Over 80 bridal portraits on 1 ft. x 4 ft. rough wood - representing 48,000 war brides - form a zig-zag of mutual support. They simply stand on wooden planks embedded with rural and urban destinations throughout Canada.
Otago Settlers Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand
New Zealand portion of exhibition
(April 24 to August 29, 2010)
Glenbow Museum
Calgary, Alberta
November 6, 2009 - February 14, 2010
www.glenbow.org
The
Royal BC Museum
Victoria, B.C.
May 8 - September 1, 2008
www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca
Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
September 18, 2008 - January 4, 2009
Canadian War Museum
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
May 12 - January 6, 2008
Photographs courtesy Canadian War Museum
www.warmuseum.ca
Pier 21 Museum
Canada's
Immigration Museum
Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada
June 29-September 27, 2006
Diefenbaker Canada Centre,
University
of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
March 4 through May 31,2006
click image for larger view
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Kelowna Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada
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Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
History: War brides remain an anomaly in the history of Canadian immigration: young women immigrating alone - or with infants - to no established community of support. Most of Canada¹s 48,000 war brides immigrated in 1946, as troop and hospital ships doubled as Bride ships¹. Their one-way ocean passage was provided by the Canadian government.
Format: One-Way Passage has 3 components:
1) a wall of 550 small mixed media photo-based images on paper, vellum
and parachute silk. Some are presented as minute Tear bottle¹ portraits
steeped in sea water and sealed in wax. A wartime radio, refitted with
CD, broadcasts fragmentary war bride memories.
2) 48 bridal portraits on 1 ft. x 4 ft. rough wood - representing 48,000
war brides - form a zig-zag of mutual support. They simply stand on
wooden planks embedded with rural and urban destinations throughout
Canada.
3) a full-scale WW II parachute - 600 square feet of old silk - draped
to resemble a huge wedding gown. As a metaphor for displacement, it can
stand-alone or double as a screen/scrim for visual projection (i.e. from
within).
Support Materials/Events:
1) A short documentary video called One Way Passage: The wake of a
war bride (2005) by Canadian filmmaker, Colleen Sharpe, has a
running time of 9 minutes. It explores my mother's passage as a war
bride through the eyes of an artist and - with the permission of the
filmmaker - travels with the exhibition.
2) Canada Post unveiled a commemorative war bride envelope on May 8,
2005.
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