OPINIONS

Cast of Peace Country photographed by Sewari Campillo Photography (left to right): Sofía Rodríguez, Montserrat Videla, Sara Vickruck, Kaitlyn Yott, Garvin Chan. PHOTO: Sewari Campillo Photography

Peace Country gives city dwellers insight into climate change realities faced by northern BC’s small towns

Play by SFU alumnus reflected memories of childhood innocence and bleak community futures

JOCELYN STEVENS // SFU STUDENT

As a former northern BC small town habitant, I was intrigued by the concept of Peace Country and pleasantly surprised at the emotional impact and relatability of the play. Written and directed by SFU alumnus Pedro Chamale, Peace Country expresses the clash of narratives he encountered from being born and raised in Chetwynd, BC. The play was a Rice and Beans Theatre production and was presented by the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts from April 27–30. I was thoroughly amazed at how well the play portrayed northern BC and the challenges that come with living there.

Chamale was inspired by reflections on his youth and his family’s experiences in the Peace Region as Latinx people. Pushing for sociopolitical change, the play follows five friends and their growth in the Peace Region. Peace Country brings up the challenges that come with trying to make it in a small town, from being belittled by urban Canadian cities to trying to make ends meet, all in the midst of a changing climate. He continued, “We are subject to that system and so how do we talk across these differences that are just radicalizing so many people?”

Peace Country captured what seemed like positive and innocent moments as children growing up with friends, going back and forth between past and present, which left me curious about what kind of scene was coming next. The transition between scenes starkly contrasted this positive energy with eerie and heavy breathing — as if to make the audience members uncomfortable. I saw the contrast between scenes and transitions as the simultaneity of everyday life and the climate crisis.

I was emotionally struck by the personal stories of the characters, especially the solo monologue by Melissa (Sara Vickruck), where they spoke on the hardships of being the only openly queer person in a small town. They touched on the loneliness and lack of support available to LGBTQ2S+ people coming into their identities. This resonated with me and my friends because we left our small town due to the same struggles and ultimately found acceptance in urban cities.

Chamale hopes audience members will feel inspired to pursue political action such as writing to their members of parliament or attending rallies.

“Ask for these just transitions, ask for actual courage in our politicians to make actual change.” He added, “Provide for the people who need to switch out of those industries, not just drop them like dead weight.”

We, the world, need everything to change so that we can stop this climate crisis or try to mitigate it if we’re not already too far.

PEDRO CHAMALE // PLAYWRIGHT play. Along with this, the performers and stories represented a wide range of marginalized communities — such as queer and BIPOC folks. The play centres on the lives of two sisters (Sofía Rodríguez and Montserrat Videla) and their friends (Sara Vickruck, Garvin Chan, and Kaitlyn Yott). In spite of their differences, the five friends become close and endure hardships together such as loss, racism, and homophobia. The play flashes back between the past and present where they find themselves having to navigate the return of one of their friends: the newly elected MP of a green party.

The play touched on some of the hard realities many people face. Some examples of these include: local coffee shops unable to stay open with big-name brands taking customers, sudden increases and decreases in population due to the pipeline, and Indigenous communities still not being included in conversations around environmental change.

During my interview with Chamale, I asked him what ultimately led him to create Peace Country. He realized that the catastrophic effects of climate change were already happening in northern BC at a much greater scale than in urban centres.

“I started researching climate change and the climate crisis that we’re in right now [ . . . ] and then realizing that a lot of my friends and family are dependent on those resource industries,” said Chamale. “We, the world, need everything to change so that we can stop this climate crisis or try to mitigate it if we’re not already too far.”

When asked about the conflict between climate emergency and jobs in northern BC, Chamale discussed the need for sustainable solutions that take care of people in the industries up north as well.

