Please come see the OBAC's second exhibition ever! See below for our statement.
Alice Munro has mastered the craft of saying a lot with a little; and consistently captures an essence of Canadiana in person and place in her numerous short stories. In her most recent collection, Dear Life, she allows the reader to witness subtle yet pivotal experiences of her characters' lives within a familiar Canadian landscape. Munro constructs vignettes that seem to be like significant links in domino chains of events-- coming of ages; accidents; close encounters-- though we as readers are left behind at the end of each story to imagine the fallout.
Munroʼs stories are not expansive or epic, yet when magnified they reveal rich symbolism paired with characters whose complex networks and personal histories intersect. This is the material that the participating artists have drawn on to curate this collection of work.
The Open Book Art Collective seeks to create a visual/literary dialogue with art objects that are both informed by and informing the literature. Each individual artist has applied their medium to two short stories from Dear Life, exploring broader themes of recollection, place, banality and nostalgia. With painting, encaustic, drawing, sculpture, photography and textiles; Dear Life is a sensitive exploration into what it means to be human as envisioned by Nobel Prize Winner, Alice Munro.
