samskāra: Stories of Discernment – by Diana Chabros
The series of paintings in the art exhibition samskāra, thematically focuses on energy, the repetitive patterns humans undertake, and the interrelationships of land and animals. The paintings serve to examine forms of energy: physical, psychic and spiritual, through juxtaposing imagery of landscape and species with the monolithic architecture of human and corporate enterprise. The artist advocates for the non-human voices. Listening, and witnessing the practice of discernment, Chabros examines and visually transmutes these voices, documenting the impact of energetic, karmic, patterns which play out repeatedly in our lives: lifestyle choices, emotional dramas, industrial development decisions, and social morés.
Diana Chabros is home based in Val Marie Saskatchewan. One of the most fragile eco-systems in the world, the prairie grasslands in southwest Saskatchewan are constantly at risk for development as they harbour tremendous volumes of fossil energy, and other energy resources. Each of the paintings in samskāra is a portal into the dynamic play of grassland with climate and human intervention. This exhibition will provide viewers with an opportunity to reflect on their personal relationship with nature, their own samskāras, and to question both the ‘fictions’ and the ‘facts’, the wild and the domesticated, and the fragility and vastness of the area.