Arts & Culture pages 11 to

The history of a digital trailblazer

A virtual exhibition celebrating the creative talent, innovation of Buffy Sainte-Marie

ARTS & CULTURE

Zoë LeBrun, staff For those who want to get a taste of Winnipeg’s art scene this month without having to physically go to a gallery, look no further than Buffy SainteMarie: Pathfinder, a virtual exhibition on now through Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery.

Curated by Natasha Desrochers Lowenthal, the exhibition is a retrospective on Sainte-Marie’s artistic career, spanning multiple decades and predominantly featuring her digital artwork and how it reflects and intertwines with her personal and professional life. The exhibit is also available to view in person by booking an appointment to visit the gallery.

Pathfinder is as much an art exhibition as homage to Sainte-Marie’s lifelong career in music and activism. Alongside Sainte-Marie’s digital art, the exhibition includes various ephemera ranging from handwritten notes and preparatory sketches by Sainte-Marie to handcrafted and beaded objects and newspaper clippings about the artist’s various endeavours. Accompanying all these items is a soundtrack consisting of snippets of Sainte-Marie’s music, which plays on a loop while viewing the virtual gallery.

Due to the vast amount of material, parallels can easily be drawn between all the facets of Sainte-Marie’s creative practice and personal life throughout the exhibition, providing a rich and thorough view of the artist and her work that lends an almost documentary-like feeling to the show. While this incredible amount of biographical information felt almost excessive at times, for visitors who may have a limited knowledge of Sainte-Marie, this ephemera helps to paint a picture of who she is as a person and what she has done with her talents thus far.

This documentary feeling is also aided by the layout of the gallery space itself, which is quite museological in its arrangement, with items grouped cleanly around the perimeter of the gallery in a straightforward manner. The gallery’s dark blue walls contrast beautifully against the bright neons and jewel tones of Sainte-Marie’s artworks, drawing viewers toward the walls as they slowly navigate the room, whether it be in person or digitally.

Some standout pieces in the exhibition are those that highlight Sainte-Marie’s ability to bridge physical and digital worlds with an element of psychedelic spirituality mixed in. Although many of Sainte-Marie’s works reflect these ideas, some personal favourites were “Ayahuasca Jaguar 1 and 2.” Arranged side by side, the pair act like a diptych in which the same scene is depicted with a sense of passing time through the various colour and texture changes across the two.

The repetition of certain images throughout the gallery was particularly striking as well, which demonstrates how Sainte-Marie pulled from her past work and the world around her to continually remix imagery into something brand new and meaningful. One of these works was “Fallen Angels (Twins),” a reinterpretation of a portrait of Sainte-Marie by photographer Simon Fowler, which was used as the cover of her album Coincidence and Likely Stories.

One critique of Pathfinder is that since it is quite extensive and contains much to read, the looped soundtrack that accompanies the exhibition can become a distraction — luckily, this has an easy fix, as one can just turn down the volume on their computer or mute it entirely to fully concentrate on the works at hand.

Overall, the experience of viewing this work within the virtual gallery was fantastic — it allows one to get a sense of how the space feels and more accurately understand the relationships between each of the works throughout the gallery space, all from the safety and comfort of your own home, which is important in these wintry pandemic times.

Pathfinder harnesses a positive, excited energy and truly feels like a celebration of all that SainteMarie has contributed to the world throughout the course of her career. Sainte-Marie’s work is powerful, and her blending of the physical and digital worlds and how they relate to her culture, personal narratives and world history makes this exhibit a must-see this winter.

provided / Urban Shaman Gallery image /

You can catch Buffy Sainte-Marie: Pathfinder until March 5.

arts@themanitoban.com

’Toban turntable

Sam Weber — ‘Get Free’

ARTS & CULTURE

Alex Braun, staff

3.5/5 Stars

Sam Weber, a Canadian-born, newly minted Angeleno, follows in a long line of SoCal folkrockers. Echoes from Laurel Canyon resonate in his music: the sound of transplants from across the continent, like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, or the consummately pro singer-songwriters of the ’70s, like Warren Zevon and Randy Newman. But as Weber says in “Survival,” he’s “not looking for some ’70s revival.”

