Serial Arrangements

The tradition of artists working serially is reflected in the collection of the Confederation Centre Art Gallery and this exhibition features seven groups of work—each extending the viewers engagement with the artist’s subject and process. Included are three monoprints from the Waterworksseries by Stacey Spiegel, who equated the printmaking to a “mapping of fluidity.” The association is underscored by the inclusion of sections of metal printing plates showing traces of maps or charts. The Long Series of paintings on paper by Stephen B. MacInnis is represented by 50 works—seven in frames, a milestone text work made on completion of the first 500 works in this ongoing series, and the storage container holding the remaining stack of 42 works. Dominique Cruchet’s photography album, Panmure Island Pow Wow Portraits,1997, contains 12 gelatin silver prints that can be compared to three late 17^th century German woodcuts depicting Indigenous figures in America, attributed to G.M. Funcken. The earlier prints are fanciful and the latter realistic portraits. Brian Groombridge’s editioned work in five parts, Comets Tell of Great Distances Traveled, present the viewer with a single date per sheet. The font used for each year is particular to the date recorded while the title hints at the fact that these dates are the years when Halley’s Comet was observed from Earth. Shari Hatt has made numerous photographic series of pet dog portraits and this 1999 series used a bright green backdrop, square format, consistent size, and white frames in all 50 portraits leaving the close-up framing of each dog’s face to reveal their “personalities.” Bruce Campbell uses serial imagery in the four canvases making up Every True Islander, 1987, in response to the heated debate over a fixed link joining Prince Edward Island to the mainland in advance of the 1988 plebiscite. His imagery is based on a stamp used in the latter half of the 1880s to promote a tunnel as the means to provide a continuous communication link with the mainland.

The analogy of ongoing or continuous communication links seems apt for all of these serial works as they mark points in time and history while alluding to the artist’s extended thinking on environmental elements, creativity, portraiture, distance, and time.

Kevin Rice