View photos from the opening reception.
C2 Centre for Craft: Shirley Richardson Craft Gallery
Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 12 – 4 pm
*Please note: C2 Centre for Craft will be closed March 30th and 31st.
Opening Reception: Friday, March 2, 5 – 9 pm
Free admission and wheelchair accessible.
Wednesday, March 28: Free Children’s Brain Book Workshop with Ann Stinner. Registration Required
Artists
ash alberg, Dana Kletke, Heather Komus, Chantel Mierau, Lesley Nakonechny, Ann Stinner, Gaëtanne Sylvester, Peter Tittenberger, Michelle Wilson.
Neuroscientists
Dr. Melanie Martin, Dr. Tiina Kauppinen, Dr. Kristine Cowley, Dr. Jerry Krcek, Dr. Mike Jackson, Dr. Tabrez Siddiqui, Dr. Eftekhar Eftekharpour, Dr. Gilbert Kirouac, Dr. Marc Del Bigio.
What is Neurocraft?
Neurocraft surfaced from the subconscious of the Manitoba Neuroscience Network as part of its initiative to bring neuroscience to the public without the heavy garments of scientific jargon and reams of data. The scientists were looking for visual storytellers who could angle a mirror on neuroscience, what it is, their research, their zeal for the discipline, and then simply let other people look, allowing an intermingling of reflections. While neuroscience and craft appear wholly unconnected, their choice to yoke themselves to the intimate materials of daily life was insightful. Craft, after all, is rooted in the tactile and familiar; it pulls on desire and reveals narratives in sideways processes rather than through direct expository. It reinforces a larger culture but retains personal meaning. Much like neuroscience, it’s the ultimate personal and ubiquitous arena.
Most of the artists and scientists in this project have a personal connection to the research subject matter. Their interests rise out of their own stories. The artists in this show pull at the runaway threads of fear and anxiety, retrace the identities of those blurred by Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, reveal intimate meditations on the loss of a child and the mortality of a parent, revel in the wondrous patterns and imagery of the brain in the everyday, and ask us to navigate the darkness of a tangled mind and put our tremulous fingers on the precise points we cannot touch.
Artists and scientists both work to try to make sense of things, to find rhythms and patterns, and from these create narratives of experience, and draw conclusions. They are very different, but they come from the same place; the place of questions.
-Seema Goel
Neurocraft had its debut at the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre in March of 2017 before travelling on to Visual Voice Gallerie in Montreal, Quebec in May of 2017. In March of 2018, Neurocraft returns to Winnipeg at C2 Centre for Craft, the new home of the Manitoba Craft Council. Neurocraft has attracted attention for its unlikely pairing and strong impact. Visit the links below for reviews of the exhibition:
UM Today – Neurocraft: Exhibit explores the art and science of the brain
CBC – Blood, brains, and mushrooms: Neurocraft exhibition opens in Winnipeg
Winnipeg Free Press – arts and entertainment review
