The new exhibits at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (EAGM) takes a look at such issues as discomfort and anxiety, and the work of Shanell Papp fits comfortably into those themes.
Papp, who hails from Lethbridge, Alberta, was at the EAGM on Sept. 9 to discuss her exhibit, Based on a True Story, which is located in the EAGM’s Gallery No. 1. The exhibit offers a look at some issues that can cause anxiety for people.
She selected the name as a nod to movies, televisions shows and books that have the true story tagline. When people see the “true story” line early on, it adds credibility and validity to the contents.
“Your first tendency is to believe the first story you’re told, or a deep representation of that story,” said Papp. “If it says ‘Based on a true story,’ you believe it’s true.”
In her artist’s statement, Papp said people are in a constant struggle to comprehend the shades of meaning between what is true and false.
“How do you know that you’re awake and not dreaming?” she asks. “This question goes back to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the question of whether our perception of what is real is real, or just a perception. These perceptions have a very real consequence in terms of people’s lives.”
Papp views each selection in the exhibit as a piece of evidence in a crime scene. The way it is set up affects how people view the exhibit.
“It’s different way of looking at art, and thinking of it as evidence of something happening,” said Papp.
Greeting people at the entrance to the Gallery No. 1 is Figure in White, which is a life-sized woman who Papp described as a victim of a crime looking for revenge, and coming back to haunt her perpetrator.
It was based on a series of images.
“The first one I saw for the first time about nine months ago,” said Papp. “I was really affected by it. It was this idea that someone is climbing out of a well to seek revenge, and she seems very angry.”
Crocheted severed heads are littered around the Figure in White, and blood drips from her fingertips.
Another display, The Line Up, has a row of black balaclavas that line the gallery’s southwest wall, and Papp questions why they are always associated with crime, and not with skiing, which is a common use for the masks.
The exhibit also featured three more severed heads that are crocheted and hanging from a wall, and works with such names as The Lunatic and The Terror. Anxiety is a selection that offers a picture of a mountain drawn with straight pins pushed into black-painted fabric.
The art in Based on a True Story is also rooted in Papp’s interest in horror, and Papp said she is a fan of the genre because it is often rooted in real life, with a “lighter interpretation of real stories.”
Based on a True Story will remain on display at the EAGM until Oct. 28.
