Tendng the Wild

Gardens are an intermediary between self-directing nature and domesticity and are entangled with politics, history, and culture. The title of this exhibition comes from a line in Paradise Lost, a seventeenth century poem by John Milton that features the Garden of Eden. “Tending” implies attending to and working with nature but also carries the sense of a tendency towards maximality and heedlessness of boundaries. Like gardeners, many artists tend the wild and the work contained in this exhibition touches on healing, subversion, pleasure, fecundity, and reciprocity, as well as history and politics. It does not adhere to a manicured definition of what a garden or exhibition is, but like them it encourages us to tend our own wild, to explore both useful and fruitless borders, and to see what can grow within us with a bit of work, dirt, light, and imagination.

Curated by hannah_g

Aganetha Dyck, Arefeh Zamani, Bev Pike, Bret Parenteau, Connie Chappel, Cullen Bingeman, Derek Dunlop, Erin Frances Brown, Jack Lauder, Justin Bear L’Arrivee, Leah Decter, Leona Herzog, Mandy Malazdrewich, Meganelizabeth Diamond, Roewan Crowe, Theo Pelmus, Toludare Toluwalope, Kiana Fontaine, Lisa Stinner-Kun.

Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library, Living Prairie Museum, Manitoba Museum, St. Boniface Museum, The Leaf, Bonsai Society of Winnipeg, St. Boniface Hospital Environment Sustainability Committee, Mental Health Services, McEwen Building, Dr. Champa Wijekoon, Dr. Chris Siow.