PHOTO: Bachelors of Fine Arts graduates 2022

SFU Audain Gallery presents “Collecting Plum Blossoms,” a dazzling graduate-class student exhibition

Graduating artists from SFU’s fine arts program explores identities and futurisms

NERCYA KALINO // STAFF WRITER

“Collecting Plum Blossoms,” the 2022 exhibition of student works displayed at SFU Audain Gallery from April 14–23, portrayed an intriguing approach to art and the future. The title of the exhibition was inspired by a 2021 artwork by Sahar Rahmanian and symbolizes students’ hopes for the future. The exhibition showcased various works from 13 graduating artists from SFU’s fine arts program. According to the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts Instagram post, “plum blossoms become a metaphor for the way disparate pieces can come together.” It writes about the special collectivity of showcasing with other artists and the “sense of futurity” that comes from graduation. Artists chose unique choices of materials and mediums to create their works.

Before “Collecting Plum Blossoms,” I had only been to one other exhibition, so I didn’t know what to expect. It was wonderful to see several works expressing experiences of vulnerability. Each of the stories narrated reflections of the world. The first work I came across was by Sofia Grace titled I Leave You With All of Me, To You. It implemented wood, gesso, and acrylic paint.

1: I Leave You With All of Me, To You by Sofia Grace

The arrangement of the pieces resembled an author’s messy desk accompanied by a memory wall with intimate letter exchanges between strangers. For the project, Grace mailed hand-written cards “proposing friendship” to use for the exhibition. The letters appeared to elevate what was described by the gallery brochure as an “experimental gesture that looks to generate new connections through invitation.” Grace used the exchanges and contributions of letters she received to relate the meaning of her work to items within the art piece. The mixed media piece focused “on the idea of the pen pal” in order to convey this sense of vulnerability, as explained by the brochure. 2: Revealing Hidden Memories by Ravneet Kaur Sidhu

Ravneet Kaur Sidhu’s work definitely brought childhood memories and feelings to the surface. Her art piece, Revealing Hidden Memories, stuck out to me. The wood, metal, and paper materials she used for the piece were items I played with as a child. The artist tied together the domestic and cultural relationships in her life in this piece. There was also an element of soundscape that complemented the pictures. The biggest piece — the wooden picture frame — had multiple pictures of family members in it. The photos had a tan filter layered on top with a newspaper background as the frame. Seeing this work, I reminisced about the smell of old newspapers or moments when all of our relatives gathered at the grandparents’ house with so much food and lively chatter. The dialogues of a festival celebration in a household within the background brought life to these memories. According to the exhibit pamphlet, Sidhu’s approach was to emphasize sentimentality and “the gaps between traditional and modern relations in her community.” identification of culture (or BIPOC communities, myself included). The artist collected the fabrics used on the large canvas from woman family members. What impressed me was the abstraction of the piece: it reminded me of the birthing organ. The colour coordination and the textures of chiffon, silk, and velvet gave it life. I think the textures worked in parallel with the themes the artist tackled. According to the exhibit pamphlet, these themes were “Indian culture, empowerment, internal conflict, and the body.” As someone who is drawn to abstract works, I was immediately enticed by the artistic elements of the piece including the materials themselves and the intentional arrangement of the fabric.

4: HUES (Highlighting Ubiquitous Emitted Sounds) by

Daniel Lin

HUES (Highlighting Ubiquitous Emitted Sounds) by Daniel Lin was a piece that used a microphone and a projection — a work that used colour and sound to show new ways of expressing art. The piece responded to sounds that the viewers made. It was not marbled colours, but rather a portrait of colours in constant movement to the sounds, glowing and meandering into and out of each other. The colour emission was vivid in a way that did not take away from the movements; it was more like a lulling emission. The aspect of technology in art is shown through Lin’s attempts to experiment with the inputs and outputs of the camera feed and the microphone. It was quite impressive that he was able to tie it all together to show the possibility of going beyond the boundaries of medium functionality.

The other works exhibited at the Audain explored the idea of identity and the public in contemporary spaces. Through observing these works, I learned more about the innovative forms and executions of art in modern society. The exhibit encompassed broadened forms of media as tools to spark new ways of contemplating identities.