THE PATCH, NUIT BLANCHE SASKATOON

ABOUT THE PROJECT

“The Tomato Patch” grew out of pandemic lockdown: established as a community food resource, it has grown into a transversal site for artistic contributions to social and ecological continuity. It is a place where artists can find and tell stories that discover the role of the artist moving into the future.  I am presenting three videos that document the establishment of “The Patch”: “Scarabée Vert”, “A Tomato’s Story” and “PASSATA”.

Over the past year, I’ve invited 12 artists (two working simultaneously on their own gardens in Spain and Australia) to perform and create interventions in The Patch (thepatch.bonniebaxter.ca) addressing the concerns of a rapidly changing environment, shrinking natural resources, and the realities of a cultural revolution driven by social media and new technologies. Through a glorious variety of mediums, languages, ages and identities, they will use the Patch to experiment, create, and share narratives for a new world. These presentations will be filmed, shot with drones, infrared and 360 cameras and then stitched together to create a work titled “The Patch”, a 360° immersive installation presented in February 2022 at the Musee d’art contemporain des Laurentides MAC LAU.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Bonnie Baxter was born in Texarkana, Texas and has lived and worked in Val-David, Québec since 1972. Her socially engaged practice incorporates large scale print works, sculpture, video, and immersive installation. She has maintained an extensive exhibition record both nationally and internationally for over 4 decades, participating in print biennials in Quebec, Mexico, Russia, Hungary, India, and Taiwan. The MAC LAU (Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides) has held several surveys of her work: “Icônes” (1993), “Rewind” (2005), and “Bonnie Baxter: Présent | Passé | Futur” (2018-19).

In 1982 she founded the custom print studio Atelier du Scarabée where she collaborated and produced etchings and prints for artists including the full corpus of etchings for Jean Paul Riopelle.

Educated at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Vermont College (NU), she has lectured extensively including workshops in Canada, Mexico, USA, Turkey and China. She has taught at Concordia University since 1984. Baxter has been awarded grants from The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Concordia University (CUPFA) and received the Charles Biddle Prize (2017), and a lifetime achievement award, the Prix les Grands Soleils (2018) from Le Conseil de la cultures des Laurentides (QC).