The Uncanny Outdoors
Curated by Emily McKibbon
The Uncanny Outdoors presents contemporary Canadian artworks from the MacLaren’s Permanent Collection that render the natural world strange. The uncanny nature of each work emphasizes the ways in which our understanding of the landscape is conditioned by how we enjoy, settle and extract value from it.
artists
Featured Artists
Lois Andison
IAIN BAXTER&
Blue Republic
Ed Burtynsky
Jane Buyers
Robert Hengeveld
Laura Millard
Takao Tanabe
Tony Urquhart
Tim Zuck
work
Featured Work
White Spot Restaurant Landscape, 1967
Gift of IAIN BAXTER& and Louise Chance Baxter&
Prairie Hills 7/10, 1970
Gift of Professor and Mrs. Otto Weininger
Water Drawing: NASDAQ, 2012
Gift of the artists
Water Drawings, Pillow, 2019
Gift of the artists
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Gift of the artist
Nickel Tailings #37, Sudbury, Ontario, 1996
Gift of the artist
Frederick Hagan
Skeleton Shore Timbers, 1966
polymer on Masonite
137.16 x 121.92 cm
Collection of the MacLaren Art Centre
Gift of the artist, 2002
Fred Hagan’s practice engaged in the themes of Canadian history, geography and culture, and derived inspiration from the rocky hills and lakes that shape Northern Ontario. Skeleton Shore Timbers memorializes Hagan’s family’s roots in Muskoka by depicting generations of men—among them his father and grandfather—working on a dock along the shores of Skeleton Lake. Immersed in the landscape, the men’s elongated bodies overlap; this layering suggests the shared histories, memories and experiences of the Hagan family in the region.
Frederick Hagan studied art at the Ontario College of Art & Design. He exhibited his work at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa; and the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives, Brampton. His work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Glenbow Museum, Calgary; and the Varley Art Gallery of Markham. The artist was born in 1918 in Toronto and passed away in 2003 in Newmarket.
George Littlechild
Centre of the Universe, 1992
aquarelle crayon on paper
75 x 106.5 cm
Collection of the MacLaren Art Centre
Gift of Beverley and Boris Zerafa, 2003
Centre of the Universe is a vibrant self-portrait of Plains Cree artist George Littlechild rendered in aquarelle crayons on paper. Emerging from the centre of the earth, the artist is shown against a backdrop of illuminating celestial bodies—among them stars, moons and suns. In this work, he employs powerful imagery; the rising hands from the earth’s core and surface are gestures of reclamation and resiliency, symbolizing Indigenous sovereignty. By uniting his body with the earth, Littlechild references the Cree worldview, particularly the belief in humanity and nature’s harmonious interconnection.
George Littlechild earned a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. He has exhibited his work at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg; the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff; and the National Museum of the North American Indian, Washington. Littlechild is a survivor of the Sixties Scoop, a coercive governmental adoption program that separated thousands of Indigenous children from their families and communities. In his practice, he strives to reclaim his family history, cultural identity and ancestral lineage.
Sadko Hadžihasanović
Orange Jeans, 2014
oil on panel
76 x 61 cm
Collection of the MacLaren Art Centre
Gift of the artist, 2016
Sadko Hadžihasanović is known for his representational paintings and drawings that combine rich narrative elements with social commentary and moments of wry humour. In recent years he has been painting the Balkan Roma, a marginalized ethnic group in Southeastern Europe. Orange Jeans and Two Brothers depict young Roma men posing on the streets of the Radojevo, a village in northern Serbia. Prejudice has and continues to be a reality for Roma people, sometimes referred to as “gypsies,” a pejorative term associated with illegality and irregularity. In these sincere works, Hadžihasanović depicts his subjects with a disarming sense of care and a desire to quell stereotypes that persist around the Roma people.
Hadžihasanović was born in Bihac, Bosnia in 1959 and immigrated to Toronto in 1993. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and earned his MFA at the University of Belgrade in 1984. He has participated in over thirty exhibitions in public galleries and artist-run centres across Canada and internationally. Hadžihasanović is represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art in Toronto. He has taught at Georgian College since 2010, and he lives and works in Toronto.
The Uncanny Outdoors presents contemporary Canadian artworks from the MacLaren’s Permanent Collection that render the natural world strange. The uncanny nature of each work emphasizes the ways in which our understanding of the landscape is conditioned by how we enjoy, settle and extract value from it.
The landscape tradition in Canadian art has helped create a national self-image of Canadians as strong, resourceful stewards of the land. However, our relationship to this land is complicated, tied to colonial expansion and the exploitation of natural resources. The artists in this exhibition portray a landscape that is both familiar and unsettling: repressed ideas about the natural world come to light, revealing uncomfortable truths about our tenuous relationship to the land that sustains us.
The artists represented in this exhibition include Lois Andison, IAIN BAXTER&, Blue Republic, Ed Burtynsky, Jane Buyers, Robert Hengeveld, Laura Millard, Takao Tanabe, Tony Urquhart and Tim Zuck.
Images: Installation views of The Uncanny Outdoors, MacLaren Art Centre, 2020. Photo: Tyler Durbano
LEARN
Family Activities
Due to the social distancing measures introduced to combat COVID-19, the MacLaren has created self-guided activities that families can do together at home. Through a variety of exciting games and challenges, this activity sheet is designed to help children and their caregivers have fun while learning about the content and ideas present in the exhibition. Families can also enjoy Palimpsest Postcards, a Family Sunday Online workshop inspired by the artwork Recollection II by Laura Millard included in this exhibition.
Please download the PDFs below to get started!
