DEBORAH CARRUTHERS
  • Home
    • Artist Statement
    • Bio
  • Exhibitions / Residencies/Performances
    • Exhibitions ... Now You See Me... >
      • FLOW— Deborah Carruthers and Sydney Lancaster Inter Arts Matrix, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada - 2024
      • What Remains Unexplained 2.0: The Endpoint Collective, Kingston Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, October 2022
      • Beyond the Stone Angel: artists reflect on the death of their parents, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, October 2021- February 2022 >
        • More About ​Safe Passage
        • More About the Paintings ...
      • Announcing the Coming of the Sun, Adjacent to Life Gallery, New York, New York, USA , 2021
      • The Aura of the Already Said - Zygote Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio - 2019
      • Souvenir / Souvenir - Montréal, Québec 2017 >
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Press
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Essay ​Culte du Souvenir
        • Souvenir / Souvenir: About the Exhibition ...
        • Souvenir / Souvenir : Invitation card
    • Performances ... Once Upon a Time ... >
      • creek* - Nu Ears Ensemble - Open Ears Festival, Kitchener, Ontario, June 2024
      • slippages - the Alkali Collective, Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 2023
      • reading between the lines & Emerald Ash: Deborah Carruthers and Terri Hron- Black Box, matralab, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec - April 2022
      • Ecstacies of Influence - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre -Montréal - December 2018
      • slippages - The UBC Symphony Orchestra - Chan Centre - Vancouver - October 2018
    • Residencies ... Home Away From Home ... >
      • Ecstasies of Influence : matralab, Concordia University - Montréal 2018 >
        • Ecstacies of Influence - December 16, 2018 - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre - Montréal
      • The Past Sealed Away - Peter Wall Institute Artist in Residence - Vancouver, BC 2017 - 2018
      • What's in a Song ? Between the Song and the Silence: Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2017
      • In The Hole - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan 2017
      • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2016 >
        • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Installation
  • Graphic Scores
    • creek* - 2024 >
      • creek* -Instructions for Play and Score
    • reading between the lines - 2022
    • safe passage - 2021 >
      • safe passage: Video Score with Audio
      • About Mortsaf for My Father: ​Safe Passage Installation
    • slippages - 2018 >
      • slippages - Instructions for play and score
      • slippages in the Studio: About my process >
        • slippages Athabasca -Photographs
        • slippages Immense Immensities
        • slippages Notebook
        • slippages Athabasca Painting
      • slippages - Performance Videos
    • Between the Song and the Silence: Berlin 2017 - 2021 >
      • Between the Song and the Silence: Graphic Score- Studies for Hobrechtsfelde Iteration 2020
      • Between the Song and the Silence: Graphic Score- Banff Iteration 2017
      • My Muses
      • What's in a Name?
      • Taking Flight ... The Process
      • Swan Song... A summary of my process for my MFA research
  • Portfolio
    • Mortsaf for My Father : the Series ... >
      • Mortsaf for My Father : the Paintings ...
      • Mortsaf for My Father: ​Safe Passage
    • Allegory for a New Ice Age ... Photographs
    • The Past Sealed Away : the Series >
      • The Past Sealed Away ... Painting
      • The Past Sealed Away... Prints
      • The Past sealed Away: Athabasca - Photographs
      • Immense Immensities Miniature Watercolours
    • In The Hole
    • Souvenir sacré - Photographs
    • Souvenir sacré - Opasatika
    • Fleurs sacrées - Photographs
    • Mortsaf - Paintings
    • Genetics for Cowboys
    • Beautiful Ghosts - Installation
    • Niagara Tondos
    • Twinned
  • C V
  • Contact
  • FLOW— Deborah Carruthers and Sydney Lancaster Inter Arts Matrix, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada - 2024

Souvenir/Souvenir​:  About the exhibition ...

Picture
Mortsaf for My Father: Safe Passage, 40" x 158", Circa 1915 cedar canoe frame, cotton webbing, pine dowels, stainless steel cotter pins, 85.8 Kg (189 lbs) Laurentian stone, Bluetooth speaker, 2014 – 2016

​Souvenir/Souvenir can be viewed from two perspectives of the word souvenir: the English connotation of memento, and the French of memory and remembrance. One interpretation does not supersede the other; I view them as complementary.

This exhibition may be seen as an homage to my father, who died in 2012. Growing up, my family had a log house on a lake in the Laurentian mountains, and it was that place that I most closely identified with him. In 2004, my family sold the house.  From that time until 2012, when my father died, I found it very difficult to look at photos or drawings of the lake. After my father died, I discovered that while I still find it very difficult to look at pictures of him, I can now look at the thirty-plus years of material from the lake.
​
 Typical of the Laurentian geography are massive granite boulders, and my father and I gave our own private names to many of those that ring the lake. I began to paint large-scale pictures of these (Mortsaf for My Father: Balcony Rock, 2014; Mortsaf for My Father: Resting Rock, 2014-2016).

