Ebb and Flow Exhibition at Art Gallery of Alberta Explores Water Through Photography

The Art Gallery of Alberta presents 'Ebb and Flow,' an exhibition featuring photographers Meryl McMaster and Aïda Muluneh exploring water's multifaceted roles. McMaster, of nêhiyaw (Plains Cree), Métis, British and Dutch ancestry, investigates connections between land, sea, and ancestral history through works like 'As Immense as the Sky' (2019). Her triptych 'Ordovician Tide' (2019) was created at Green Point, Newfoundland, a geological site formed nearly 500 million years ago during the Ordovician period when contemporary Canada, Ireland and Scotland converged. Ethiopian photographer Aïda Muluneh addresses water access issues in Africa through her 2018 WaterAid commission 'Water Life,' comprising 12 pieces that challenge stereotypical depictions of suffering. Muluneh's 'The Shackles of Limitation' (2018) shows a subject holding a blue umbrella while trailing empty yellow containers through murky waters. Both artists use self-portraiture to examine identity, colonization, and historical memory. The exhibition includes Muluneh's triptych 'Denkinesh' (2016), showing a protagonist's journey from envelopment to triumph. McMaster's series involves consultation with Elders to trace ancestral footsteps across significant sites. Academic Kritish Rajbhandari's 2022 publication 'Postcolonial Fictions, Oceans and Seas' contextualizes oceans as sites of imperial interpellation and traumatic passages. The exhibition runs until 7 July 2024.