The Fort Gallery has reeled in a new exhibitor – Cumberland-based artist Anne Steves and her exhibition, A-Luring Object(s).
It is the second of a series of four exhibitions that explore the social, cultural, and environmental significance of the Fraser River and the gallery’s location on its shores.
Steves does not make ordinary fishing lures – the Welsh-Canadian artist draws together contemporary craft with traditional lure-making practices to create sculptures that explore our relationship to the land and other species.
For Steves, the lure becomes a point of connection between the human and non-human world.
“My work centers around attending artist residencies and asking the question – How can we come to know a place through the act of making? My work is a series of experiments in trying to create connectivity and I document the successes and failures of this practice,” Steves said.
Since immigrating to Canada twenty years ago Steves’ art practice has been occupied with discovering how we connect with a new place.
This project has taken her to communities across Canada to make new lures, facilitate community workshops and explore how craft and play facilitate connection with place.
“It came to my attention that my methods and materials were similar to those that my husband uses in fly tying and fishing and so I started to look at how his experiences as a sports fisherman allow him to interact with place, develop a sense of belonging and communicate with community and other species,” she said.
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Steves has a long connection with the Fraser River having spent her first years in Canada exploring its waters with her Lower Mainland born fisherman husband, living a stone’s throw from the river in South Vancouver and later, along its shores in Hope.
Over the first days of the exhibition Steves will be in the gallery creating a brand new lure sculpture specifically for the Fraser River.
Viewers are invited to engage Steves in the gallery as she works on the new lure and join her on the opening weekend for a lure-making workshop.
“I hope primarily to start conversations about how we live in place, the ways in which we interact with our environments and how making, particularly through craft, can provide a way of communicating with our environments.” Steves added. “I would love to welcome anybody interested in talking about their experiences on the Fraser to join me at the gallery for a chat.”
A-Luring Object(s) runs Feb. 20 to March 28 at the Fort Gallery.
An opening reception and artist talk will be held Friday, February 21, 7 to 9 p.m.
Steves will lead a lure-making workshop at the gallery February 23, 2 to 3:30 p.m..
People can visit fortgallery.ca for registration information and more on the exhibition itself.
Fort Gallery is open noon to 5 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday, and located at 9048 Glover Rd.
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Email: ryan.uytdewilligen@langleyadvancetimes.com
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