installations

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.

Back to top