Art Review: The Comforts of Home
Kerri-Lynn Reeves and Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet's exhibitions at Harcourt House
One of the things I really love about art exhibitions is the opportunity to see how different artworks converse with each other. I enjoy seeing what “arbitrary” pairings of exhibitions reveal about the work and the art practice. The stories in each can be complex on their own, but in combination, they expand conversations to include other fields and other perspectives.
Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet’s painting exhibition you’ll always know and Kerri-Lynn Reeves’ multimedia installation Holding / Tenderness are being shown concurrently at Harcourt House Artist Run Centre in Edmonton, AB until November 26, 2022.
While I was in the space, I found that I would actually love to see them both in the same room, rather than separated by a wall. The conversations were similar enough that neither would infringe upon the other.
Both artists are prairie kids, with a hands-on, work-with-what-you-got, do-it-yourself ethos that informs their multidisciplinary works. Both artists create work that focuses on communication, memory, and connection. Both exhibitions explore the experience of childhood, memory, and space in different ways, and the crux and inspiration of both exhibitions were the artists’ collaborative experiences with their immediate families at home.
The differences are both significant and interesting, of course.
Ligtvoet’s acrylic and graphite paintings share memories of her own childhood layered with the memories of her family. Based on kitchen-table research and conversations over pickled garlic, Ligtvoet navigates how to share family stories publicly in a way that respects her family’s privacy. She does this by having conversations with different family members and collaborating with them.
Reeves’ installation of textiles, soft sculptures, screenprints, and ceramics are much more abstract in design. By using colours symbolic of her family and rendering these abstract shapes with soft materials, Reeves shares her healing process of reconciling emotionally demanding roles in a short period of time. One of the challenges artistically was navigating the (Progressive? Traditional? It’s complicated) topics of femininity and domestic space in contemporary times.
I also found that each artist had one component that took me a bit to figure out if it worked in the exhibition or not. I realized both of these odd-one-out pieces were actually the ones that set up both exhibitions for in-depth storytelling. Oddly, they both feature similar colour palettes and themes of warmth and fire.
Colour-wise, The Heat Made Our Noses Bleed is much darker than the rest of Ligtvoet’s work. Here, the subject is glowing rather than the background. Notice the blue horse in the background? Stay has the same horse! It was fun to go back and forth between paintings to look for more reoccurring characters - like getting to know the family through the paintings.
Reeves’ fleshy-toned ceramics are strikingly fragile compared to the rest of the work in Holding / Tenderness. Instead of interacting directly as with the pillows, the story here contained in the process. Reeves was learning a new medium and had to learn how to physically constrain the clay as it spins. She was creating literal (feminine?) vessels, and in the process, creating daily artistic rituals and routines to navigate demanding spheres of responsibility. While the soft sculptures speak clearly of comfort and holding space for the body, the ceramics speak of cyclical structure, containing, spheres, and holding space for the process. From there, the rest of the installation begins to fall into place.
I’d love to see the ceramics near or next to the fire painting - I bet they would have an interesting conversation!
Another fun parallel - Reeves’ pillow sculpture and Ligtvoet’s Hands Held Between Brambles. Those shaaaaaapes! That embraaaaaace! Also, patterns!
Together the exhibitions discuss ideas and approaches between childhood memory, recognizing space, familial relationships, and the intense feelings of grief, loss, joy, and self-recognition that come from major relationship shifts.
I really liked the pillows, which I sat on to both engage with and to contemplate the exhibitions. Very comfy! Just like home.
Both exhibitions encourage the viewer to take a seat, to slow down, to make space for feelings, to acknowledge pain and joy in equal measure, and to find comfort in the process of artmaking. Whether we are the parent or the child, or both, these exhibitions encourage us to think honestly about what we consider “home” and what brings us comfort.
Stay tuned for more in-depth reviews of each exhibition!