Salmon Arm Art Gallery is pleased to present Peak Year III: A Climate of Change, the third installment of a series of exhibitions bringing attention to the Adams River Sockeye Salmon Run.
This exhibition has a focus of how climate change has impacted the delicate ecosystem that supports the salmon run, an integral part of the culture of the B.C. Interior. Eight artists of different media explore ideas such as plastic pollutants, warming waters, waterside development, drought and acidification of waterways.
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“We are not trying to frighten our visitors into thinking it’s all over for the salmon,” says curator Tracey Kutschker, “but artists have a way of communicating problems and solutions in innovative ways, and we can keep the public’s focus on this precious resource so that we all might contribute to its conservation.”
The first two Peak Year exhibitions explored the unusual high return in the Adams River in 2010, then the collapse of expected spawners in 2014. This year, the exhibition asks the artists to see the sockeye salmon return through the lens of climate change.
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Animator and digital artist Hector Camila Alzate will be presenting an interactive piece that allows visitors to affect the flow of projected swimming salmon in a darkened room. Sculptor Patrick Hughes is once again able to create a three-metre high sculpture using only plastic and metal debris found along the shores of salmon-bearing streams, lakes and rivers in the Interior.
The exhibition also features mixed-media artists Karen Raven and Myrna Button, painter Linda Franklin, sculptors Rebecca Shepherd and Lottie Kozak and audio artist Steve Mennie.
The exhibition opens on Friday, Sept. 14, with a 7 p.m. reception featuring live music and refreshments. The show continues September 15 to November 10. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m, to 4 p.m. The Artists Talk is on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 2 p.m.
Submitted by Tracey Kutschker, director/curator, Salmon Arm Arts Centre.