Articles of Faith Talk Series: Borys Tarasenko and Contemporary Ukrainian-Canadian Artist Experiences

Join the Mitchell Art Gallery’s exploration of Borys Tarasenko’s artwork in the current exhibition, Articles of Faith, through a conversation between the artist, artist and art historian Kalyna Somchynsky and art historian Olenka Skrypnyk.

Together, in this virtual artist talk, they will discuss how Tarasenko’s work invites important discussions about community, identity and belonging through humour and the creation of playful spaces. His installation, Churches Lounge (2021), juxtaposes elements from two contrasting sites, a dive bar and a Ukrainian Catholic Church, to encourage reflection on how one’s relationship to a community in which they were raised changes over the course of their life.

Embedded within their own subjective experiences growing up in the Ukrainian-Canadian community and the context of Ukrainian-Canadian art, Tarasenko, Somchynsky, and Skrypnyk will explore how one can feel discomfort while still finding solace in their community, how one can participate in their community while simultaneously rebelling and how one negotiates these tensions.

This virtual artist talk is open to MacEwan staff and faculty, and free for all to attend via Vimeo.

This event was created in collaboration between the Mitchell Art Gallery and the Ukrainian Resource and Development Centre at MacEwan University.

Articles of Faith explores how faith tethers us, often through ancestral practices, and whether or not we choose it. The exhibition is informed by the experiences artists shared with curator Carolyn Jervis and sociologist Dr. Robin Willey in interviews conducted as part of a four-year multi-sited ethnographic research project that explores relationships between art and faith.

This exhibition and research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, MacEwan University and Concordia University of Edmonton.

From the Mitchell Art Gallery