A pair of artists based in Sackville and New Zealand have been longlisted for the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s most generous art prize.
Miranda Bellamy and Amanda Fauteux are partners and artistic collaborators who split their time between Sackville and New Zealand. Last summer, the pair exhibited their work Terrarium at the Owens Art Gallery in Sackville, curated by director Emily Falvey.
Falvey says she felt the Terrarium exhibition was “so well done that it would probably have a good chance with the Sobey award. So we all agreed that we would kind of pursue that together.” Falvey wrote a letter of support for Bellamy and Fauteux, and then last week, the award foundation announced the pair made the longlist of 25 Canadian artists, five from each of five regions across the country.
Fauteux and Bellamy’s collaboration is remarkable, says Falvey. “They bring out the best in each other,” she says. “It’s such a wonderful, creative partnership that they have, and their approach to the subject of inter-species collaboration and working with plants is just very unique and thoughtful.”
In Terrarium, the pair created two bodies of work, one based in New Zealand, and the other in Sackville. They recorded electrochemical signals from plants in habitats that have been “profoundly altered” by human activity and translated those signals into sounds and images. The result is a video installation and series of sandstone sculptures that was shown at the Owens last summer.
One set of plant recordings were made in Kawau Island, New Zealand, the site of a former copper mine which had been transformed into a sort of “botanical zoo” by colonial governor Sir George Grey in the 1860s. Another set were made in and around the Pickard Quarry in Sackville.
Sandstone for the sculptures originated in the quarry, and was retrieved from demolished Mount Allison buildings. Into it, Bellamy and Fauteux carved “a pattern that was a reflection of what the plants are telling them, essentially,” says Falvey.
The electrochemical recordings give the work a distinct science-art crossover perspective. “They will be the first to say that they’re not scientists,” says Falvey, “but at the same time, there’s definitely an intersection. And I know that there were folks in the biology department that were really interested in what they were doing.”
In June, the Sobey Art Foundation will announce their short list for the prize, choosing one artist from each geographical region. Then in November, the ultimate $100,000 prize winner will be announced. Short listed artists will receive a $25,000 prize, and be featured in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa in the fall. Long listed artists will receive $10,000.
Falvey says the recognition of five Atlantic artists is welcome, but she also notes the many artists working in the region that are not recognized in the prize process. “There are lots of artists working here, really great artists who aren’t on the list,” says Falvey. “That can be discouraging… I want to validate everyone who’s brave enough to have a practice and pursue that practice.”
The 2023 Sobey Art Award longlisted artists are:
Atlantic:
Miranda Bellamy and Amanda Fauteux
Séamus Gallagher
Will Gill
Alan Syliboy
Aislinn Thomas
Quebec:
Anahita Norouzi
Geneviève & Matthieu
Laura Acosta and Santiago Tavera
arkadi lavoie lachapelle
Renée Condo
Ontario:
Alvin Luong
Barry Ace
Michèle Pearson Clarke
Pejvak (Felix Kalmenson and Rouzbeh Akhbari)
Rah Eleh
Prairies & North:
Keeley Haftner
Kablusiak
Wally Dion
Marigold Santos
Catherine Blackburn
West Coast & Yukon:
Justine A. Chambers
Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill
Woojae Kim
Christine Howard Sandoval
Douglas Watt
