The Reach is excited to host a Publication Launch and Panel Discussion on Monday, July 16, 2018 – 6pm at 32388 Veterans Way. This free admission launch of The Reach’s latest exhibition publication, Tales Untold, will be accompanied by a panel dialogue with artist Davida Kidd, and authors Susan Musgrave, Zsuzsi Gartner and Erika Thorkelson, followed by a public Q&A.
“The conversation will deal with the prevailing themes in the exhibition including feminism and the #MeToo movement, and will also touch on the relationship between visual art and creative writing,” explains Adrienne Fast, Curator of Art & Visual Culture at The Reach.
The exhibition Tales Untold features the work of three visual artists: Davida Kidd, Rebecca Chaperon, and Chris Reid. Working across painting, photography, and sculpture, these artists share a common interest in the power of storytelling and the possibilities of narrative structure in visual form. Their works conjure imaginative worlds, at times suggestive of fairytales, haunting dreamscapes, or vaguely recalled childhood memories. To further explore the relationship between visual art and narrative storytelling, The Reach invited four accomplished British Columbia authors to respond to, and help shape, the exhibition. Zsuzsi Gartner, Susan Musgrave, Chelsea Rooney, and Erika Thorkelson assisted in choosing individual works of art, and produced creative texts in response to their selections.
About the Panelists:
Susan Musgrave (Haida Gwaii) has published more than 30 books and received awards for poetry, novels, non-fiction, food writing, editing, and books for children. In 2012 she won the Spirit Bear Award for her enduring contribution to the poetry of the Pacific Northwest. “Her artistic presence over the past 40 years has helped create who we are,” wrote Patrick Lane. “She is as important to us as Emily Carr.”
Zsuzi Gartner (Vancouver) is the author of the acclaimed story collection All the Anxious Girls on Earth and the editor of the award-winning Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow. Her second book, Better Living through Plastic Explosives, was a Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist.
Erika Thorkelson (Vancouver) is a writer of fiction and creative non-fiction whose work has appeared in Maisonneuve, Room Magazine, The Walrus, Hazlitt, The New Quarterly, This Magazine, Ricepaper Magazine and Quill & Quire. She has been a regular contributor of arts and culture writing to the Vancouver Sun and Edmonton Journal.
Davida Kidd (Langley) is a visual artist who works primarily in printmaking and manipulated photography. She is currently an Associate Professor of Visual Arts at UFV, and has been the recipient of many international awards including the prestigious Grand Prix at the 2003 International Print Triennial in Poland.
Join us at The Reach for this stimulating Publication Launch & Discussion on July 16th – 6pm-8pm, meet the artist and writers, and enjoy snacks and a cash bar. For more details visit: thereach.ca or drop by The Reach at 32388 Veterans Way.
Media contact for publication launch & panel discussion:
Adrienne Fast, Curator of Art & Visual Culture, The Reach