Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the woocommerce-shipping-per-product domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/staging.esse.ca/htdocs/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131

Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the complianz-gdpr domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/staging.esse.ca/htdocs/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131
{"id":163291,"date":"2022-04-27T17:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T22:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/katherine-boyerhow-the-sky-carries-the-sun\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T07:40:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T12:40:43","slug":"katherine-boyerhow-the-sky-carries-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"compte-rendu","link":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/reviews\/katherine-boyerhow-the-sky-carries-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Katherine Boyer
How the Sky Carries the Sun<\/em><\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Towering over the centre of the room, two large, prism-like wooden structures held a moose-hide vest up by the shoulders. Like wings, the structures pressed down on the ground, lifting up the vest and the beaded prairie landscape and sky on the garment. Gathered around the feet of the installation, puffy boxes made from leather fabric and cotton batting sat open, empty, and crumpled. The blue in the boxes\u2019 faux leather fabric resembled the colour of the sky; their puffy shapes suggested clouds.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Katherine Boyer
<\/strong>The Sky Vest <\/em>(detail), 2021-2022, installation view, 2022.
Photo : Don Hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The mental impression above is of the two works The Sky Vest<\/em> and Heavy\/Soft <\/em>(both 2021) from Katherine Boyer\u2019s latest exhibition at the Art Gallery of Regina. Boyer, a M\u00e9tis\/settler multidisciplinary artist, has been making art to explore personal family stories, M\u00e9tis history, and material culture, as well as how these domains interact, intertwine, and manifest. In the exhibition How the Sky Carries the Sun, <\/em>she examines selfhood as a queer and as a M\u00e9tis individual, expressing the dichotomy of identity through the repeating symbols of the sun and the sky in a diverse series of works that materially straddle \u201csoft\u201d and \u201chard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"105_CR_Lauder_Katherine-Boyer_Heavy-Soft_lr20220426\"
Katherine Boyer
<\/strong>Memories of the Sundogs Herd<\/em>, 2021.
Photo : Don Hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
One work that embodies this concept well is Memories of the Sundogs Herd <\/em>(2021). The work comprises a series of lightboxes mounted on sheets of OSB plywood. Boyer considers these eighteen light boxes, arranged like an altar with two smaller wooden wings flanking the large panel, autobiographical. Reflecting on familial connection to and memory of Souris Valley, Saskatchewan, Boyer recreated sundogs\u200a\u2014\u200aa special prairie winter weather event. Called \u201cparhelion\u201d by meteorologists, the natural optical phenomenon is created when sunlight is refracted through ice crystals in the air, creating a bright ring around the sun. To achieve a similar effect, Boyer applied UV coating to the lightbox surfaces; as the viewer moved and changed viewpoint, the installation would glister a spectrum of pastel hues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"105_CR_Lauder_Katherine-Boyer_Queer
Katherine Boyer
<\/strong>Queer Hometown Horizon<\/em>, 2021.
Photo : Don Hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"105_CR_Lauder_Katherine-Boyer_Queer<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The effect of fleeting illusion suggests not only identity ambiguity but the undulating process of self-discovery that other works in the exhibition also explore. Queer Hometown Horizon<\/em> (2021) features a long bright-yellow hooked rug above an OSB crate to abstractly depict the sky of Boyer\u2019s hometown; in The harder I work, the less I exist, the more I become the work: the closed line <\/em>(2021), knotted clothesline and willow root displayed on two plywood crates playfully represent her process of either completing an idea or confusing herself\u200a\u2014\u200a\u201ctying yourself in knots.\u201d In conversation, the two works speak to her efforts at queering <\/em>the circumstances she grew up in, and to the laboriousness of existing ambiguously. The OSB crates serve both as platforms and as a reminder of transience. In fine-art and museum contexts, wooden crates are seen in gallery spaces only during transitory periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boyer\u2019s inclusion of bare materials as integral parts of many works in the exhibition contributes to an understanding of her connections with material culture and, to a larger extent, with nature. The exhibition title can therefore also serve as a rhetorical call for both artists and viewers to examine our relations with phenomena and memories around us. As we recall these experiences, our perceptions of the world\u200a\u2014\u200aand of ourselves within it\u200a\u2014\u200abegin to merge into a shimmering composite of fleeting imprints from our memory.<\/p>\n
Katherine Boyer, Tak Pham<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art Gallery of Regina<\/strong><\/br>
January 13\u200a\u2014\u200aMarch 13, 2022<\/br>","protected":false},"author":1303,"featured_media":162478,"template":"","categories":[884],"numeros":[2758],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[947],"artistes":[2638],"thematiques":[],"type_compte-rendu":[],"class_list":["post-163291","compte-rendu","type-compte-rendu","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","numeros-105-new-new-age","auteurs-tak-pham-en","artistes-katherine-boyer-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu\/163291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/compte-rendu"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163291"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=163291"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=163291"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=163291"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=163291"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=163291"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=163291"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=163291"},{"taxonomy":"type_compte-rendu","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_compte-rendu?post=163291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}