IMAGE BY: JACK BLAIR

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The new TREX SW Hallway Gallery is excited to be hosting its first Exhibition, “Through Those Trees” by Halie Finney. 

This exhibition is one of the many Alberta Foundation for the Arts’ (AFA) Traveling Exhibition (TREX) Southwest (SW) program. The Alberta Society of Artists (ASA) is proud to host TREX SW program and is excited to welcome the display of their exhibitions in the ASA Galleries. Learn more about TREX SW HERE, and learn more about “Through Those Trees” HERE.

Join us for the Opening Reception on September 10, 2022, from 5:00 – 8:00 pm.

Exhibition Statement

Each region has an oral narrative and is host to the evidence of events that have happened throughout time. The land shifts with each generation—growing old, dying and is reborn—while communities develop and grow. Some people are lucky to hear stories that have become linked to a specific region or landscape. Some people are lucky to explore those same areas. Our ancestors had a similar relationship to those regions and landscapes—to gather, explore, rally, work, live and survive. We coexist, just in separate times. The narrative shifts and is shaped by the community, generation to generation, keeping the legacy alive and creating a mythological idealization of what occurred at one time on this land. The narrative changes slightly each time it is told.

Through those trees is a solo exhibition by artist Halie Finney that features her most recent work. The artist explores generations of her Métis family’s narratives within the Lesser Slave Lake region where Finney grew up. Her kin shared the same region. Each generation developed their own narratives as they witnessed births, life and death within the region and the changing landscape. In her work, Finney develops characters to recreate and reimagine happenings within her community and the surrounding land. Her characters link life and death, animate and inanimate to tell and imagine fictional and nonfictional narratives of her and her family’s lives.

Halie Finney is known for her illustrative narratives and development of characters that reflect stories, memories and people in her home community. Her narratives create a folklore, as she develops stories within the mediums of installation, film and performance. Finney’s retelling of local narratives and memories grow into a magical exploration of life with nonlinear timelines and interconnected stories. She honours her deep-rooted family relationship to the region by building and exploring local histories and narratives. In this exhibition, the artist’s playful approach to illustration and layering imagery through transparencies creates dimensional, interconnected sagas for the characters. Finney’s work reflects narratives familiar to her and the locale in which she grew up with the use of imagery common in many different regions of rural living. With this approach, Finney allows the audience to link their own narratives with the work. Through those trees explores what and how it means to live, work, grow up in or be connected to a rural landscape in Alberta.

—Becca Taylor, Curator