IMPACT: PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS BY ARTISTS OF ATLANTIC CANADA
INTRODUCTION: MAKING IMPACT
Terry Graff
The place and identity of Moncton, New Brunswick, is articulated through consideration of the geography and ecology of the region, by applying cross-cultural approaches, disentangling the forces of stratification and assimilation that have historically affected peoples who differ radically by culture and ethnicity, and by understanding that Canada is structured around the inequality of its constituent regions. Concealed behind the homogeneity of malls and fast-food outlets, which have replaced Micmacs with Big Macs; and masked by the tourist industry's marketing of pseudoplaces and events -- the prepackaged entertainment and simulacra of Crystal Palace, Atlantic Canada's first indoor amusement park, and Magnetic Hill Park's "Magic Mountain" of water slides and mini-golf -- is a unique heritage of linguistic and cultural diversity. The complex interconnections between Acadian and English, European and Native, along with a rich legacy of agriculture, shipbuilding, industry, and the railroad, constitute the spheres of influence that have shaped the evolution of this major Atlantic urban centre.
Located at the geographic hub of the Maritimes, at the bend of the Petitcodiac River, Moncton (pop. 55,468) was once the site of an Acadian settlement known as La Coude. Official control of this region changed hands with the 1755 Expulsion of the Acadians, although the settlement lay vacant until the arrival, in 1766, of nine immigrant families from Pennsylvania with a land grant issued by the Philadelphia Company. The new settlement, which flourished, was named in honour of Lieut. Col. Monckton, the commander of the British forces who led the capture of nearby Fort Beausejour.
Today, with a population comprised of nearly two-thirds Anglophone, close to one-third Francophone, and with more than thirty other ethnic traditions, Moncton is considered the focal point of contemporary Acadie and the fastest growing city in the region. Economists recognize that nearly 1.4 million people live within a three-hour drive of midtown, eclipsing Halifax as the largest market area of any Atlantic Canadian city.
For tourists travelling through the "Outdoor Museum of the Maritimes", Moncton is noted for its world famous Tidal Bore. Once a much more magnificent phenomenon, before the construction of the causeway near the city dump, today's Tidal Bore is a commodified spectacle marketed to visitors, along with other constructed images of a pristine nature, without disclosing any clues about the reality of Atlantic Canada's despoliated coastal ecosystem: Newfoundland's cod crisis, Halifax's polluted harbour, Domtar's chemical contamination of New Brunswick's Miramichi River, Cape Breton's Tar Ponds, land development on P.E.I. -- the list goes on.
Another phenomenon, but one that is little recognized outside the region, and one that receives little or no attention from the tourist industry, is Moncton's vital, heterogeneous art scene. Emanating from the Aberdeen Cultural Centre, which houses the artist-run Galerie Sans Nom and the Imago Print Shop, as well as from the Galerie d'art and the Department of Visual Arts at the Universite de Moncton, this recent upsurge of creative activity ruptures the notion of a homogeneous Canadian identity and the image of the Atlantic Provinces as one undifferentiated, stereotypical landscape of lighthouses and lobsters, populated with herringchokers and bluenosers. Critics and curators living outside the region who cite only Alex Colville, folk art, or perhaps certain forms of art activity associated with the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design as representative of Atlantic Canadian art, are ignorant of the fact that, despite certain shared troubles and interdependence, Atlantic Canada is a collection of sub-regions with different identities and agendas.
The Moncton art phenomenon, linked to Acadian cultural survival and fuelled with a desire to shape the future, flies in the face of certain obstacles afflicting Atlantic Canadian artists. Provincial governments here accord visual art a place that is extraordinarily limited. The meagre financial support available to artists, and the ineffectual cultural policies and programs that currently exist to nurture the development of the arts, serve to relegate the Atlantic Provinces to a ghetto position in Canadian culture. Like everything else in this country, the validity of art is determined by the centralization of wealth in Upper Canada. The identity of artists living in the Atlantic hinterlands, and the production, and reproduction, of Atlantic regional culture, are either ignored or, what is worse, superficially circumscribed and evaluated in terms of the dominating art discourse of regional Toronto.
