Female Impersonators: Women Performing Women

Gallery 1C03 at The University of Winnipeg in partnership with the Institute for Women's and Gender Studies (IWGS) are pleased to present a special program of videos by Manitoba women artists. 

Organized in conjunction with International Women's Day celebrations and as a complement to Gallery 1C03's Herstory exhibition. Female Impersonators: Women Performing Women has been curated by internationally renowned performance artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan and will be followed by a panel discussion on feminist video and performance art with Sharon Alward, J.J. Kegan McFadden and Divya Mehra. The program and panel will take place on Wednesday, March 13 at 7:00 pm in Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall at The University of Winnipeg. Come to watch the videos and then take part in the discussion with local feminist artists/cultural producers. 

Dempsey and Millan write: "Although camp has traditionally been the territory of gay men, it has long been employed by feminist performance artists as a means to critique gender and other culturally held absurdities through exaggeration, queens who clothe themselves in a heightened idea of womanhood, feminist artists have long laid bare the absurd rules of gender through its impersonation".

The videos in this single channel program of Manitoba works span twenty years from the late 1980's to the late 2000s. Each one peels back the surface of identity with intelligent humour. They mercilessly critique the overt and insidious impacts of patriarchy, bending assumptions about gender, orientation, history, sexuality, race and ethnicity along the way. In doing so, they insist on new readings of what it is to identify as female, broadening the definition to encompass a multiplicity of experience. Many express the most unladylike emotion - rage- and through its articulation urgently insist on social change. 

Female Impersonators: Women Performing Women will include videos by Sharon Alward, Rebecca Belmore, Wendy Geller, Christine Kirouac, Divya Mehra, Freya Bjorg Olafson, Victoria Prince, Nicole Shimonek, Lori Weidenhammer and Donna Lewis. 

This event is FREE, open to all and will take place in Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at The University of Winnipeg. Gallery 1C03's Herstory exhibition will be open for viewing from 6:00 - 7:00 pm on March 13 for those wishing to view it prior to the 7:00 pm start of Female Impersonators. For more information please contact Jennifer Gibson at 204-786-9253

We gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts for this project.

Image: Rebecca Belmore, Victorious ( video still) 2007

Cinema Politica & Grass Routes presents Bottled Life

Together as part of the international documentary screening network Cinema Politica, Gallery 1C03 and the University of Winnipeg  Students' Association (UWSA), in partnership with the Grass Routes Sustainability Festival, present the film Bottled Life - The Truth About Nestlé's Business With Water at Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall on Wednesday, March 6 at 2:30 pm.

Directed by Urs Schnell (CH-US, 2012) , Bottled Life investigates Nestlé's destructive business practices concerning water commodification.

Do you know how to turn ordinary water into a billion-dollar business? In Switzerland there's a company which has developed the art to perfection - Nestlé. This company dominates the global business in bottled water.

Swiss journalist Res Gehringer has investigated this money-making phenomena. Nestlé refused to cooperate on the pretext  that it was "the wrong film at the wrong time". So Gehringer went on a journey of exploration, researching the story in the USA, Nigeria and Pakistan. His journey into the world of bottled water reveals the schemes and strategies of the most powerful food and beverage company on our planet. 

Please join us after the film for a discussion.

Bottled Life is also presented as part of Cinema Politica's network-wide "Back the Tap" campaign and Bottled Water Free Day.

All screenings will be open to all audiences - everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome.

Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall is located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at the University of Winnipeg. 

Gallery 1C03  and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative. 

Gallery 1C03 presents Herstory: Art by Women in the University of Winnipeg Collection

Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg proudly presents 

Herstory: Art by the Women in The University of Winnipeg Collection
March 7-April 6, 2013

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 7, 4:00-6:00 pm
Includes launch of Dominique Rey and Chris Reid publications. 

Panel Discussion with Herstory Curator & Artists: March 27 at 12:30 pm

In conjunction with International Women's Month celebrations, Gallery 1C03 at The University of Winnipeg is pleased to present Herstory, a group exhibition featuring work by twenty-one Manitoba women artists represented in the University's collection.

