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For Immediate Release The Walter Phillips Gallery tips its hat to cowboy culture Inspired by the faux-western image of Banff in the first half of the 20th century, curator Andrew Hunter creates his latest large-scale installation in the Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre. Giddy-up! (or A Darn Good Hat Act) opens June 5 and runs through August 15. A talented and prolific visual artist and curator, Hunter’s work is informed by popular culture and combines original storytelling, collection, found objects and artwork, as well as household goods. He often works with other artists, and for Giddy-Up! he’s invited Winnipeg-based photographer William Eakin (who has his own affinity with commercial objects, amateur art, and Value Village ephemera) to create a series of original photographs for the exhibition. Giddy-Up! began with Hunter’s research into the tourist image of Banff in the 1940s and 50s, which was marketed with a thick veneer of kitschy cowboy culture, with its Indian Days festival, stockade-like museum, fancy-dress cowgirls, and brightly painted teepees. “I’m interested in the idea of places assuming a folk identity,” Hunter says. That led to an original narrative about the cowboy dreams of a young boy from Ontario, whose perception of the West is inspired by pulp fiction, cowboy music, and classic Western movies. The exhibition features a collection of original and commissioned art, pieces from collections such as those owned by Banff’s Whyte Museum, and found objects from flea markets, eBay, and garage sales, installed to represent the domestic space in which his ‘story’ is staged. Hunter has produced exhibitions, publications, and articles for public museums across Canada and the United States, particularly on the history and marketing of Canada. His collection-based narrative projects have been shown at the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. William Eakin has worked in film and television, as an art instructor, and with the Inuit artists of Baker Lake in Nunavut. His photographs have been exhibited internationally, and can be found in permanent collections including the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in Ottawa. Giddy-Up! opens June 5, with an opening reception in the Walter Phillips Gallery at 2 p.m. Visitors are invited to join Andrew Hunter later on the 5th for an evening of fireside storytelling (with cowboy coffee and hot chocolate) in the TransCanada Pipelines Pavilion at The Banff Centre. — 30 — Download print-ready images at: www.banffcentre.ca/communications/images/wpg/ Media Contact
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