New exhibition at Weyburn Art Gallery features spirit animals, each with hidden spirit beads

A new exhibition was recently installed at the Weyburn Art Gallery: 'Spirit of Nature - Looking Beyond Yourself', featuring works by Phyllis Poitras-Jarrett of Last Mountain Lake.

"It's bright, it's textured, it's spiritual. It really draws a person in and makes someone to spend some time looking at the work," said City Curator Regan Lanning. "It will be up until the end of January. It comes to us through OSAC, which is the organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils. They put together three or four exhibitions every year for us curators to take a look at, and I love them, and I love their exhibitions and this one is spectacular, as they usually are."

She said the exhibition speaks to the spirit of animals, using traditional Métis beading patterns in the bodies of these animals.

"The animals are surrounded by this grey fog, which represents the spirit world around us all," noted Lanning. It was intriguing. "It was bright, it was colourful, and it served to have Indigenous Métis representation in our gallery."

"Weyburn is kind of unique in the fact that it doesn't really have a large Indigenous or Métis population," she pointed out, noting that she feels it's really important to have an Indigenous, First Nations, and Métis representation within our gallery. 

"It's part of how I, in my role in tackling truth and reconciliation, am highlighting the importance of it for our society, so when OSAC has an exhibition that is by Indigenous or Métis creators, I always take a good, hard look at it and try to find room for it in the gallery."

Each piece contains a hidden spirit bead, which are traditionally found in Métis beadwork. 

"They speak to our imperfections as humans, and how that doesn't dull our beauty. This is something that's handmade, that's handcrafted and as a human, it's inherent that it will have a few flaws. So instead of trying to hide those or go back and fix them, the spirit bead kind of celebrates those imperfections and celebrates our imperfections as humans." 

She added she hopes to see school tours of this particular exhibition, as there are a few activities in which the students will be able to partake and engage to further their understanding of the themes.

Find out more about this exhibition in the Weyburn Arts Council / Weyburn Art Gallery Facebook post HERE.

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