The Hatch Art Gallery’s most recent exhibition may be reflecting on the past, but the conversation it creates is futuristic.
Preserves: Art in the Act of Holding Time ran from January 16–31 and showcased works from the AMS’s permanent art collection, ranging from the 1950s to 2006. As Hatch Director Lilly Lester said, the exhibition featured “Canadian art heavy-hitters” like Gathie Falk, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun and Lawren Harris.
The exhibit was developed by the Hatch’s collections team, co-led by Calla Campbell and Eavan McNeil. The team was inspired by the sales of three pieces of art from the AMS’s permanent collection in 2022 and they decided to move chronologically through the decades of art that have been collected up to this point.
"But we also wanted to ask, ‘How can we keep this collection growing with the student body? How can we keep it relevant to students? And what is [the] future of our collection?’” said Campbell.
With these questions in mind, the collections team began pulling pieces and brainstorming themes that captured their questions. While reading Roy Kiyooka’s Pear Tree Pomes, Campbell found the words “preserves” and “residue” stood out to her as a good representation of how they were examining what is left of the collection.
Walking through Preserves does feel a bit like a crash course in Canadian art history, moving swiftly through impressionism into the avant-garde and contemporary.
Asking these questions and reflecting on the past of the permanent collection is especially interesting for a gallery that experiences the amount of turnover that the Hatch does. Because the collection is student-run, Campbell noted that while the collection remains at UBC, “every year for the past 50 years, there's probably been different people in charge of it.”
The works featured in Preserves are especially interesting to Campbell as “thing[s] that we've been able to hold on to and keep for students for such a long period of time that represent so many different artistic voices.”
The limited duration of the director position sometimes makes it difficult for the them to achieve everything they planned to do, but Lester said it’s “just long enough to have an impact.”
Not having faculty supervision puts extra pressure on the team, but according to Lester, they still feel supported by the art community, and that makes all the difference.
“The outward Vancouver art scene quite cares about our success, and we never feel like we can't reach out to people for questions.”
The Hatch’s goal is to make anyone who enters “feel comfortable with the art around them,” and give them the chance to interact with art that might otherwise feel inaccessible.
“The main thing to know about the Hatch in general is that we are an open space for anyone to be a part of,” said Lester. “We don't just want to find arts or history students. We are more than happy to welcome volunteers and people to support the team.”
Many of the older pieces in Preserves were donated by the 1958 Maclean's magazine commission for the BC centennial celebration. Lester said it “really cemented” the collection, and positioned the Hatch as “part of that history.”
However, reflecting on the past, present and future of this collection means confronting which perspectives are included in the collection and which are not. For Campbell, the collection provides an opportunity to “engage with how UBC, as an institution, came to be here, and how artists came to be here in this province.” Other than a work by Cowichan/Syilx painter Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Lester pointed out “a lack of Indigenous representation,” which she would like to see changed.
“Being able to have that [representation] would speak to so much more of the history, especially of where UBC is. We're talking about an important permanent art collection that the students own, and it doesn't necessarily reflect the land that we're on,” she said. “I would very much think it's an important step to take.”
Viewing Preserves with this in mind raises questions about what artistic legacies are preserved and considered part of the Canadian canon, and adds layers to visiting the exhibition beyond simply evaluating each work within its individual context.
By looking back into its own collection and meditating on what remains, the Hatch has created not just a well-rounded exhibition displaying significant Canadian artists, but a fascinating cultural study that gives us all an opportunity to reflect on how we hold on to the past, and what we choose to let go of.
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