Julie Oakes
Special to The Morning Star
We are just back from Europe where I was part of the exhibition INTERWOVEN: New Canadian Perspectives into Textiles and Printmaking, which opened in Warsaw Oct. 6.
At Headbones Gallery, The Moon Cycle has returned back from the east of Canada where it showed at The Canadian Clay and Glass Museum and also Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto.
With the moon back and another journey completed, it signals the time to break out and break apart.
Using the Moon to Fuel the Stars, opening at Headbones Nov. 2, will show work from China, Europe, Russia and New York while breaking apart The Moon Cycle — 28 gouache paper works framed in pairs that look at the lunar cycle as understood from an Eastern perspective.
The Moon Cycle was completed during a two month residency in China in 2014 in preparation for Awestruck Calendar of Ecology at the Canadian Clay and Glass.
The Lunar Cycle tells the story of a woman who was banished to the moon where she found a rabbit that she took under her care. The rabbit was being bitten by a dog that badgered the rabbit. The woman would nurse the rabbit back to wholeness but the cycle would begin again as the dogs, attracted by the full, shining and healthy rabbit, nipped. Hence the moon waxed and waned under the surveillant female’s care.
Using the Moon to Fuel the Stars is a show about cycling, changing lanes and moving into the next roadway. I’m also preparing for an exhibition of new works for the Tom Thomson Museum in Ontario in 2019, titled SHE SHE – a double affirmative of the feminine, that will bring out women’s issues, women’s work and a superstar role of woman as home-maker and keeper. In Using the Moon to Fuel the Stars, I will also present concept drawings in preparation for SHE SHE and include the first larger works as an introduction to the ideas.
While in Poland both during INTERWOVEN, Lodz and INTERWOVEN, Warsaw, I had the privilege of marching in two women’s marches, both asserting the need for equity for women and challenging systems that still condone domestic abuse. While in Russia, major exhibitions addressed these issues as well. Women in Canada have come much further in the stretch towards status and respect. The lunar cycle is regarded as feminine, her power hypnotic and influential. Using the Moon to Fuel the Stars is an exhibition about reaching for the stars because the moon is just that much closer to them.
The public is invited to the opening of Using the Moon to Fuel the Stars Nov. 2, from 6-8 p.m., while it’s still light, before the moon rises and the dogs howl.