In 2013 Veronica Slater was invited to be artist in residence at Stewart Hall (formerly Mull Hall) at Pointe St Claire in Montreal, Canada as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations. This also included the exhibition Multiple Histories-Distant Horizons which took place in July and August 2013. The residency used a project space to explore the cultural dialogues between the old and new worlds using The Isle of Mull as the key connection.
Multiple Histories - Distant Horizons
* Borges writes "….your ancestor did not believe in a uniform, absolute time. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent and convergent and parallel times"
Interiors and objects 'hold time' in their decorative materiality. They fragment and dislocate a space but 'at the same time' create a unique archive of an inhabitant's living presence. The distant horizons of Shiaba, a ruined township from the Highland Clearances, on The Isle of Mull, converge in parallel with the black & white photographs of Mull Hall, now Stewart Hall. This collision of an 'infinite series of times' visually instills a seepage from the old world to the new world. Dripped paint and detailed decorative motifs interweave these images of 'home' and transgress the co-ordinates of time and place.
Charles MacLean was re-staging his own historical lineage to the ancestral clan seat of the MacLean's on The Isle of Mull when he immortalised Mull Hall. This geographical pull from a distant horizon provides a complex positioning of identities within a 'sense of place'. It is a cultural dialogue between two continents but the divergent and fragmented nature of memory resonates far beyond the walls of what was once Mull Hall. Fifty years of Stewart Hall is an opportunity to probe the fabric of this residence so as to 're-stage, re-represent' and ultimately disrupt a sense of what is a past, present and future.
From iconic caravans that stand alongside the ruined townships on the Isle of Mull to castles and Halls, 'home' is the connective DNA embodying a 'dizzying net of divergent and convergent and parallel times'.
Veronica Slater
See the artist being interviewed at Stewart Hall
PRESS RELEASE
In the Project Room, June 17th to July 28th 2013
Veronica Slater
Artist in Residence
Multiple Histories – Distant Horizons
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Cultural Centre, Stewart Hall in 1963, the Stewart Hall Art Gallery will be hosting an Artist in Residence Project in 2013 with Veronica Slater, an artist who lives and works on the Isle of Mull, the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland.
In 1916 when Colonial Charles MacLean built the mansion which now houses the Cultural Centre, it was given the name of Mull Hall after the MacLean’s ancestral seat on the Isle of Mull. Although in 1963 the mansion was given the official name of Stewart Hall in honour of the Stewart Family who donated the building to the City of Pointe-Claire, the ties to the MacLean Family remain a large part of the history of Stewart Hall.
For six weeks, Veronica Slater, as our artist in residence, will be using the Project Room at the west end of the Gallery as her studio. As the artist writes in her proposal:
I will be using old photographs, descriptions and the building itself to create a series of paintings and mixed media works that engage with the multiple histories that have occupied Stewart Hall. The aim is to probe the fabric of a residence so as to 're-stage – re-represent' and ultimately disrupt a sense of what is a past, present and future within the walls of what was once Mull Hall.
Charles MacLean was re-staging his own historical lineage to the ancestral clan seat of the MacLean’s on The Isle of Mull when he immortalised Mull Hall. This geographical pull from a distant horizon provides another layer to a complex positioning of identities within a 'sense of place'.
We invite all to come and meet Veronica and watch her at work in the Gallery. Join in the workshops and interact with her as she weaves our various histories into the fabric of Stewart Hall in celebration of our 50th anniversary.
Source: Manel Benchabane, communications
514 630-1254 | benchabanem@ville.pointe-claire.qc.ca
www.ville.pointe-claire.qc.ca
Centre culturel de Pointe-Claire, Stewart Hall
176, ch. du Bord-du-Lac – Lakeshore
Pointe-Claire (Québec) H9S 4J7
T. 514 630-1254 F. 514 630-1285
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Multiple Histories - Distant Horizons
Multi Media: design, film projection, installation
painting, printmaking, and photographs
2013
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