Safe Passage references the innumerable boat or canoe trips taken up and down the creek to the lake – there was no road into our cottage; you would have to walk out to the creek. The antique frame of the canoe resembles a mortsaf, an iron cage in which a coffin would be placed as a protection against resurrectionists, or body snatchers.

The text which can be found on gravestones is also of great interest to me. How to convey a life lived in but a few lines? What impressions of that person are we left with? We allude to the permanence of things as being “writ in stone”, implying that the text we choose represents us in perpetuity. Yet often the text found on gravestones is formulaic, denying us a look at who that individual truly was. What words would I choose?  This led to my Souvenir sacré series of photographs of portions of text I found in graveyards throughout the country, often just single words. The photos here represent text which I feel reflects my father.
​ We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Nous remercions le Conseil des Arts du Canada de son soutien.
Picture
  • Home
    • Artist Statement
    • Bio
  • Exhibitions / Residencies/Performances
    • Exhibitions ... Now You See Me... >
      • FLOW— Deborah Carruthers and Sydney Lancaster Inter Arts Matrix, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada - 2024
      • What Remains Unexplained 2.0: The Endpoint Collective, Kingston Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, October 2022
      • Beyond the Stone Angel: artists reflect on the death of their parents, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, October 2021- February 2022 >
        • More About ​Safe Passage
        • More About the Paintings ...
      • Announcing the Coming of the Sun, Adjacent to Life Gallery, New York, New York, USA , 2021
      • The Aura of the Already Said - Zygote Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio - 2019
      • Souvenir / Souvenir - Montréal, Québec 2017 >
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Press
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Essay ​Culte du Souvenir
        • Souvenir / Souvenir: About the Exhibition ...
        • Souvenir / Souvenir : Invitation card
    • Performances ... Once Upon a Time ... >
      • creek* - Nu Ears Ensemble - Open Ears Festival, Kitchener, Ontario, June 2024
      • slippages - the Alkali Collective, Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 2023
      • reading between the lines & Emerald Ash: Deborah Carruthers and Terri Hron- Black Box, matralab, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec - April 2022
      • Ecstacies of Influence - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre -Montréal - December 2018
      • slippages - The UBC Symphony Orchestra - Chan Centre - Vancouver - October 2018
    • Residencies ... Home Away From Home ... >
      • Ecstasies of Influence : matralab, Concordia University - Montréal 2018 >
        • Ecstacies of Influence - December 16, 2018 - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre - Montréal
      • The Past Sealed Away - Peter Wall Institute Artist in Residence - Vancouver, BC 2017 - 2018
      • What's in a Song ? Between the Song and the Silence: Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2017
      • In The Hole - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan 2017
      • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2016 >
        • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Installation
  • Graphic Scores
    • creek* - 2024 >
      • creek* -Instructions for Play and Score
    • reading between the lines - 2022
    • safe passage - 2021 >
      • safe passage: Video Score with Audio
      • About Mortsaf for My Father: ​Safe Passage Installation
    • slippages - 2018 >
      • slippages - Instructions for play and score
      • slippages in the Studio: About my process >
        • slippages Athabasca -Photographs
        • slippages Immense Immensities
        • slippages Notebook
        • slippages Athabasca Painting
      • slippages - Performance Videos
    • Between the Song and the Silence: Berlin 2017 - 2021 >
      • Between the Song and the Silence: Graphic Score- Studies for Hobrechtsfelde Iteration 2020
      • Between the Song and the Silence: Graphic Score- Banff Iteration 2017
      • My Muses
      • What's in a Name?
      • Taking Flight ... The Process
      • Swan Song... A summary of my process for my MFA research
  • Portfolio
    • Mortsaf for My Father : the Series ... >
      • Mortsaf for My Father : the Paintings ...
      • Mortsaf for My Father: ​Safe Passage
    • Allegory for a New Ice Age ... Photographs
    • The Past Sealed Away : the Series >
      • The Past Sealed Away ... Painting
      • The Past Sealed Away... Prints
      • The Past sealed Away: Athabasca - Photographs
      • Immense Immensities Miniature Watercolours
    • In The Hole
    • Souvenir sacré - Photographs
    • Souvenir sacré - Opasatika
    • Fleurs sacrées - Photographs
    • Mortsaf - Paintings
    • Genetics for Cowboys
    • Beautiful Ghosts - Installation
    • Niagara Tondos
    • Twinned
  • C V
  • Contact
  • FLOW— Deborah Carruthers and Sydney Lancaster Inter Arts Matrix, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada - 2024