{"id":46189,"date":"2025-03-28T01:52:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T08:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=46189"},"modified":"2025-03-27T16:10:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T23:10:02","slug":"dickinson-poem-reflects-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2025\/03\/28\/dickinson-poem-reflects-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Dickinson poem reflects art"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new exhibit at the Zack Gallery, \u201cHope\u201d is the Thing with Feathers, derives its name from the eponymous poem by Emily Dickinson. Gallery manager Sarah Dobbs, who curated the show, was instrumental in coming up with the name, as well as in bringing together the two artists whose works are on display: Ilze Bebris and Barbara Heller.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Ilze Bebris for many years,\u201d said Dobbs. \u201cI saw the works she produced during COVID and said she should submit a proposal for an exhibition at the Zack Gallery. When she did, the art committee and I met and decided she should definitely have a show. But there wasn\u2019t enough work for a solo show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bebris\u2019s submission included a series of 19 drawings, called Ballad of Hope and Despair, and a journal with her sketches of feathers. \u201cThat journal is a record of found things; of feathers shed by the gulls in my neighbourhood,\u201d Bebris explained. \u201cEach morning, at least one feather landed on my daily walking route.\u2026 I collected them and drew them over a period of a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Dobbs contemplated Bebris\u2019s feathers, another artist who uses feathers extensively came to mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remembered Barbara Heller instantly,\u201d said Dobbs. \u201cHeller had created many tapestries with birds and feathers, and I thought their art might work well together. However, once I reflected and looked deeper, it occurred to me that they were both talking about isolation and resilience. And the poem by Dickinson, which I used for the title of the show, also speaks of resilience, hope and feathers, even though Dickinson wrote it more than 100 years earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the current exhibit, both Bebris and Heller are presenting art that they created during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Ilze Bebris (photo by Olga Livshin)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe have a small property on Gabriola Island, a house\u201d Bebris told the Independent<\/i>. \u201cMy husband and I were driving there one day in 2020 when the news of the COVID lockup hit. We became stuck on the island, couldn\u2019t go home or anywhere for months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bebris and several artists she knew who lived or vacationed on Gabriola got in touch with one another and decided to exchange drawings that they would create daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed something to do,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were all trapped. The news was horrible. My father and stepmother both died from COVID in their care home in Ontario, and I couldn\u2019t go there, could do nothing but wait and hope for a cure or a vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived in a tumult of emotions: grief, hope, anxiety, boredom,\u201d she shared. \u201cSo, I drew. I drew flowers and twigs and rocks I saw on my daily walks; I drew feathers. But, one day, I ran out of things to draw. I had this small wooden mannequin, and I thought: what if I put it into different poses and draw it. Then the black boxes appeared in the images, reflecting our collective feelings of being trapped, isolated. I called the series \u2018Ballad of Hope and Despair.\u2019 They were all done during the first summer and fall of the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 18 images, set in two rows, one above the other, are all the same size and shape. In each frame, there is the grey background, a black box of a window in the middle, and a wooden mannequin inside the window. Every pose is different, like every person is different \u2013 different experiences, ages, ethnicities \u2013 but the series unites us as human beings. We have the same general body structure and we move in similar ways as the mannequins in those windows. We all went through the pandemic.<\/p>\n

There is one additional image beside the original 18.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
One of the images in Ilze Bebris\u2019s \u201cBallad of Hope and Despair\u201d series, now on display at the Zack Gallery. (photo courtesy)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI did it a few months later,\u201d Bebris said. \u201cIn the first 18, all the mannequins are trapped inside. But, in the last one, the mannequin is outside the window, finally looking in, reflecting beside the viewers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHope\u201d is Bebris\u2019s first show at the Zack, while Heller has exhibited in the gallery before. Her contribution to this show includes a series of small tapestries called \u201cWe Are All the Same\u2026.\u201d Each tapestry shows a couple of bird bones with a feather above or below them. We don\u2019t know what species of birds the bones belong to, and neither do we know from which birds came the feathers \u2013 they are bright and colourful but mysterious.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire series includes 16 small tapestries I wove when I stayed home due to COVID,\u201d said Heller. \u201cThey are small, because my studio on Granville Island was closed and I only had a small loom at home. The tapestries were a response to the killing of George Floyd and the chaos in the world at the time. Not that it is better now!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Barbara Heller (photo courtesy)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She elaborated in her artist\u2019s statement: \u201cWe are all the same under our skin, but by focusing on our differences, we have lost our sense of who we are and how we fit into our shared world. This series shows that \u2026 beneath the many colours of our skins and feathers, our bones, our organs and our blood are the same. They are what make us human, while the outward differences, no matter what kind, are invisible and irrelevant beneath our skins.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the small tapestries, there are two other works by Heller that catch viewers\u2019 interest. One is a big tapestry of a dead gull, called \u201cThe Shaman.\u201d It is a skeleton and residual feathers. About 10 times larger than the small ones, the tapestry is bright with colour and infinitely sad \u2013 the memory of a bird rather than a living one. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is from a series of three tapestries I wove after I found a desiccated body of a seagull with its feathers almost intact, while walking to my studio on Granville Island,\u201d Heller explained. \u201cTo me, there was such pathos in the creature that I took it home to photograph. And I wove a tapestry to honour its spirit. \u2018The Shaman\u2019 dances to warn of our earth in peril. It has included bits of wire and plastic in its nest, and a vessel for life becomes a warning of death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
\u201cChance\u201d by Barbara Heller. (photo courtesy)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dead birds and feathers have been parts of Heller\u2019s expressive pallete for several decades. They represent the artist\u2019s appeal for change and, to Heller\u2019s chagrin, they are still relevant today, maybe more than ever. But she keeps trying to inspire people to become less destructive, more considerate of one another.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Heller\u2019s other offering is a real nest abandoned by its avian makers. It is full of feathers she found during her walks. Like Bebris\u2019s journal filled with feather sketches, the nest is a memory. They both tell the same story: the birds were here, but they are not anymore. Should we take such a message as a warning or as an inspiration \u2013 each one of us must decide for ourselves. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was amazed and very pleased to see how well Ilze Bebris\u2019s art and mine looked together,\u201d said Heller. \u201cWe met for the first time on March 4, when we brought our works in to hang, but we explored the same themes. And the fact that we both have depicted boxes within boxes is fantastic. Both her works and mine deal with COVID and isolation and our relationship with the world. They complement each other and amplify our messages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHope\u201d is the Thing with Feathers opened at the Zack Gallery on March 5 and will be on display until April 11. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Olga Livshin<\/b> is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new exhibit at the Zack Gallery, \u201cHope\u201d is the Thing with Feathers, derives its name from the eponymous poem by Emily Dickinson. Gallery manager Sarah Dobbs, who curated the show, was instrumental in coming up with the name, as well as in bringing together the two artists whose works are on display: Ilze Bebris […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[2466,7095,23911,23913,23912,6691,23420,40],"class_list":["post-46189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-visual-arts","tag-art","tag-barbara-heller","tag-drawing","tag-emily-dickinson","tag-ilze-bebris","tag-painting","tag-sarah-dobbs","tag-zack-gallery"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}