Video of Jon Sasaki at McMichael swabbing Group of Seven artist's tools, assisted by Conservator Alison Douglas// Photographer: Kristiane Church
The Free Press: Microbial legacy of Group of Seven
The landscape painters Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven were concerned with subjects grand in scale. Towering stands of trees, vast shimmering lakes, snow-capped mountains. Canada itself.
Toronto interdisciplinary artist Jon Sasaki is much more concerned with the micro landscapes we don’t see.
For Homage, on view now at the University of Manitoba’s School of Art Gallery, Sasaki swabbed the palettes and brushes used by Thomson and members of the Group of Seven — objects belonging to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection archives — and allowed the microbial cultures to bloom in petri dishes. He then photographed the results and blew them up.
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