The SCAC and the Sechelt Downtown Business Association are excited to share that Nadina Tandy will be our inaugural artist-in-residence. From now until June 30, 2020 Nadina will be working in a downtown space making new work for the windows. While the residency space is not open to the public, the windows will become a wonderful creative archive of her time here. If you find yourself on a solitary, socially distancing walk in downtown Sechelt, perhaps you might stumble on this space in Wharf Street. If you do, share your images with us on Facebook and Instagram. While we are closed, we are excited to continue to share creative ways of connecting.

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Nadina Tandy’s (www.nadinatandy.com) mixed-media works speak from an otherworld and subconscious, channeling primal forces of nature, acts of resilience and cycles of renewal. Paintings are layered through micro-macro natural patterns – scraped, drawn, scratched, erased, retraced – with objects obscured or revealed, and words and figures adding sub-context. Inspiration is vibrant and unlimited, from Tandy’s dreams to old textbooks, from her studio near the ocean and rainforest to found objects and Jungian symbolism. A powerful cross-pollination of experiences, music and words is the fundamental driver of her explorations. Works are then eloquently expressed as a creative stream of consciousness. Beyond pretty-making, Tandy is interested in process-making, manifesting deep connections to like-minded individuals and misfits, uncovering raw truth and unforeseen allure by taking a surrealist approach to concept, mark making and presentation. The results are challenging and delightful – curious, multileveled artworks that are as naïve and complex as they are intellectual and beautiful.

SCAC Events Postponed until the end of March
As a public institution that serves diverse and intergenerational publics, we understand that we have a role to play in curtailing the spread of infection.

We have been closely monitoring the latest reports around the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak and have decided to take precautionary measures and postpone our scheduled film screening, exhibition opening and meet the artist events. The safety and well-being of all involved is our top priority.

We will send an update at the end of April with any potentially rescheduled events.

Workshops and rental are going ahead as scheduled unless your organiser lets you know differently. Anyone sick or showing any symptoms is asked to not attend.

Our gallery and office will remain open, but we are approaching our programming scheduling on a case-by-case basis. The situation on the Sunshine Coast is ongoing and we are paying attention to the advisories of health advisory bodies as they emerge. As an organization we have updated our weekly and daily sanitation practices, with particular attention paid to points of acute public contact. We will also be formally encouraging visitors to exercise diligence while on-site accessing our facilities.

For updates, please stay tuned to our website www.sunshinecoastartscouncil.com.

Dear friends and community members,

After careful consideration, and following further updates from our provincial Ministry of Health, Municipality, and Sunshine Coast Physicians Advisory Committee, we have decided that the Sunshine Coast Art Centre, Doris Crowston Gallery is closed to the public as of today, March 18, 2020. All of our upcoming programs are postponed until further notice.

Our first priority is ensuring the health and safety of our visitors, program participants, staff, their families, and our community. Our staff will continue to work off-site. If you have any questions about our plans around COVID-19 or any other matters related to the Sunshine Coast Art Centre, please get in touch.

We look forward to welcoming you back for more inspiring Sunshine Coast Arts Council programming as soon as the situation allows. In the meantime please stay connected to us through Facebook and Instagram and check back to our website, as we will continue to share ways to connect through culture, even at a distance.

As a non-profit organization we are grateful for your understanding and ongoing support. We are looking forward to seeing you again as soon as we are able to launch our next round of programming.

Sincerely,

The Sunshine Coast Arts Council Team

March 12 – April 12, 2020

Opening Reception: March 15, 2020, 2pm
Meet the Artist: March 22, 2020, 2pm

We are pleased to present Thread, a solo exhibition of work by Mehran Modarres-Sadeghi. Bringing together works in drawing and sculpture, this exhibition showcases two specific projects.

Ma Miaeem va Miravim (We Come and Go), 2016-19, is a series of drawings which translates my first-grade English book, We Come and Go, from the Dick and Jane series into Persian-English, in which Persian words are written using the Roman alphabet. The title phrase ‘Ma Miaeem va Miravim’ is the Persian-English translation of ‘We Come and Go’. The children’s names, Dick, Jane, and Sally are replaced by Iranian names, Babak, Mina, and Leila. The colourful homogenized illustrations from the source book, We Come and Go, are reproduced in black and white with some thematic changes and translations. Several layers of dark lines are drawn obsessively using graphite pencil to cover the parts of the images that depict children playing outside in ways that contrast with how Iranian children played back then. For example, North American toys such as roller-skates and a big toy car are covered with the dark lines. On other pages, a white picket fence is replaced by a tall brick wall, and a milk van is replaced by a motorcycle, as these were more common in Iran. Working with notions of “third space” or “the space in-between” and the globalization of English, this work explores how the use of the hybrid language Persian-English affects an Iranian sense of identity in a globalized world. It investigates the socio-cultural implications of hybridity as they relate to interethnic exchange and the globalizing process of travel and translation.

