Confluence
Susan Shantz’s wondrous, Water Basin I, which forms a centerpiece to Confluence, is a vast cutwork “ceiling,” delineating where the river begins at the Saskatchewan glacier in the Rockies of Alberta, then describing its conjunction with other small rivers before becoming the North and South Saskatchewan, and through a diversion at the Gardiner Dam, meandering through the Qu’Appelle Valley …The shadowy layering of the edges of the tarps and their river silhouettes speak to the fraught evidence of colonization that the gridding and mapping of Canadian Prairie land still bears … (Patrick Mahon, “Susan Shantz: Flow and Vigilance,” catalogue essay)
Photo Credit: Gabriela Garcia-Luna
Solo Exhibitions:
Confluence, Gordon Snelgrove Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK. 2022
Confluence, Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, Moose Jaw, SK. 2022
Currents: river works-in-progress, Esplanade Art Gallery (Duggan House), Medicine Hat, AB; residency and artwalk, 2019
Group Exhibitions (selected works):
As Long as the River Flows, Mann Gallery, Prince Albert, SK, 2020-21 & Chapel Gallery, North Battleford, SK, 2019
Work in Collections:
Articles:
Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery: http://www.mjmag.ca/past
Publications:
ON SITE review 42 (Spring 2023) Atlas :: being in place. Susan Shantz: Confluence: the Saskatchewan River, pp. 10 - 15: https://onsitereview.ca/
Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery exhibition publication (16 pages; pdf link)
Jennifer McRorie, Curator, “Confluence” in Susan Shantz: Confluence, MJM&AG, 2022 + link to essay pdf
Susan Shantz’s art practice is recognized for its immersive, thought-provoking and poetic explorations of the connections between humans and nature. Through intense research and a heightened sensibility towards the materiality of her sculptural forms, Shantz creates both visceral and conceptual spaces that investigate nature as a cultural construct … Through the interplay of the exhibition’s various installations and works, Shantz invites us to consider our own sense of intimacy with place, how we come to embody place by taking into our own bodies the water sourced from Saskatchewan’s rivers and lakes. Confluence encourages viewers to consider the interconnectedness and fragility of our water sources, the environmental impacts of human progress on our water systems and how these impacts will ultimately affect us all.
Patrick Mahon, “Susan Shantz: Flow and Vigilance” in Susan Shantz: Confluence, MJM&AG, 2022 + link to essay pdf
Susan Shantz’s wondrous, Water Basin I, which forms a centerpiece to Confluence, is a vast cutwork “ceiling,” delineating where the river begins at the Saskatchewan glacier in the Rockies of Alberta, then describing its conjunction with other small rivers before becoming the North and South Saskatchewan, and through a diversion at the Gardiner Dam, meandering through the Qu’Appelle Valley …The shadowy layering of the edges of the tarps and their river silhouettes speak to the fraught evidence of colonization that the gridding and mapping of Canadian Prairie land still bears, a system that imputes onto those plains, waters controls and oppressions that remain intact today. Such a program also points to the increasingly deteriorating relationships between the environment and the humans and the more than humans who inhabit those spaces, albeit with differing histories, time signatures, and—for humans—ethical bearings.
Related Projects:
Confluence Lectures (2022): invited guest lectures at Carleton University, Ottawa (October); University of Regina and University of Lethbridge (November)
Confluence Keynote (June 2022): invited guest lecture with collaborator, Dr. Graham Strickert, for ALECC (Association for Literature, Environment and Culture in Canada) conference, “Currents + Flows: Ecologies, Creativities, and Materials,” Saskatoon, SK
We are the Lake (Spring 2022): a collaborative, participatory public art project with the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery for the City of Moose Jaw highlighting connections to Buffalo Pound Lake, water source for Moose Jaw, Regina and surrounding areas. Projects included a public digital billboard in Moose Jaw and an Instagram account and website archive: http://www.mjmag.ca/community-exhibits
Confluence Sound/Wave Meditation (April & June 2022): a collaboration with Saskatoon yoga/sound bath teacher, Sandie Irvine, during the exhibition of Confluence in Moose Jaw (April) and Saskatoon (June); included a sound/water wave meditation beneath the watershed tarps: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/714213947
In Conversation with the Artist: MJMAG Director/Curator Jennifer McRorie with Susan Shantz & Graham Strickert (March 7, 2022; YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0hOjJt77SA
We are the River (Summer 2017): a collaborative, participatory public art project for the City of Saskatoon highlighting connections to the South Saskatchewan River. Projects included a public digital billboard in downtown Saskatoon, a print billboard at PAVED Arts and an Instagram account. https://www.saskatoon.ca/sites/default/files/documents/community-services/planning-development/urban-design/saskatoon_placemaker_final_reprot_shantz.pdf
Becoming Water (Spring 2017): a co-taught an arts-based, university course with Dr. Graham Strickert, School of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan. The class included field trips to Saskatoon Water Treatment Plant, Gardiner Dam and the Saskatchewan River Delta with resulting art exhibition and publication and film: Becoming Water https://sens.usask.ca/news-articles/2018/news-u-of-s-film-makes-international-waves.php
Delta Days (April 2016): a collaboration with School of the Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan creating a traveling exhibit connecting three delta communities (Saskatchewan River Delta, Peace-Athabasca Delta, Slave River Delta): Delta Days (SSRHC-funded collaborative community project): https://sens.usask.ca/news-articles/2017/discovering-the-deltas.php