Perceptions of cultural centralism are legion. Recall Andrew Terris' indictment of federal cultural agencies for their active role in promoting inequities, his claim that "(Canada) Council policies are not just maintaining regional disparities in cultural funding, they are actually encouraging them" (ArtsAtlantic 39, Winter '91, p. 42-43). It cannot simply be labelled paranoia when the so-called National Gallery, the so-called national art magazines like Canadian Art, and the so-called national newspapers like The Globe and Mail, exclude, or at best contain, token references to the contemporary art of the region; that the only artists selected to represent Canada at Documenta IX in Kassel, Germany, live in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver; that artists from the periphery gravitate to these centers like lemmings to the sea, not to connect with the life-support system of one of these particular bioregions but to validate their careers as artists within the artificial, exploitative, anti-nature confines of the art business world.
What strategies are available to artists who live in a region external to where the national economy is run? If moving to Toronto, or sending work there, only serves to reinforce the capitalist/artistic dominance of central Canada, what can artists do to challenge the cult of centralist thinking from outside this tightly woven systematism? At a time when the central Canadian economy is in profound crisis, and the Atlantic Provinces are experiencing increased levels of poverty and unemployment, and are dependent, more than ever before, upon "trickle-down" monies, how can artists living here expect any change for the better?
Against seemingly impending bleakness for the visual arts, IMPACT: Public Installations by Artists of Atlantic Canada (23-27 September, 1992), the largest artist-organized exhibition-event New Brunswick has ever witnessed, was testimony to the indomitable spirit and desire of the participating artists, an affirmation of regional identities and of the primacy of place as arbiter of artistic and cultural validation. In conjunction with ANNPAC's Annual General Meeting and a national conference on the theme of "Contemporary Arts in Canada at the end of the Twentieth Century", it brought together a wide range of artists' ideas and concerns to the Hub of the Maritimes, marking a significant juncture in Moncton's cultural life.
Public and commercial spaces generously donated by the City of Moncton and its downtown business community enabled artists to engage en masse with a different and larger social structure outside the usual gallery context. Over fifty artists, representing all four Atlantic Provinces, infiltrated the downtown core, responding to particular spaces and sites within a complex field of layered and competing meanings. Art was installed on Codiac Transit Bus #303, on the lawn of the Moncton Museum, in the centre of the plaza at Assumption Place, at Crystal Palace, in vacant office space, in restaurants, and on all four floors of the historic Creaghan's building. What visitors from across the country witnessed, over a five-day period in Moncton, was a spectacular assertion of regional consciousness struggling to claim space and legitimize itself within the conflicted, fragmented terrain of Canadian culture.
THE CULTURE OF CREAGHAN'S
Creaghan's is one of the few places that understands my needs and provides a private, spacious setting and experienced fashion consultants.
The three-storey Creaghan building was built by W.H. Faulkner in 1892 (exactly one hundred years before IMPACT), and was referred to as the "Caledonia Building" at the turn-of-the-century. As one of downtown Moncton's cultural and historic landmarks, it has figured prominently in the communal, and even political, life of the region. For example, in 1904, Maritimers watched the election returns, which proclaimed Sir Wilfrid Laurier the new Prime Minister of Canada, projected on a large screen mounted on the front facade of the building.
Make your special day everything you dreamed it could be, with a dress from Creaghan's.
Creaghan's is situated on Main Street, next to Oak Park, a quaint rest area, replete with flowers, trees, a fountain, period lamp posts, and an archway. The park was named after a large oak tree that occupied the site when the settlers from Philadelphia arrived in 1766, but the tree was destroyed by a bonfire many years later when festive Monctonians celebrated the relief of Ladysmith during the Boer War.
