Sandra Semchuk
Sandra Semchuck | |
---|---|
Born | 1948 Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada |
Nationality | Canadian |
Education | Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, 1970 Masters Degree in Photography, University of New Mexico, 1983 |
Known for | Photography, |
Awards | Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts (2018) |
Sandra Semchuk (born 1948) is a Canadian photographic artist.[1]
In 1998, Presentation House, Vancouver, B.C. programmed "How Far Back is Home ..." a 25-year retrospective of Semchuk's career highlighting her relationship to identity, morality and land.[2]
Sandra was awarded a grant from 2008-2015 from the Canada First World War Internment Fund to complete her book on Ukrainians in Canada, The Stories Were Not Told: Stories and Photographs from Canada's First Internment Camps, 1914-1920.[3]
Career
Semchuk's early photographic works have been said to belong to a “broad general category of documentary”.[4] Her photographic portrait works from this era, more specifically her 1982 series of eighty-seven photographs entitled Excerpts from a Diary, address themes of death and family [5] whilst presenting a narrative of “self-examination and transformation” through her use of self-portraits and images containing domestic and prairie backgrounds.[6]
Penny Cousineau-Levine, the author of Faking Death: Canadian Art Photography and the Canadian Imagination, writes of Excerpts from a Diary that the journey of Semchuk's protagonist “follows the structure of classic initiatory voyages of descent and return, death and rebirth, the prototype of which is the Greek legend … of Orpheus, who, grief-stricken at the death of his wife, descends to the underworld to convince the god Pluto to allow her to return to earth.” [7] Cousineau-Levine goes on to state that these photographic sequences “take the shape of heroic descent into darkness and peril, into an experience of death and nothingness followed by rebirth, a transformed relation to the self, and a renewed connection to life”, something that she claims offers “an understanding of death that is particularly relevant to Canadian photography.” [7]
Collaboration with James Nicholas
James Nicholas & Sandra Semchuk were married until James died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2007. James was a Cree artist from Nelson House, Manitoba. He suffered extensively in residential schools as a child.[8] Their collaborative work focused on the multiplicity of relationships to land, cultural geography, settler and indigenous relationships and memory.[9]
Collaboration with Skeena Reece
In 2013, Sandra Semchuk worked with performance artist Skeena Reece on a piece titled Touch Me for the exhibition Witnesses: Art and Canada’s Indian Residential Schools. During this performance, Reece and Semchuk struggle with themes of forgiveness and mother-daughter relationships as Reece bathes Semchuk.[10]
Education
- 1983 Master's degree in Photography, University of New Mexico[11]
- 1970 Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan[11]
- 1970 Professional "A" Teachers Certificate, Province of Saskatchewan[11]
Select solo exhibitions[12]
- 2016 The Stories Were Not Told, Comox Valley Art Gallery, Courtenay, BC[13]
- 1998 How Far Back is Home . . . ., Presentation House, Vancouver, B.C.[14]
- 1991 Coming to Death's Door, a daughter/ father collaboration, Presentation House, Vancouver, B.C.
- 1991 Moving Parallel: Reconstructed Performances from Daily Life, Photographers Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Prince George Art Gallery, Prince George, British Columbia; University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Waterloo, Ontario; Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario; Art, Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario; McKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan; Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary, Alberta; Floating Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba; Gallery 44, Toronto, Ontario
- 1990 Paralleling the Bird, Forest City Gallery, London, Ontario; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
- 1986 Ritual, the Photographic Sequence, Forest City Gallery, London, Ontario
- 1986 The Coburg Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
- 1982 Excerpts from a Diary, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
- 1979 The Photographers Gallery, London, England
- 1975 The Photographers Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
- 1973 The Photographers Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Awards
Collections[11]
- Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
- Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Regina
- Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa
- Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina
- Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton
- McKenzie Art Gallery, Edmonton
- Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon
- Mount St. Vincent University of Art Gallery, Halifax
- Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Photographers Gallery, Saskatoon
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
- University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Publications
- Semchuk, Sandra. 2018. "The Stories Were Not Told: Canada's First World War Internment Camps." The University of Alberta Press. Print.
- Semchuk, Sandra, and Laurel Tien. "Telling Story! Voice in Photography: An Online Visual Art Critical Studies Program Evaluation." International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 5.3 (2004): n. pag.ProQuest Education Journals [ProQuest]. Web. 17 Sept. 2016.
- Semchuk, Sandra. Toward Real Change: My Photographic Work Done in Saskatchewan from 1972-1982 and in New Mexico from 1982-1983. Diss. U of New Mexico, 1983. Albuquerque, New Mexico: U of New Mexico, 1983. Simon Fraser University Library Catalogue. Web. 17 Sept. 2016.
- Semchuk, Sandra. 1991. Coming to Death's Door: A Daughter/Father Collaboration. North Vancouver: Presentation House Gallery, 1992. Print.
- Semchuk, Sandra. 1989. Moving Parallel: Reconstructed Performances from Daily Life. Toronto: Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, 1989. Print.
References
- ^ "Sandra Semchuk". National Gallery of Canada. Archived from the original on 2016-11-12. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ^ "Sandra Semchuk: How far back is home… - Presentation House Gallery". Archived from the original on 2016-10-19. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ^ "Grants | Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund | 202-952 Main Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2W 3P4 | Phone: 204-589-4282 | Toll Free: 1-866-288-7931". www.internmentcanada.ca. Archived from the original on 2021-03-03. Retrieved 2021-09-25.
- ^ Cousineau-Levine, Penny. Faking Death: Canadian Art Photography and the Canadian Imagination. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, 2003.DèsLibris Canadian Electronic Library. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1 June 2004. Web. 17 Sept. 2016. p. 65
- ^ Cousineau-Levine, Penny. Faking Death: Canadian Art Photography and the Canadian Imagination. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, 2003.DèsLibris Canadian Electronic Library. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1 June 2004. Web. 17 Sept. 2016. p.218
- ^ Cousineau-Levine, Penny. Faking Death: Canadian Art Photography and the Canadian Imagination. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, 2003.DèsLibris Canadian Electronic Library. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1 June 2004. Web. 17 Sept. 2016. p. 220
- ^ a b Cousineau-Levine, Penny. Faking Death: Canadian Art Photography and the Canadian Imagination. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, 2003.DèsLibris Canadian Electronic Library. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1 June 2004. Web. 17 Sept. 2016. p.223
- ^ missnesbitt (22 December 2014). "Residential school trauma and healing: the art of James Nicholas & Sandra Semchuk". Archived from the original on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
- ^ Kunard, Andrea, and Carol Payne. The Cultural Work of Photography in Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, 2011. Print.
- ^ Dowell, Kristin (Spring 2017). ""Residential Schools and "Reconciliation" in the Media Art of Skeena Reece and Lisa Jackson"". Studies in American Indian Literatures. 29: 116–138. doi:10.5250/studamerindilite.29.1.0116. S2CID 164907414.
- ^ a b c d Semchuk, Sandra. Coming to Death's Door: A Daughter/father Collaboration: October 19 to November 24, 1991, Presentation House Gallery. North Vancouver, BC: Gallery, 1992. Print.
- ^ "Sandra Semchuk". art-history.concordia.ca. Archived from the original on 2008-03-29. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ^ "The Stories Were Not Told". Archived from the original on 2021-01-18. Retrieved 2021-09-25.
- ^ "Sandra Semchuk: How Far Back Is Home…". The Polygon. 2011-01-19. Archived from the original on 2020-03-03. Retrieved 2020-03-03.