The Tree Museum: Easy Come, Easy Go

Guest curated by EJ Lightman

Opening Reception: Sunday, September 15, 2 pm to 5 pm

Featured artists: Rebecca Armstrong, Jocelyne Belcourt Salem, Michel Boucher, Maralynn Cherry, John Dickson, Deeter Hastenteufel, Roger Henriques, Francis LeBouthillier, E.J. Lightman, Dyan Marie, Anne O’Callaghan, Heather Phillips, Ed Pien, Reinhard Reitzenstein, Margaret Rodgers, Lyla Rye, Meghan Scott, Jordy Steinberg, Penelope Stewart, Orest Tataryn, Jeannie Thib, Francesca Vivenza, Tim Whiten, Gayle Young, Badanna Zack, and Johannes Zits.

Easy Come Easy Go is a project envisioned by E.J. Lightman, curator of the Tree Museum. Established in 1997 by E.J. Lightman and Art Steinberg, the Tree Museum, located near Gravenhurst, has exhibited site-specific art installations and hosted an artist residency program for both Canadian and international artists. The “nature” of the Tree Museum and its outdoor installations was one of transience, hence this project features the idea of a suitcase as a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life experience. With this in mind, artists-in-residence at the Tree Museum were invited to reanimate salvaged suitcases, breathing life into the discarded forms.

Lightman writes, “The project addresses the issues of ‘coming and going’; inner reflection; and relics of pilgrimage, both in the objective and subjective realms. Given the frequently nomadic aspect of modern life, the suitcase provides a rich symbol for movement, change, necessity, and ownership. At the same time, there is a sense that the suitcase holds a history; it may be viewed as an ‘historical’ object, an artefact, something of use but no longer current . . . Entire stories exist between the hinge and clasp of a suitcase.”