Plus they have a large selection of lingerie and foundations from which to choose, with something special for every occassion I can imagine.
Three generations of the Creaghan family were involved with the marketing of clothing in New Brunswick for one hundred and eleven years, catering largely to the needs of women and children. Beginning in 1875 with the opening of the first store in Newcastle by the company's founder, John Daniel Creaghan, other stores were also established in Chatham, Moncton and Fredericton. The Moncton store opened in 1905, advertising itself as "a dependable place to shop."
"Classic Elegance" best describes coats & jackets for Fall & Winter in beautiful jewel tones -- rubies, emeralds and more, trimmed with velvet and fur -- the perfect way to add warmth to the cold days ahead.
In 1985, with no heirs interested in carrying on the family tradition, all four stores were sold to Georges Gouguen Holding Ltd. While the Creaghan name was retained, the husband and wife team of Georges and Germaine Gouguen injected new marketing concepts and fresh ideas into the New Brunswick clothing business. Understanding that a successful department store is a place where customers are an audience to be enticed and entertained, they enlisted glamourous models, presented dazzling fashion shows, and shifted the focus of the store's merchandise to include new lines of designer fashions, many of which were exclusive.
My clothes are some of my best friends. They can cheer me up when I'm down, provide warmth when I'm cold and they help me feel confident when I need it the most.
However, despite these changes, and despite achieving national recognition for their classy advertisements, the Gouguen's marketing tactics failed to attract customers who were lured away from the downtown core by Champlain Place, the largest mall east of Montreal, located in Dieppe, just outside the city limits. In 1990, Creaghan's of Moncton, the last surviving store in the demise of the chain, had no alternative but to go out of business.
Clothes should be a fun way to express yourself -- not just a statement of your personal worth.
Beyond providing a large and adequate space for artists' installations, the vacant Creaghan's building presents a challenging context for critically examining the intertextuality of, and conflictive relationships amongst, a radical diversity of art activity by a wide range of artists living in the Atlantic region. As an environment representative of consumerist culture, it readily suggests an interpretation of this diversity in relation to the everyday language of commodified images and mass consumption, the extent to which consumer behaviour determines how we appreciate and evaluate works of art.
If we can indulge ourselves in other aspects of our life, why not our wardrobes? When I need clothes for a special occassion, I drop by the second floor of Creaghan's. They seem to know exactly what I need to suit my tastes ...and the occassion ... something elegant, but simple, effective but not overstated...
The department store as a context for works of art emphasizes the reality of a world contaminated by homogenizing commodity fetishism, a world where consumer culture determines place and defines identity, flattening traditional local cultural traditions by invading the most private recesses of individual experience. Imbued with the complex connotations of hegemonic, consumerist ideology, it speaks of mass-produced commodities organized to inflame material desires and feelings.
When I shop for lingerie, I like personal attention -- it's a very private part of me that enjoys being pampered.
Although devoid of merchandise, the physical space of the Creaghan's building carries meanings and associations related, not only to its history within Moncton society -- the personal, cross-cultural and business transactions enacted there over time -- but to its particular characteristics and function as a clothing store. Its spatial organization, lighting and architectural features, combined with abandoned artifacts, such as empty display stands and dress racks, serve to activate memory and imagination, communicating an environment of shopping: a world of salesclerks and store mannequins; of fashion models and flashy window displays; of shoes and lingerie; of elaborate advertising campaigns; of merchandise marked down to bargain prices; of shopping bags and credit cards; of stockpiling and inventory. Numerous tiny dressing rooms and full-length mirrors speak of human narcissism, evoking associations of mass-produced designer clothes, symbols of status and sexuality marketed as integral to individual meaning and worth.
Being a woman in the 80's demands flexibility in everything -- our lifestyles and our schedules, but especially in our wardrobes. There are few places I can shop to find the flexibility I need... I'm so glad I discovered Creaghan's!
