'Ghosts of Canoe Lake' offers absurdist response to the Group of Seven

The first thing you notice when you walk into the Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art is that you are, in turn, being noticed.

A gigantic moon protrudes from the gallery’s western wall, overlooking a tent from which eerie sounds can be heard. The moon’s eyes seem to follow you as you move about the room, smiling at you with a vaguely unsettling air. 

“It’s not considered really a work of art, although many would probably argue that it is,” says Gilles Hébert, the acting executive director of the Plug-In Institute. 

That debate over what constitutes art is perhaps exactly what Marcel Dzama would have wanted for an audience taking in his exhibit Ghosts of Canoe Lake. Presented in association with Contemporary Calgary and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, it’s Dzama’s first Canadian exhibit in over a decade, which is fitting given Dzama’s roots both in the city of Winnipeg and at the Plug-In Institute where he received his training. 

The works in the exhibit are responses to the works of the Group of Seven from the lens of Dadaism, the surreal artistic movement that was in its heyday around the same time as the celebrated Canadian artist collective. The title Ghosts of Canoe Lake is derived from the lake where collective member Tom Thompson created much of his work. 

According to Hébert, the decision to pair the early 20th-century movements together in Ghosts of Canoe Lake was a natural one for Dzama. “[Dada] is basically a celebration of the artistic practice to a greater extent than it is in terms of the actual objects produced,” he explained. “This is an opportunity to consider the work of [Tom] Thompson and the Group of Seven and to personalize it.” 

The personalization that occurs in Ghosts of Canoe Lake occurs through a variety of media from paintings made with glittering paint to a giant tent under the stars, inside of which an absurdist film plays on an hour-long loop. (Dzama stars in the film which was advised by his friend, the celebrated Winnipeg film director Guy Maddin.) It’s quite a far cry from the tents that Tom Thompson lived in when he was out depicting the landscapes of Ontario.  

“I think he would find it all very strange,” says Hébert when asked what Tom Thompson might think of Dzama’s response to his work. (He did go on to say that fellow Group of Seven member Lawren Harris would probably get more out of it.) 

Hébert also draws interesting parallels between the ghosts that Dzama captures from Canoe Lake and the ghosts that haunt his home city. References to Winnipeg’s landscape and culture litter the exhibit, and they call back in a forlorn way to a grand city that was when Dzama made his home here. 

“The writers and painters and artists and filmmakers in Winnipeg are all somewhat fascinated by the idea of ghosts,” he says. “Winnipeg is a ghost city in a sense.”  

You can see Marcel Dzama’s Ghosts of Canoe Lake at the Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Winnipeg until March 8. The gallery is open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from noon to 6 p.m., Thursdays from noon to 8 p.m., Fridays from noon to 6 p.m., and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. You can find out more information on their website.