Mary Anne Barkhouse

Mary Anne Barkhouse's work is a visual narrative filled with wild creatures that serve to transform our ideas of nature. Many of the creatures found in this tableau are experienced by the viewer only through mass media, perhaps a zoo, but rarely in their own habitat. We are asked to think about our historical, as well as our present, relationships with animals. The Boreal of the exhibition title refers to the Boreal Forest while Baroque references the seventeenth century court of Louis XIV of France. By creating a bestiary within that specific human context, Mary Anne Barkhouse references the past and the abuses and extravagances of humanity as played against the present threatening environmental extravagances. A c0-publication of Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery, Agnes Jamieson Gallery, and Thames Art Gallery. Essay by Jeff Thomas.