Article content Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. A new show of gorgeous art does the strangest thing: ask us to consider the perspective of houseplants.
Friends? Décor? Imprisoned life forms? Local artists April Dean and Taiessa — the latter recently up for the Edmonton Art Prize for similar work — use photography, sculpture, text and animation in their thoughtful love letter to the green growth most of us have in one way or another sitting patiently in our homes. The duo show In Violet Light at Art Gallery St. Albert runs through July 6, with a reception and artist talk 6 p.
m. – 9 p.m.
Thursday. “The things we have in common,” explains Dean of her and Taiessa’s work, “are that we’re trying to position the viewer to think a bit more critically about the history of the houseplant, and the bizarreness of sort of subjugating the natural world to be endlessly consumed. “And don’t get me wrong,” Dean laughs, “we are houseplant lovers.
So we’re trying to celebrate the embedded generosity that the houseplant has in that they’re really good for us. “They ask us to slow down, to pay attention about maintenance and care. “You know,” she laughs again, “if we’re doing it right.
” She says her own inside plants, especially during the pandemic, found her really thinking about the relationship between humans and .
