The Capsule Exhibition was planned by Drew Gilbert, head of NBCCD’s Photo Department, for the second-year Digital Output class.
“The name Capsule was pitched by my fellow classmate, Liam Endresen, and it was the name we all thought was fitting. Capsule is meant to represent a time capsule, or encapsulating a moment in time,” explained Jules Keenan, a self-labelled, “people shooter,” and one of the artists whose pieces were displayed.
The first virtual exhibition at the Red Brick Gallery this year, Capsule displayed mostly images the artists made post-Covid. However, they didn’t all focus their pieces specifically on the pandemic; all had different stories they tried to pass across through their work.
Holly Noël said she enjoys taking images in, “ways that [make] it look completely different than what it actually is.”
“My piece in the Capsule Exhibition is called ‘Fairy Lights’, and I was hoping to show that even though we’re limited in where we can go and what we can do because of COVID-19, there are still ways to work creatively, and that there are still lots of beautiful and interesting things in the world just waiting to be captured through art,” said Noël.
KC Parlee was more interested in nature, saying, “Autumn is my favourite season. It’s so full of warm colours and is the perfect excuse to wear cozy sweaters and flannels. For my images in the Capsule Exhibition, I simply wanted viewers to reflect on the autumn season and what it means to them.”
“The two images I have in the show are part of a larger series I made over the summer with my friends and model Chelsey Bruce. The series was inspired by the poem ‘The Lady of the Lake’ by Sir Walter Scott, written in the early 1800s in the highlands of Scotland… there are six cantos (or chapters) in the poem, and we took inspiration from each, trying to capture the narrative or theme of each,” said Keenan.
Doing an exhibition during a pandemic is an extremely delicate affair and has to be handled with the utmost care, which NBCCD did.
“I think the school has been doing a fantastic job overall with handling the pandemic situation. The exhibition is on display until January 8, 2021, so there’s plenty of time to check it out! It doesn’t create a rush for people to have to go see it at the same time,” explained Parlee.
Stylized portraitist Lisa Metz thought the exhibition turned out well despite the challenges of the situation, and hoped that there will be another exhibition in the spring.
“It has a variety of work so unique to each individual photographer,” she said.
Jules Keenan also remarked on the challenges that a global pandemic puts on the table, but took a different perspective.
“I feel that doing an exhibition during a pandemic is an interesting experience. Of course it’s disappointing that we can’t have in-person openings, which are always so social (and great networking events), but it simply is what it is – and something us art students and the rest of the art community are going to have to adapt to. There are always positives to each situation though, and with putting more content online about our shows, in theory, allows more people to see our work.”
For anybody looking for a chance to see the pieces in person, the exhibition will be on display at the Red Brick Gallery until January 8.