Portfolio.

Lea-Ann and Heather’s art practice enter dreamlike worlds that grab hold to unworldly dimensions and familiar memories. As a collaborative project between multidisciplinary artists, Lea-Ann and Heather incorporate their individual strengths to create an immersive installation mixing physical objects (paintings, large installation), visual projections, audio (soundscape) and technology allowing viewers to manipulate the space through sensors and active participation.

TETHER – is a featured visual art exhibition of the 2022 Arctic Arts Summit— of more than fifty artworks by Northern Indigenous artists whose works display the complex and inseparable bonds across diverse lands, waters, nations and peoples. The four-person team of emerging curators are Leanne Inuarak-Dall, Darcie “Ouiyaghasiak” Bernhardt, Teresa Vander Meer-Chassé and Heather Steinhagen.

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Living in the Yukon, it is easy to become whisked away in the supernatural effects of the setting sun’s colours amongst the moving landscapes. In Cosmic Bodies, we emphasize the imagined possibilities of parallel sceneries. We use installations, paintings and drawings to define the extraterrestrial limits and beyond. We are exploring the possibilities of inviting extraterrestrials into familiar landscapes and supernatural terrestrials into unfamiliar landscapes. Playing with symbolisms we impose the art observer to seek meanings and interpretation, revealing wonders of this exploratory and fun artistic practice.

In this exhibition, Heather is responding to a recent car accident. Most notably Heather is investigating the properties of synchronicities. Do we create meaningful coincidences to create an understanding of experiences? Is it all just a matter of probability? Are we attached to an underlying collective consciousness?

When a traumatic event happens, it is easy for the brain to make sense of it by stringing meaningless moments and turning them into significant connections.

Heather reflects over journal entries and dissects internal observations to visually explore the realms of parallel experiences and provides insights to the strange events the lead to and follows a drive on a Yukon highway, one winter night.

In June 2020, Nicole Bauberger and I painted a collaborative series of plain air paintings by trading canvases and inserting extraterrestrial happenings in each other's landscapes.

From the tailgates of our trucks, we painted from different stops in and around Whitehorse, Yukon:
Carcross Desert
Emerald Lake
Yukon Transportation Museum
Grey Mountain
Tankini River Bridge - Historic Mile 946

These oil paintings were exhibited at the Yukon Transportation Museum from July 2020 until 2021, in celebration of the 100 years of aviation in Yukon.

Thank You
Nicole Bauberger for being so generous with your time
Yukon Arts Centre Emerging Artist Program for supporting the plein air painting in oil mentorship with Nicole.
Yukon Transportation Museum for space and dedication to let Nicole and I run our imaginations wild.

This body of work reflects Heather’s connection with the universe exploring compositions while juxtaposing themes. The paintings are understood as metaphors and the painting explanations are self-interpreted and unique to the viewer (also think Tarot cards). The initial stages of planning become neglected as the painting takes on a life of its own where  Heather plays off intuition to complete the work. The final meaning of the painting is revealed once the work is complete. 

Created for the Yukon Youth Panel on Climate Change recommendations. Facilitated by BYTE, administered by the Yukon Government.

A celebration of young Indigenous artistic achievement. Emerging North echoes the Arctic Winter Games’ values of the spirit of togetherness, legacy building, and Northern pride. Like the AWG athletes, many of the artists included in this exhibition are considered “emerging” or at the beginning of their careers. Playful and experimental, a diverse range of artworks explore themes of shared northern experiences, Indigenous futurisms, and the relationship between culture and play.

Paradise
Endless sky, and breathtaking views – growing up in Whitehorse, Yukon was growing up in paradise. While the landscape seemingly remains untouched, I am aware of the exponential growth of population and industry. In creating “Paradise” I was thinking about the effects of industrial advancements and the toxic nature of the materials that I use in my artistic practice. “Paradise” is intended to engage, to investigate and to enjoy, much like Yukon’s natural supernatural landscape.

Curated by Teresa Vander Meer-Chassé
Featuring
Kaylyn Baker
Krystle Coughlin Silverfox
Jeneen Frei Njootli
Violet Gatensby
Benjamin Gribben
Blake Shaá’koon Lepine
Cole Pauls

Watch the Artist Talk for Emerging North
Watch a Message from Larry Bagnell, MP

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Weather Collection is deliberately eclectic. Recognizing that existing approaches are not working to address the climate crisis, the series consists of novel combinations in order to spark strategies that encourage people to find possibility and ways to work together to change the future. The in-person and digital exhibitions include a mix of new work by contemporary artists and works from the extensive collections of the partner galleries selected for the stories they can tell about human relationships with weather. Each gallery has selected an emerging artist to be mentored within the project and produce new artworks that will be featured on the project’s website. The online storytelling events, titled Weather Stories, is organized by Lisa Hirmer and will bring together scientists, Indigenous Elders, artists, poets, gardeners, and activists from diverse backgrounds to tell tales about their experiences of weather.

Weather Collection is a cross-Canada partnership between the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge; Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax; the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton; the Agnes Etherington Arts Centre, Queens University, Kingston; and the Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse. The project is primarily funded by a Digital Now grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.