Bernadine's eBlast March 2012

(please feel free to forward this eBlast)

Two upcoming talks
for
Bernadine

March 19th, 2012
7 pm

Tonight

Panel Discussion
for

The F Word – Exploring Feminism
in the 21st Century

SFU Philosophers Café Public Discussion

The “F” Word: Has Feminism Become a Dirty Word?

Leigh Square Community Arts Village
1100-2253 Leigh Square, Port Coquitlam

Panel Discussion in partnership with SFU Philosophers Café,
Mar. 19 at 7pm. Free Admission.

Leigh Square Community Arts Village and SFU Philosophers Café will host a public discussion on the theme of feminism on Monday, March 19^th from 7-9pm as part of Leigh Square’s curated art exhibition, The F Word: Exploring Feminism in the 21^st Century. The Philosophers Café topic will explore the following questions - Is gender equality a prerequisite for human evolution? What would it take to reorient social values about gender to support meaningful equality? Why are so many reluctant to use or identify with the word feminism in 2012? The discussion will be moderated by Graham Forst who has taught university-level Philosophy and English for many years and is published widely on the subject of literary criticism. As part of the dialogue, panelists will present their position on the topic and open the discussion to the audience. The featured panelists include:

· Bernadine Fox, a graduate of Emily Carr who enjoys painting, drawing, teaching curating, writing and organizing art events and has creatively done so for a very long time. Her work focuses on the complexities of self-expression, most especially how non-verbal forms of communication reveal the human condition and our sense of identity.

·      Carol Metz-Murray, the Executive Director of Tricity Transitions, a respected and established 34-year old charitable not-for-profit organization supporting the community by providing help and hope to women and families who have been impacted by violence and abuse in the Tri-Cities. Their programs and services are free of charge for women, children and men in need.
·         Catherine Murray, Chair of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University, the oldest such department in Canada. She is writing an article on Queering Vancouver, and studying public education campaigns to prevent gender violence in BC.
·         Ilze Bebrisis a North Vancouver artist, educator and curator working in sculpture and installation. She is a graduate of SFU, UBC, Emily Carr and holds an MFA from the University of Victoria. She is interested in the narratives that shape the culture of contemporary everyday life. She has shown both nationally and internationally and is the recipient of several awards.

The Philosophers Café is a series of informal public discussions in libraries, cafes, restaurants and community spaces. The cafes, which are free and open to everyone, bring dialogue and discussion to thousands of people who are interested in exploring issues from the absurd to the sublime.

The F Word: Exploring Feminism in the 21^st Century art exhibitruns until April 2^ndand includes the work of 13 women of different ages and cultural backgrounds in the Lower Mainland. The art work raise questions and continues the dialogue based on their experiences and includes concerns ranging in context from constructions of female identity, to body image, to religious myth and fairy tale, to the juggle of everyday life, to violence against women.

The Leigh Square Community Arts Village encourages and facilitates community development through arts, culture and heritage within Port Coquitlam and serves as a cultural meeting place, a 21st century community arts centre. See www.portcoquitlam.ca/leighsquare for details.

Sarah Peale's Still Life with Peaches
(48 x 36" oil on canvas 3,387)
by Bernadine Fox

Suzanne Valadons Catherine Nue Allongée
Sur Une Peau De Panthère
(40 x 30" oil on canvas, $2,352)
by Bernadine Fox

AND

Content Over Form:
The Use of Mixed Media Assemblage
to Explore Dissociation
in conjunction with

Bernadine's solo exhibition at Britannia Art Gallery explores Family Px: Exploring the Personalities of a Dissociative System. The concept of Dissociative Identities Disorder (formerly called Multiple Personalities) has been embraced by contemporary society.

Unfortunately, popular culture has glamorized and sensationalized this “disorder.” United States of Tara attempts to give an authentic demonstration of how DID manifests within a domestic scenario, albeit with quite polarized personality-types. Other TV shows like Law & Order and Criminal Minds exploit the idea of different personalities as a means of advancing unique crime plots or solving implausible story impasses usually where someone with DID is the insane murderer. Popular culture, with their limited idea of what DID is, or is not, along with an imposed time frame to work within (40-42 minutes in an hour-long drama), disallows for the inclusion of the paradigm shift required to understand the intricate, subtle nuances and complexity of DID.

Dissociation is not about crazed serial murderers or individuals plagued by promiscuity and drastic deviations in style, voice, and dress. It is about the normal human condition coping with life despite facing extreme childhood trauma. Where there is usually a singular person with different sides to their personality (i.e., how one behaves in church as opposed to attending a party) in DID there is a plural system of personalities each with their own strengths, life skills, and weaknesses sharing the same life. Together, they navigate the human experience.

"Family Px: Mazine"
by Bernadine Fxx BFA
(mixed media assemblage 10 x 10" $255)

Bernadine is creating a series of mixed media assemblage pieces entitled Family Px wherein she employs the use of image and narrative to reveal typical personalities within DID and how their “jobs” co-exist within their internal environment and how they assist the system to operate in the external world. These pieces will include young/old, female/male, and human/non-human personalities. Each piece is accompanied with a name plate that describes who they are and what their function is within the whole dissociative system. Bernadine estimates that there will be approximately 75 to 100 pieces in the complete series. Given space constraints approximately 40-45 will be exhibited March 7th to 30th, 2012 at the Britannia Art Gallery located at 1661 Napier Street in Vancouver BC.

"Family Px: Bertha"

by Bernadine Fxx BFA
(mixed media assemblage 10 x 10" $255)

"Family Px: Matilda & John"

by Bernadine Fxx BFA
(mixed media assemblage 10 x 10" $255)

I do hope you can make it.

Britannia Art Gallery
1661 Napier St (off Commercial at Napier)
Vancouver BC
______________________________________

Artist Joke of the Month

And last, but not least:

A visitor to Picasso's studio found the artist staring bleakly at a painting on the easel. To cheer him up, the visitor blurted out, "It's a masterpiece!" "No, no," Picasso replied, "the nose is all wrong. It throws the whole thing out of perspective." "Then why not change the nose?" the visitor asked to which Picasso exclaimed, "I can't find it."