His bio proudly lists his inclusion on a compilation that features like-minded L.A. residents such as Tim Heidecker, Blake Mills and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes. The more modern L.A. folkrock sound is all over Weber’s album Get Free with clear influence from Mills and an appearance from Dawes’s Griffin Goldsmith. Inspiration was taken from his move to the Golden State, too, which possibly inspired the title of the record: living in the land of the free.

Despite this clear sense of musical community, the record was largely recorded at home with his partner, Mallory Hauser. You can hear that shagginess and comfort — the songs come out loose and dusty, with deeply comfortable grooves and some inventive guitar and production work, obviously the result of long hours spent tinkering.

Ballads, like the opener “Truth Or Lie,” have that deep, rubber-bridge guitar sound that is so popular now, and some compelling synth work. “Truth Or Lie” shudders with these building pads, the piano-led “Here’s To The Future” features a very tasteful saxophone solo and “Nowhere Bound” sparkles with twinkly little bits of keys.

“Get Out Of The Game,” a standout track about touring, is appropriately shambling, with Weber tossing off one-liners and wryly summing up his surroundings. He maintains the classic, early Bob Dylan snark in his lyrics throughout the record, and it’s refreshing to get a bit of humour. The spacy bridge is also a welcome, unexpected turn, as the track essentially falls apart before returning with a renewed bite and vigour.

Most of the tracks follow a similar formula of a shuffling mid-tempo groove with aggressively tasteful and subtle touches of guitar, synth and percussion. The whole Dessner brothers meets Phoebe Bridgers plucky guitar, twinkly synth, third-wave coffee shop soundtrack thing is a little played out, but this employs it quite well. The

provided Killbeat Music / image /

songwriting is tight and clever, the instrumentals — though occasionally drab — are well-executed and Weber has a certain charm to his lyrics and guitar playing.

Sam Weber’s latest album, Get Free, will be available Feb. 4.

Bisons blank Trinity Western in back-to-back games

Edwards, goaltenders impress

SPORTS

Isaiah Wagner, staff The University of Manitoba Bisons women’s hockey team jumped into second place overall in the Canada West standings after a big weekend for the herd.

The squad dominated in both games, defeating the Trinity Western Spartans 7-0 in the first game and 3-0 in the second. The first game in the back-to-back series was led by Halle Edwards and goaltender Kimberley Davidson.

Edwards came to play on Friday night — she put up a solid stat line of two goals and one assist to help her team earn the win. Currently she is tied with Sarah Dennehy for most points on the team this season.

“I don’t think I have done anything different this season,” Edwards said.

“I think the team is just clicking, which is helping me get points. I’m very happy with how the season is going and am excited to chase a championship with the team.”

Although quality goaltending performances can often go unnoticed, Davidson’s game Friday night was impressive.

She went out and put up a 28-save shutout to seal the victory for the Bisons.

Following up one stellar performance with another, the herd pulled off another sweep on Saturday.

The team stormed out of the gate, putting up three goals in the first period and eventually came away with the 3-0 victory in the end.

Erin Fargey started in net for the Bisons and handed another shutout to the herd in back-to-back games. With these wins, the team now sits only two points behind Mount Royal University for the top spot in the overall standings.

The Bisons definitely came to play this past weekend, which left Edwards impressed with the squad.

“We are very happy with how we have played all year round, especially this weekend,” Edwards said.

“Our confidence is extremely high, which is a great thing when playoffs come around. I think it is high because of our strong goaltending also. Both girls had a great weekend.”

The Bisons will look to continue its winning ways when it travels to Regina, Sask. on Feb. 4 and 5 to face the University of Regina Cougars, where two wins against the struggling Cougars would be huge in the standings for the Bisons to help keep pace for second or even push the herd into first place as they battle for a spot in the Canada West playoffs.

staff Matthew Merkel / photo /

sports@themanitoban.com

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