With days at nearly their longest point in the year, sunlight is permeating the lives of Manitobans in a more regular way than usual. At St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg – a place where light can sometimes by clouded by worry or grief – the latest exhibit at the hospital’s Gallerie Buhler Gallery aims to help enhance that light.
Heliophile – meaning “lover of light” is a collection of glass and video installations that explores the different ways in which light can enhance our day-to-day lives. For Heliophile’s creator, Anna Binta Diallo, the work of highlighting light comes naturally. One could even say it is part of the family business.
“My grandfather is Ètienne Gaboury,” explains Diallo, naming her connection to one of Winnipeg’s most celebrated architects, the designer of the Esplanade Riel and the Royal Canadian Mint building. “I grew up seeing his buildings and speaking with him. So, I owe a lot of my inspiration to become an artist to him.”
While she feels indebted to him, Diallo did not want Heliophile to be a direct tribute to her grandfather's legacy of using light in his designs. “I think that was an entry point for me,” says Diallo on channeling her grandfather’s artistic philosophy, “that I could see that I was also interested in that as a visual artist.”
“I think the word ‘heliophile’ as well – the lover of light – I think was just a good word to allow myself to explore things in a way that I hadn’t necessarily been so explicit about before, but also, there are little links to his legacy or to him as a person.”
The exploration of being a lover of light takes on extra significance in a setting like the Gallerie Buhler Gallery, where Diallo hopes the light shining through the glassworks can provide some kind of healing for those holding difficult circumstances. “There’s just so many moments where I think light can connect to us,” Diallo says, “wand I think it also connects to cycles that we have of healing and life and death journeys that we have. I think I was thinking a lot about that when I was making the works.”
Heliophile is on at the Gallerie Buhler Gallery until August 26. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, and from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays. You can learn more about the exhibit by visiting the gallery’s website.
