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.
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
Kelowna Art
Gallery, British Columbia, Canada
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.