Canadian Mennonite
Volume 10, No. 15
July 31, 2006
Printmakers ‘reconnect’ at Heritage Gallery
Winnipeg
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Points of Connection, an exhibit of the art of Leonard Gerbrandt and Karen Cornelius at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery until Aug. 19, is a celebration of vibrant colour, layered meaning and technical mastery of the art of printmaking. It is also a celebration of relationships.
At the heart of the show is the mentor-mentee relationship between Gerbrandt and Cornelius. Gerbrandt, who Cornelius recalls as “a born teacher” at the Ottawa School of Art in the 1980s, became a mentor to Cornelius after he discovered in her a keen student who went beyond the bounds of instruction to make the art form her own.
Over the years, there were other points of connection between the two. Both of their families were drawn to service in Africa around the same time, Cornelius’s in Eritrea and Gerbrandt’s in Kenya.
There, the colours and images of Africa were imprinted on the work of both artists, and their bond with one another grew.
Gerbrandt recalls a near-meeting with Cornelius in Axum, Ethiopia, both families being drawn there to take in the Coptic celebration of Pentecost, a colour-drenched parade of richly brocaded priestly vestments and ornate golden crosses, that Gerbrandt wistfully recalls gleaming against the backdrop of an otherwise colourless and arid land. However, tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia flared, and the border was closed, and the meeting prevented. However, this near-meeting made the connection between the two even stronger. Gerbrandt compares it to the space between the outstretched hands of Adam and God in Michelangelo’s famous Sistine Chapel painting. “There is a spark that leaps across the gap,” said Gerbrandt at the June 8 opening.
Both artists are committed to using their work to bridge gaps and cross borders to make a more interconnected human family.
For five years, Cornelius has been organizing the International Print Exchange, in which artists from all over the world send in two prints, one to trade with another artist from another part of the world, and one to be sold at the exhibit. She sees this “meeting one another as humans” across borders as crucial to human survival and peacemaking. As she sees other people in other countries coming up to demand the same kind of lifestyle that westerners have enjoyed, on an increasingly resource-stressed planet, she feels that face-to-face connections, mediated by the universal language of art and beauty, will help “keep us from killing each other.”
Pink Floyd founder urges Israelis to ‘tear down the wall’
West Bank, Palestine
Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters, who inspired the rock band’s iconic 1980 album The Wall, scrawled “Tear down the wall” on the concrete panels of Israel’s West Bank barrier on his recent concert tour. The barrier was the first stop on a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories for Waters.
“It’s a horrific edifice, this thing,” Waters said as he stood beside a section of the barrier in Bethlehem. “I’ve seen pictures of it, I’ve heard a lot about it, but without being here you can’t imagine how extraordinarily oppressive it is and how sad it is to see these people coming through these little holes. It’s craziness.” Waters added to the graffiti with red spray paint and a marker pen.
Waters rejoined the other members of Pink Floyd, the British rock group famous for The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon, at last year’s Live 8 concert in London, England.
Israel has built almost half the barrier, which has the stated aim of keeping suicide bombers out of its cities. Condemned by Palestinians as a land grab, the barrier has been branded illegal by the World Court because it cuts through occupied territory. Israel is rerouting some sections after a Supreme Court order to lessen Palestinian hardship.
Waters performed a concert at the Arab-Jewish village of Neve Shalom as part of his world tour. The concert was originally planned for a Tel Aviv sports stadium but, following criticism by fans in Britain, Waters changed the location to the peace village, where Israeli Jews and Arabs live in a joint community.
In 1990, Waters performed The Wall along the Berlin Wall that separated East and West Germany, to celebrate reunification.
He told reporters he hoped Israel’s barrier would also be brought down one day. More than 90 percent of the barrier is razor-tipped fence, but towering concrete walls are used in built-up areas. “It may be a lot harder to get this one down, but eventually it must happen,” Waters said.