Thread is a series of sculptures made from everyday objects wrapped in black string. It includes traditional Iranian objects, such as a copper tray and blue tiles, and modern objects from Western culture, such as adidas shoes, and headphones. Each sculpture has its own title which includes the name of the object in Persian-English as well as its English translation, for instance, Sini (Tray), Kaashi (Tile), and Samavar (Samovar). The objects in Thread are among the precious objects I brought with me from my home city of Isfahan in Iran. Together the objects represent the care and protection taken when the objects are seen as tokens of phenomenological or collective memory. In modern day Iranian culture, these objects are part of the typical experience of culture which includes a combination of both traditional Iranian and contemporary Western influences. The meticulous work of wrapping the objects in black string is employed to hide, protect, and preserve the precious cultural signifiers for the Persian diaspora. It aims to highlight the changes in cultural traditions and the influence of English and Western culture by presenting both traditional and contemporary objects together. By placing the objects on plinths, this work borrows from the vocabulary of ethnographic display of cultural artifacts, but by obscuring, protecting, and wrapping the objects, it places them in the context of artistic objects. The crossovers between sculpture and textile work take into question the histories of art and craft, as well as the social aspects of gender and gendered labour. Some of the traditional objects in this artwork were purchased at Isfahan’s Grand Bazaar where shopkeepers/artisans often use string and paper to wrap the objects they sell to prevent them from being damaged. Their use of string and their careful wrapping of the traditional objects and handmade artifacts has influenced the creation of Thread.

Mehran Modarres-Sadeghi is a visual artist based in Vancouver, BC. Originally from Isfahan, Iran, she immigrated to Canada 20 years ago where she has received an MFA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2017) and a BFA from University of British Columbia (2007). Her recent practice is mostly engaged with drawing and sculpture, although she has worked in a variety of media such as photography, painting, and installation. Modarres-Sadeghi has exhibited her work at several art galleries in Greater Vancouver, including group exhibitions at the Cityscape Community Art Space, Surrey Art Gallery, Concourse Gallery (ECU), as part of MFA Interim exhibition, Charles H. Scott Gallery (ECU), as part of MFA graduate exhibition, and most notably Centre A, as part of a group exhibition, Spring Exhibition, in spring 2017. After the Doris Crowston Gallery show, Modarres-Sadeghi’s work will be shown at Emrooz Gallery in Isfahan, Iran, in August 2020.

Thursday April 2, 2020
2-4pm

Free
Pre-Registration recommended to receive materials in advance
Max 10 participants

This final workshop will bring together the documentation and writing explored in the previous sessions, with an eye to putting together a complete proposal. We will focus on putting together a proposal for an exhibition, but the ideas explored can also be applied to grant and other applications. You will be asked to bring in draft statement and documentation, so that we can work with real examples from the participants.

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Doors at 7:30pm; By donation

Alicia is a Tuscarora writer living in Brantford, Ontario. With her essay A Mind Spread Out On The Ground she made her mark as an author, and in 2018 won the ABC Taylor Emerging Writer Award. In 2019 her first collection of essays, bearing the title of that first essay, appeared and was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Award for Nonfiction. A review describes it as: “A bold and profound meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America.

The Young Peoples Own Show is an exhibition that brings together work from students in elementary and secondary schools across the Sunshine Coast. YPOS is the result of a collaboration between art teachers, school administration and the SCAC.

Director: Jon Blåhed, 73mins, 2018
Trailer:  Click to view on YouTube

In this beautifully composed documentary, we first see an eccentric old woman taking care of a herd of reindeer in the northern part of Sweden. Gradually, it becomes clear that this wise and highly charismatic person is Sami actress and artist Maj Doris, a folk legend who has travelled all over the world to promote the cultural legacy of her people. We follow her daily existence in the arduous environment of her small cottage, beginning in December 2016 and ending as the reindeer depart with the arrival of early summer, when the fascinating septuagenarian is able to go on a trip to South America. It’s a contemplative and multifaceted film that explores topics such as the preservation of indigenous cultures, strong artistic women, the sense of displacement experienced by Afghani expatriates in Sweden, and the complexities of being a role model.

“This could be the most beautiful doc you’ll see all year.” Ravi Srinivasan, HotDocs, 2018