Herstory is the first time in the collection's history that art created solely by significant female artists is being shown in the gallery. The exhibition and its related forthcoming publication trace the contributions these women -- all who, at one point or another, have called Manitoba home -- have made on the local, national and international art scenes. Herstory highlights the themes and subjects these artists have examined in their work, from portraiture and the body to landscapes and narratives, and considers how "the feminine" and feminist notions (if any) have been approached and interpreted. 

The exhibition is comprised of twenty-five two-dimensional pieces produced in various media such as painting, photography, drawing, prints and mixed media  works during the past seven decades. Artists include Eleanor Bond, Sheila Butler, Caroline Dukes, Aganetha Dyck, G.N Louise Jonasson, Wanda Koop, Rosemary Kowalsky, Alison Newton, Daphne Odjig, Dominique Rey, Sheila Spence, Eva Stubbs and Diana Thorneycroft, among others. 

To complement the exhibition's opening reception on March 7, Gallery 1C03 is pleased to launch two of its latest publications which highlight the work of Manitoba women artists Dominique Rey and Chris Reid. 

A panel discussion related to the exhibition with Herstory curator Laura White and artists Dominique Rey, Eva Stubbs and Diana Thorneycroft will take place at Gallery 1C03 on March 27 at 12:30 pm.

Gallery 1C03 gratefully acknowledges financial assistance for Herstory  from The University of Winnipeg and the Manitoba Government, Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism.

Gallery 1C03 hours: Monday - Friday 12:00-4:00 pm; Saturday 1:00-4:00 pm. Closed Good Friday. Admission is always free and everyone is welcome. Wheelchair accessible. 

Frank Shebageget artist talk now on-line

If you missed Frank Shebageget's artist talk on January 17, you can now view it on-line on Gallery 1C03's webpage for Frank's show. Special thanks to Warren McNeil and Bruce Hanks of CTLT and Marnie Loewen in Communications for making this possible!

8 more days to see Frank Shebageget exhibition

If you haven't had a chance to see the Frank Shebageget exhibition at Gallery 1C03, the show is on for another 8 days. The works are stunning as you can see from Ernest Mayer's photographs of Castor's Castoreum (in University of Winnipeg Anthropology Museum window vitrine) and Untitled (in the Gallery), above. Need more convincing? Read Steven Leyden Cochrane's review in today's Winnipeg Free Press.

Cinema Politica tomorrow - United in Anger

Cinema Politica at the University of Winnipeg is presenting another film screening tomorrow, this one in cooperation with  the UWSA LGBT* Centre and Genderfest Winnipeg. We'll be showing United in Anger: A History of Act Up  at Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall on Friday, February 8th at 6:00 p.m.

Directed by veteran celebrated film maker Jim Hubbard (US, 2012), United in Anger: A History of Act Up is a unique feature-length documentary that combines startling archival footage that puts the audience on the ground with the activists and the remarkably insightful interviews from the ACT UP Oral History Project to explore ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) from a grassroots perspective – how a small group of men and women of all races and classes, came together to change the world and save each other’s lives.

The film takes the viewer through the planning and execution of a half dozen exhilarating major actions including Seize Control of the FDA, Stop the Church, and Day of Desperation, with a timeline of many of the other zaps and actions that forced the U.S. government and mainstream media to deal with the AIDS crisis. United in Anger reveals the group’s complex culture – meetings, affinity groups, and approaches to civil disobedience mingle with profound grief, sexiness, and the incredible energy of ACT UP.

Please join us after the film for a panel discussion and art presentation of 'Poster Virus' works. The aim of the event is to examine dominant biomedical approaches towards HIV prevention priorities, and allow for a discourse regarding ‘expert truths’ and their relation to real lived experiences of those affected by HIV.  Panelists include Jessica Whitbread (Canadian Treatment Action Council) and Gina McKay (Nine Circles Community Health Centre).

All screenings will be open to all audiences – everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome.

Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall is located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at The University of Winnipeg. Parking.

Gallery 1C03 and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative.

Image: Scene from United in Anger.