Halie Finney, There, in the leaves, 2020, Ink and acrylic on transparency, Courtesy of the artist
Through Those Trees
September 2020 – August 2022
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 landscape, and each generation developed their own narratives as they witnessed births, life and death in and about the region and the changing landscape. In her work, Finney develops characters in order 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 non-fictional 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 unique folklore, developing stories within the mediums of installation, film and performance. 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 but with the use of imagery common in many different regions of rural living. Through this approach, Finney allows the audience to link their own narratives to the work. Through those trees explores what and how it means to live, work, grow up in and be connected to a rural landscape in Alberta.
Curated by Becca Taylor
Touring from the Alberta Society of Artists, TREX Southwest
Artist Bio
Halie Finney is an emerging Métis artist based in Edmonton, Alberta. She received a bachelor of fine arts in drawing in 2017 from the Alberta University of Art and Design (formerly Alberta College of Art and Design). She also graduated from MacEwan University in 2014 with a diploma in fine arts.
Born and raised in the Lesser Slave Lake region of Alberta, Finney holds a strong connection to the area. She understands her Métis heritage through memories told to her by generations of her family who still reside there and through the characteristics of her home’s landscape and lifestyle. Finney has created a mythology of characters living in a simplified storybook-like version of her hometown. The band of characters play out nonlinear, idiosyncratic narratives that are expressed through animations, costumes, drawings, paintings, performances and other objects.