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St. Albert Art Gallery features a Dwayne Martineau installation

Strange Jury enters the world of nature where trees stand in judgement of humanity's indifference
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The Deer is one of the seven judges in Dwayne Martineau's Strange Jury currently on display at Art Gallery of St. Albert.

One of the spookiest feature installations the Art Gallery of St. Albert has launched is currently on display in the main gallery space until Nov. 16. 

Strange Jury is eerie. It sends chills down your spine and is perfect as we head into Halloween. 

Visual artist, musician and composer Dwayne Martineau’s vision of Strange Jury is a trial by nature. The judges are tall, ancient trees like the Ents in Lord of the Rings. They live in our massive forests and stand as a testament to endurance. Humans, whose sense of superiority and arrogance desecrate the planet, are being put on trial. Simply put, the trees are judges. We are defendants. 

A circle of seven large banners with images of each entity hangs suspended from the gallery ceiling more than three feet off the floor. As an effect, the entities are always looking down upon viewers. Spotlights shine from behind the images creating a ghostly glow. 

A 12-minute looping soundscape captures the entities’ mutterings as they argue, present evidence, deliberate and pronounce a verdict. The chilling loop of undistinguishable words simply adds to the sense of people as outsiders. 

In a powerful artist statement Martineau said, “We’ve been trained to see the self as central and superior. That has survival advantages, but there are consequences. It can cause us to act against our own self-interests. When we see the ground, forest, water, air as separate from us, we don’t give a thought to rippling them up and lighting them on fire. We will burn our support system, and exterminate our evolutionary cousins, in the name of our own survival, not realizing we are killing ourselves in the process.” 

Martineau’s goal is less about castigating people and more about prodding them to see nature’s importance in our lives through a different lens. 

Art gallery Emily Baker described how the installation affected her. 

“I love what he does. He takes art egos and leaves them at the door. He creates a space in nature that is ancient and venerable. It exists in a space not our own and makes viewers feel humbled,” Baker said. 

As she walks around the installation pointing out the different judges, she adds, “You catch the feeling of being in the woods all alone and it reminds us how fragile we are. There’s something valuable in reminding ourselves that nature has its own time and rhythms and doesn’t care two craps about us.” 

Each image was created from many layers of detailed photographic negatives Martineau took of tree trunks and branches throughout Edmonton’s Mill Creek Ravine. 

“He built a light table and used mirrors to create symmetrical images,” Baker said. “When he discovered something worked, he took digital macro photos and blew them up to a large scale.” 

In addition to the central installation, Martineau has created three peephole boxes containing aromatic roots, branches, leaves, loose leaf tea and mirrors. 

The gallery is offering an in-person tour on Oct. 17 at 6:30 p.m. and a virtual tour on Oct. 23 at noon on Facebook Live. An artist talk and reception is taking place Oct. 24 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.  


Anna Borowiecki

About the Author: Anna Borowiecki

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