Gathie Falk’s Decades of Creativity

Recently, I enjoyed exploring the Audain Art Museum’s (AAM) new exhibition, Revelations, a show dedicated to Falk’s life and work. As I wandered through the bright, high-ceilinged gallery rooms, I learned much about the woman behind the ceramics, acrylic paintings, sculptures, and recorded performances.

1. She’s playful: I loved the room full of life-sized ceramic cabbages hung at eye level from the ceiling.
2. She’s bold: There’s a breathtaking papier mâché wedding gown — minus the bride — anchored by a large boulder and crowned with a jagged, painful-looking veil.
3. She’s experimental: Her videotaped performance-art piece with a strong feminist theme was the first of its kind in Canada when released in the mid-1970s.
4. She’s introspective: Her more recent paintings of the night sky demonstrate curiosity and wonder while rooted in daily life.
5. She’s down to earth: The long row of bright red ceramic shoes, all lived in and worked in, show a reverence for the labourers of the world — the walkers, the ones who kick stones, scuff sidewalks, and tread the soil.