Aimée Henny Brown

Shelter
— 2015

Exhibited at the Ranger Station Art Gallery for June, 2015, the work was inspired by my artist residency in the district of Kent, and through access to archives held at the Agassiz-Harrison Museum and Archives. Through this body of work, I am visually exploring a period in this area’s history where the land was wild, settler shelter was provisional and colonial industry was just beginning to imagine its place in the Fraser Valley. The re-presentation of these historical moments is also informed by imagined, alternative visions of what the term ‘shelter’ can represent. In its most essential form, shelter is depicted as a triangle – an icon of sanctuary and dwelling. The triangle motif is employed throughout the work as a talisman to conjure concepts of protection, survival and home – but it is also the essential geometric building block of geodesic domes, tent structures, gabled walls, pitched roofs and signal flags. In this exhibition, the triangle is both form and metaphor. The aim of this work is to glimpse into local settler histories while discovering the imaginative potential of questioning recorded histories, while closely examining relationships with place.

Location: 2015 | Ranger Station Art Gallery, Agassiz-Harrison, BC