Mobile art makes an appearance in Hintonburg

By Anita Li

The C4 Gallery is a display that showcases artistic work by local Ottawa residents. (Li/offCentre)

Flanked by large vending machines and half a dozen newspaper racks, the C4 Gallery is almost invisible in the Hintonburg Community Centre.

This artistic gem adds a splash of style to the otherwise drab nook near the centre’s main entrance where it is located – but the gallery won’t stay there for long.

A mobile art display, the C4 (“contemporary, conceptual, compartmental and community”) Gallery moves to a new location in Ottawa every two months.  It will remain at the Hintonburg Community Centre until Dec. 14, and is set to end in September 2010.

Sandra Mirabelli, program coordinator for Ottawa’s community arts program, said the program aims to take art out of the art gallery.

Inspired by a desire to “[get] art out to people in non-traditional venues,” Mirabelli said the gallery began as a collaborative project between the city of Ottawa’s community and public art programs. “They don’t have to go down to the City of Ottawa Art Gallery…They can see art in their own neighbourhoods.”

Mirabelli said the project is chance for local residents to express their feelings about their neighbourhood through art.

“They can create [political or social] statements about the things that are important to them,” she said, adding that both professional and amateur artists have submitted their work.
Local artist Cynthia O’Brien said she jumped at the chance to participate in the gallery.
“It sounded like a really interesting idea to have work travel in different community centres,” the vibrant 38-year-old said over the phone from her basement studio in Centretown. “I guess it was kind of like an outreach idea to get people thinking outside the gallery box, so it kind of tickled me!”

The 24 pieces in the exhibit are stored in a in a large wooden cabinet, with each piece in its own drawer. Attached to each drawer is a unique knob reflecting the multicultural faces of Ottawa’s neighbourhoods. A glass case enclosing a ceramic rendition of these communities sits atop the cabinet.
O’Brien’s piece, titled “One Beauty Spot,”  is a small circular clay sculpture, salmon pink in colour with a smattering of faded yellow on the top.
She described her piece as “a relationship of the two living organisms, which is one, being the egg and two, being the little pox on the egg,” adding that it fits well with gallery’s theme of community expression.

“Within a community of people…an organism comes in, and I just [wanted to convey]… the reaction between the host and the organism,” O’Brien said.

“I live in a community with all these other people, and I guess you live harmoniously with your neighbours and the people in your community… [But] what if something comes along that disturbs that harmony? It could be a drug problem, or the city changes something in your neighbourhood.”

The portable gallery’s array of artwork ranges from paintings to photographs, showcasing various interpretations of community.

The Cool Youth Group, a collective of artists comprised of 21 immigrant children, submitted 21 individual paintings that were miniaturized and combined onto one display by computer. Their work reflected “memories of belonging” in both Canada and in their homelands.

For 35-year-old Jason McCoy, a self-described artistic neophyte, the gallery makes art accessible.

“I’m not an arts person, but it definitely catches your attention and gets you to look at [art] in a positive way,” he said. “This was just something really, really neat, and… it’s just going to help encourage more local people to come out.”

McCoy, who is one of the program coordinators for the centre, emphasized, “I think they’re trying to really localize it, and help bring awareness to art in this community.”

McCoy said that this kind of active participation contributes to the growth of Hintonburg’s arts community.
“I’ve been living in this neighbourhood for only about 10 years… and arts was maybe in its infancy [when I first arrived],” he said. “Now, in 10 years, it’s become a well-known area for the arts.”

O’Brien also shares McCoy’s enthusiasm for the gallery’s effect on the local community.

“You see work made by people in your community…We’re all mixed in that [cabinet] together, we’re all considered on the same level and we’re all equal,” she said.

O’Brien said she hopes the gallery will attract observers as well as new artists.

“Everybody in the community can look in the [cabinet] and go, ‘Hey! I can do this too.’”

After leaving this location, the C4 Gallery will travel to the following locations:

- Shenkman Arts Centre (mid-January to mid-March)

- Goulbourn Recreation Complex (end of March to May)

- Greenboro Community Centre (June to August)

- Hintonburg Community Centre (August to September)

Local residents keen to trying their hand at art can make submissions for the gallery’s next exhibit. The city will showcase the work of a “new batch of 24 artists” in the New Year.

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