Opening on October 12th and going until March 31, 2025, there is an exhibit that is happening at the Wag-Qaumajuq that explores the idea of Motherhood.
Called MOTHERGROUND, this exhibit features the work of Winnipeg, photographer, sculpture, videographer, and multi-disciplinary artist Dominique Rey.
Dominique Rey is an Associate Professor in the School of Art at the University of Manitoba. She has a BFA from the University of Manitoba, and an MFA in Media from Donau University Krems in Berlin and an MFA in Phtography from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson in New York.
Her work often explores people on the margins of dominant culture and performance-based works that mine the unconscious's terrain. She is also interested in the outsider in society as well as a deep sense of us being strangers to ourselves.
By using small and large-scale photographs, photo collage, human-scale sculpture, and video installation, the exhibition is a fully immersive experience that explores our universal connection with motherhood.
The MOTHERGROUND exhibit has been the result of years of conversations with the WAG-Qaumajuq and Dominique Rey. As Rey explains, “The project goes back eight years. We were planning on showing it sooner, but then a new baby came along, and the pandemic came along...it had to come at the right time which is now.”
The exhibit centers around the idea of motherhood and the physical, chemical, and emotional connections that bind all of us to our mothers and vice versa. As Rey states, “This push-pull between bodies...this thing that is invisible but is felt deeply within us is very much at the core of it. Those ties that bind us, even when someone has passed away...the memories etc.... those are very strong links that define our sense of self and our place in the universe.”
For curator of the exhibit Riva Symko MOTHERGROUND has many different access points for any viewer. “It’s about the connections you make with your family members, the connections you make as individuals...it’s about balance...balance in your life, balance in all the things you do, balance in your relationships, balance between you and your siblings, balance between you and your mother. I don't have children, and I thought that would be a detriment to this project, but actually, as it turns out, I have a lot of different entry points into the work.”
MOTHERGROUND uses various mediums to immerse the patron in the exhibit. Photos, photo collages, large sculptures, video, and sound are all utilized to help convey the themes, messages, and questions that Rey wants to convey.
The exhibit is family friendly, and patrons are encouraged to have fun and soak in the exhibit. There are elements in the exhibit that are for kids and their families. “I want people to have fun, and I want kids to have fun. I want them to feel comfortable and move around the exhibit,” says Symko
In describing the exhibit, Symko says, “One of Dominique’s strengths and one of the best things about working with her is that she really does push the boundaries of the material that she’s working with, but also the material of the exhibition itself. So, we are doing crazy things like this big video installation that has this Atmos sound system...and huge wall installations. It's even pushed our collaborators and fabricators and our preps to also stretch their boundaries and figure out how to create this vision.”
Amidst the immersive quality of the show, one constant is made clear. We are all born of mothers and the ties that bind shape us for the entirety of our lives, and this is something worth celebrating and exploring.
MOTHERGROUND opens on Saturday, October 12th and goes until March 31, 2025. For more details visit the WAG-Qaumajuq's website.