Surprise, shock and wonder

As most often is the case, walking into Definitely Superior these days is a visual surprise, even a shock, but foremost a cause for wonder.

Three new exhibits of themselves unique, are subtly united in how they present powerful and delicate elements of the natural world while cleverly pulling in humans so instead of being apart from that world they become part of it.

In the first gallery eight installations and large photographs by internationally acclaimed artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso involve emus. If that sounds strange, it is. As mentioned, it’s also wondrous. Fashion and Mimesis is a beautiful spooky-scary marriage of capes and gowns and headgear one imagines worn at important primitive ceremonies: say, before or after battles or successful hunts, or maybe during royal tribal weddings.

Near the door we encounter an ethereal pale coral gown and matching tall banded hat adorned and textured by soft tawny-hued emu feathers. Further along, another gown or cape of virgin-white fineness is matched by two hats this time, one taller than the other, both covered by lovely patterns of white feathers merging perfectly into darker ones.

Along the next wall a gorgeous study in black sends a little shiver down one’s spine; again a pair of head-dresses, one taller, the other more curved, both fully feathered. A thought that came to this viewer was to question which hat belonged to the male, which to the female at this stage of life?

The fashions are interspersed with huge colour photos of people in emu-regalia staring back at us. We can’t look away. Something primitive rustles above our heads, around our shoulders and settles there. 

 “I think the ‘mimesis’ (in the exhibit’s title) is more about mimicry, of nature, of natural creatures, the natural materials and textures she works with. That’s her thing,” explained gallery director David Karasiewicz. “And when she’s using these feathers, they’re put back in places that are identical to where they would be located on an actual bird: a very tedious process, but she’s got it down. So she’s actually mimicking nature with her fashion-wear.”

There is a potent message of hunting and survival to this exhibit. “Australia’s aboriginals, their whole power was observing nature and being part of it. That’s what this is, but in a strange way because it’s also haute-couture. I think they blend well together and,” Karasiewicz remarked, “she’s obviously nailed it.”

Red Lake-based artist Cheryl Wilson Smith has most appropriately called her show Beneath. Member of the Caribou Clan, Wilson Smith is currently working on her doctorate in Indigenous History. “Do you see me now?” she asks. We encounter casts and moulds of actual human torsos, shoulders, hands and fists: heavy solid glass we first look at and then into for what she’s half-hidden inside. Like looking into frozen stream beds or chunks of ice for silent clues about what happened before the sudden freeze. Her artistic vision comes across in a heartbeat.

The third exhibit, Quentin Maki’s Elements, is a collection of large natural pieces, broodingly dark but beautiful to behold, as no doubt the Thunder Bay artist intended them.

Visit some wondrous things, both natural and human, up at Definitely Superior until July 3.