After years of going to K-Mart every day after he finished working, it seemed appropriate for the old man to die there. It was in the jewelry section in the centre of the store, where his heart stopped beating for good. Ever since his dad died at 60 of a heart attack at K-Mart, he thought that he would/should die at the same age, in the same way and at an equivalent place, such as Walmart or maybe Zellers.

 

Set around the homes of her parents in Mission BC, Sherry Walchuk’s work is extremely personal and deeply rooted in the desire to draw, paint and build stories. Out of the vernacular and the banal, Walchuk’s work tells stories that precariously take shape through bricolage and acts of trying. The exhibition For my Dad is dedicated to her father, for his upcoming 60th birthday. Inspired by the desire for and the attempt toward change, Walchuk creates a healing space, a warm space, a space of possibility and a space for the future as a gift to her dad for his potential impending death.

Working from memory and imagination, the cardboard spaces that she creates evoke sites of suburban leisure activity. Situated in the yard and outside of the home, where the rules loosen, these spaces become characters in Walchuk’s world. Ultimately, the humanity in these objects allows us to find humour in our own fumbling attempts to move through the world. It forces us to deal with and to be present in the insecurity of being and doing. The point is to make vulnerable, and to give pleasure.

 

Sherry Walchuk lives and works in Mission BC, and in Montreal QC, where she recently completed her MFA in Painting/Drawing at Concordia University.

Exhibitions  

Participating Artists: Sherry Walchuk (Montréal)
Curator(s):
Credits: Image : Sherry Walchuk, 2012