky with a lilac glaze that tints the Hillsborough River below. With only one day remaining until the Harvest Moon, the celestial body is nearly at its peak brightness, but an unlikely structure along the grassy shore—a white cubic...
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Creating community in the arts is especially important for those who identify as disabled. In October 2021, members of the disability arts community gathered online for the first annual Disability Atlantic Arts Symposium (DAAS), hosted by JRG Society for the Arts. Artists connected on Zoom to discuss pertinent topics surrounding the experience of being a...
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As if being anything other than White in Halifax doesn’t already make you hyper-visible, the women in Rita Malik’s short film On Being Brown sometimes navigate quintessential Maritime markers wearing gold-embroidered jewel-toned lehengas. Even though it’s an ornate shirt-over-skirt set that South Asian women reserve for celebrations, the women in the film wear lehengas on...
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Driving my car down the winding Bonavista highway, I remember how many times I’ve done this route – to watch whales, to go for a good slice of pizza, and, since 2017, to see contemporary art. Growing up in Clarenville, a town an hour and a half away from the Bonavista peninsula, I thought I...
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Stemming from generations of near-forgotten knowledge, Carley Mullally’s work transfigures discarded marine detritus into thoughtful contemporary artworks by employing traditional maritime rope making and net repair methods. Originating from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Mullally discovered sewing at a very young age. This led her to diligently pursue fashion and garment making during her adolescent years....
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Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents around the world—in particular mothers—have faced the conundrum of working from home while simultaneously providing comfort, care, and distraction for their children. The illusion that work is work and home is home, bred from decades of capitalism, seemed to dissipate. For many, the lockdowns over the past...
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Karen Stentaford has a long-standing preoccupation with place, geography, and belonging. Often the nature of Stentaford’s work requires her to spend long periods of time alone, enveloped by the landscape she is photographing. In some images—particularly in her Island series—the solitude is visceral. However, this quietude is not to be coerced into an extension of...
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Trickster child Brandon Hoax, son of a Stonecoat mother and Dullahan father, summarizes their work using the following visual descriptors: being alone at a party, standing in a parking garage listening to the hum of a fluorescent bulb, and staying up late waiting for you to message me. Undoubtedly, aloneness is intricately woven into Hoax’s...
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