The siting of artists' installations in a retail store opens a critique of the economic logic of contemporary art, its manipulation and control by the demands of the marketplace. As a parody of consumer role enactment, it draws attention to the blurred line between cultural and commodity production, and points to the predicament of the socially engaged artist, the co-option and neutralization of the oppositional power of art by a numbing fashion-conscious, commercial environment. The artist at the end of the twentieth century works within the global mall of mass-consumption and the omnipresent simulacra of shifting, mass-media information -- a fragmented, technocratic landscape, which has shattered historical continuity, destabilized the binary division separating bourgeois "high culture" from department store kitsch, and fractured the once sacred notions of self-expression, authenticity, originality, and aesthetic purity.
I knew she'd find everything she needed at Creaghan's. It's nice to be able to carry on the tradition.
The department store, where a multitude of various material goods bid for our buying attention, is an appropriate symbol for the discontinuous, pluralistic, and conflicted realm of postmodernism. While one may argue that commodity society delivers greater choice and diversity than other societies, choice simply translates to product choice, choice in the marketplace. We are given many brands to choose from, and diverse features on otherwise identical products, but the bottom line is that corporate society has an economic, cultural and social agenda that hinges on all of us living our lives in a similar homogeneous manner; that is, defining ourselves and achieving our pleasures from the things that we buy. It is significant to note that funding for the IMPACT project and publication derived from the Marketing and Distribution Program of the Canada/New Brunswick COOPERATION Agreement on Cultural Development, a program indicative of the common perception of culture as simply another commodity to be bought and sold.
I look at my clothes as an investment.
Is there a space on this planet where lifestyles need not be rooted in consumption, where we can resist corporate ideology and develop an utterly nonmaterial relationship to life and to this Earth? If there is another meaning of the term "quality" outside its everyday promotional use by consumer-oriented society, it must be disentangled from a system which commodifies culture, which controls galleries and museums, which determines the status of art and artists, which validates only those artists who successfully market themselves in the large urban centres; in short, which equates value with money.
I believe in buying the best quality I can afford.
The artist's positioning of her or his work in relation to site, address and audience reveals a reflective consciousness of how the conflated subtexts of consumerist mass culture mediate our perceptions and understanding, and further, how the artist is implicated in the economic and political manipulation of art, its circulation and consumption as a commodity-sign. Art production is posited not merely as the reflection of underlying social, cultural and political structures, but as an active agent in the creation of these structures. The degree to which the artist considers her or his art practice as an effective means for social intervention and/or transformation, is the degree to which the stereotype of the displaced, dispossessed artist is challenged, and to which we might speak of that artist as socially engaged.
My husband has really changed. He now does his own shopping. At Creaghan's, he has discovered a new way of dressing which is both elegant and casual.
The conceptual, process, performance, ritual, site-specific, and ephemeral dimensions inherent in the Creaghan's installations, insist on creating a space for the dialogic encounter of subject and culture, artist and community, while providing a means for communicating critical preoccupations with complex issues such as representation, history, identity, ecology, politics, and personal narrative. Ritual celebration and experiential awareness of the validity of local truth(s), which run counter to the destructive pathology of numbing mass consumption, advocates that the place of the artist is in her or his community, that the artist's role is to name our common experience, that she/he has a right to community, to serve the community at large, to feel a part of the whole community.
I'll never forget what a wonderful experience that shopping trip was. The staff was so friendly and helpful... they found the perfect dresses for all my attendants and the accessories were more beautiful than I even imagined!
The Creaghan's installations read as interventions in the mass-media, consumerist representations and languages of everyday life. They are challenges to delimiting consumer socialization which melds the museum to the retail store and relegates the artist to the role of commodity producer and the viewer to that of shopper. Inserted into the environment of Moncton's downtown business community, such work holds the promise of an alternative cultural vision which does not simply and complascently conspire with the whole production system of commercialized fetish goods, but places intrinsic value on the critical role of the artist as "watch-dog" of contemporary society.
Simply, Completely... Creaghan's
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