Christina Battle: FORECAST

February 29 - April 12, 2024

Gallery 1C03, the campus art gallery of The University of Winnipeg, is pleased to present FORECAST, a multi-media exhibition by artist Christina Battle.

FORECAST is an ongoing series that considers the entanglement between environmental, social, political, and economic challenges facing the current moment. With a focus on air quality and weather prediction, video, banner, and sculptural works in this exhibition consider the complex ways in which we both sense and anticipate the climate crisis.

Two bodies of work will be featured.

the air we breathe is an expanded, experimental documentary that thinks through the complexities of air pollution by weaving together themes of environmental catastrophe, environmental racism, cultural and political shifts, and conspiracy. Combining research into air pollution along with personal storytelling and speculative imaginings, this project deeply considers the complicated ways in which our air impacts us: from the way that smells travel through it and the memories they evoke; to the physical impacts of pollutants through shared inhalation; to the ways in which the air serves as a metaphor of connection in a cultural sense. Exploring the systemically racist decisions that result in unequally distributed impacts of air pollutants across geographies, this work considers the act of breathing as one of both political and social potential.

Learning the Signals/Change is Coming is a participatory work that considers strategies for anticipating the weather. It looks more directly to the weather itself as a tool to help sense and predict the trajectory we are heading toward. Visitors are invited to record and share their air quality observations on postcards.

The exhibition program includes a brochure featuring an essay written by Mariana Muñoz Gomez. Christina Battle will deliver a zoom artist talk on March 8 at 11:00 am and emerging scholar Amy Mazowita will give a talk on her "Life of Fire" photo research project on April 2 at 8:30 am.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Christina Battle is an artist based in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton), within the Aspen Parkland: the transition zone where prairie and forest meet. Her practice focuses on thinking deeply about the concept of disaster: its complexity, and the intricacies that are entwined within it. She looks to disaster as a series of intersecting processes including social, environmental, cultural, political, and economic … which are implicated not only in how disaster is caused but also in how it manifests, is responded to, and overcome. Through this research, Battle looks closer to both online models and plant systems for strategies to learn from, and for ways we might help to frame and strengthen such response. Much of this work extends from her recent PhD dissertation (2020) which looked closer to community responses to disaster: the ways in which they take shape, and especially to how artistic and online models might help to frame and strengthen such response.

Battle’s practice prioritizes collaboration, experimentation, and failure; she has a B.Sc. with specialization in Environmental Biology from the University of Alberta, a certificate in Film Studies from Ryerson University, an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and a PhD in Art & Visual Culture from the University of Western Ontario. She collaborates with Serena Lee as SHATTERED MOON ALLIANCE and has exhibited internationally in festivals and galleries as both artist and curator, most recently at: Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta University of the Arts (Calgary); Gallery 44 (Toronto); The Blackwood Gallery (Mississagua); Window Winnipeg; The Grantham Foundation (Quebec); The Art Gallery of Burlington (Ontario); and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, Ontario).

RESOURCES

Read the exhibition brochure featuring an essay written by Mariana Muñoz Gomez.

Consult the Library Resource guide to expand your understanding of the issues raised by this exhibition by exploring Christina Battle's recommended readings.

EXHIBITION HOURS
Monday - Friday between 12:00 and 4:00 pm from February 29 – April 12, 2024 (closed Friday, March 29).

AFFILIATED PUBLIC EVENTS
Artist Talk: Friday, March 8, 2024 at 11:00 am CT on zoom.
Life of Fire Talk by Amy Mazowita: Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 8:30 am CT on zoom Register to attend.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Gallery 1C03 is on Treaty 1 Territory, the homeland of the Red River Métis and the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininew, Anishininew, Dakota and Dene peoples, and. Our water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.

GETTING HERE AND ACCESSIBILITY
Maps of The University of Winnipeg campus, including accessibility and parking maps, can be found at https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/maps/. The Gallery is located on the main floor of Centennial Hall at 515 Portage Avenue. Accessible, street level visitor entrances with auto door openers and ramps are via Portage Avenue, Ellice Avenue and Spence Street. The gallery doors are equipped with auto-openers. There is a gender-neutral, accessible washroom less than 100 feet from the Gallery entrance. Our exhibitions and affiliated events are free to everyone.