Wednesday, February 1, 2023 Vol. 46, No. 05
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Dirty thirties retold at art display Patricia Harcourt Editor
The depictions in works of art now on display at the Viking Municipal Library will perhaps bring back strong memories for some older residents in the area - memories of the “dustbowl” era on the prairies. Walls of dust moving across the plains engulfing everything in their path, is one such depiction seen in film documentaries and movies like 1962’s docudrama “The Drylanders.” Elevators with no grain inside, mounds of dirt everywhere and dried up plants are other images showing little to no hope for renewal. The library has brought in an art display called “Farming in the Dust Bowl,” by Carol Bromley Meeres. The works will be here from Jan. 26 to Feb. 21 and is open for public viewing during library hours. It is part of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) travelling exhibition program, whose mandate is to provide every Albertan with an opportunity to enjoy visual art exhibitions in their community. This work brought to Viking is part of the AFA’s Northwest Region, through the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie. “Farming in the Dust Bowl,” is introduced as “intricately layered with delicate details, textures and memories” of farming during that time in the 1930s. Called “an intense period of drought (that) swept across the Great Plains of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and parts of the United States,” it set the stage for the decade long dust bowl with its clouds of dust turning the sky black for days, wiped out crops and livestock, dirt that covered homes inside and out so they could not be kept clean, and a period that changed many lives forever including decisions to move away from the hell hole in which they were living. Located in what was called the dry belt, these areas were the product of many settlers moving in fast in the early 1900s, removing vegetation to farm the land, crops diminishing in diversity due to the supremacy of wheat in the market, and the rise of pestilence due to this lack of diversity. Add to that the collapse of the stock market hitting the world wide economy, and the stage was set for misery when drought took hold.
Bromley Meers did careful research using the archives in libraries and personal family histories for each piece of artwork in this collection. “Each piece contains a unique reference to life during the dust bowl highlighting stories of survival, innovation and resilience during an economic, climate and social crisis,” states the archival story surrounding the works. The works combine three unique historical mediums of encaustic painting, cyanotypes and photography - all in the same collection. And the collection “asks to reflect upon the delicate balance between economic and ecological life,” through their thoughtful and insightful stories. Bromley Meeres is an Alberta born artist, who grew up near the Rockies and lived in the Peace Country, a growing up that “gave her a passion for the western Canadian environment.” She has studied visual arts and communication, as well as printmaking, and is now retired in Grande Prairie. The main thrust of her work is to expound upon environmental and social issues. Of the work on display at the Viking Library, she said: “The interaction of climate and land use is a continuing concern, as measures to reduce susceptibility to drought and high winds come and go, depending on policies and pressures on farmers, and threats to the climate and environment increases.” She added: “Farming was always hard work and all able family members contributed to most tasks. The role of women, who were not even eligible for relief, has been under represented in the telling of history… “Connecting with family histories, lore, photos, and documents is one way of retrieving and representing the experiences of farmers in the dust bowl.” And to this day, she said, “pressure for profits competes with environmentally friendly practices such as zero tillage, shelter belt planting and restoration of wetland.” The artist recalled that farmers dealt with unprecedented hardship during the dust bowl era, noting: “The bitterness of lack of control over so many factors in their lives and livelihoods and the perceived humiliation of applying for relief followed them.”