An interesting and unique new exhibition opened at Kelowna Art Gallery (KAG) this weekend.

From artist duo Mia + Eric, In a Strange Place isn’t a bunch of canvases or sculptures, but instead a room filled with TV screens.

As visitors enter the darkened gallery space, they’ll encounter a meditative nine-channel video installation created by Mia Rushton and Eric Moschopedis.

Photo Credit: Contributed

“A series of overlapping, interacting and individual video performances roll out across the monitors encouraging gallery-goers to move within the installation,” a release from the KAG explains. 

“The video installation features 150 foresters, ecologists, activists, conservationists and land keepers performing abstract, slow-motion ‘dances’ in the woods wearing handmade masks of imagined future forest creatures.”

The improvised choreographies are meant to be reflections of the participant’s care work, their connection to the local forest and their role in an uncertain multi-species future.

Photo Credit: Contributed

“The aim of In a Strange Place is to translate the complex knowledge and expertise of forest caretakers into emotional and visual gestures for a non-science audience,” the artists say.

The total running time of the installation, which will be at the KAG until March 23, is two hours and four minutes.

Mia + Eric, who are a neurodivergent, interdisciplinary artist team based in Calgary, will be doing a free artists’ talk at the KAG on Thursday, Jan. 23, at 6 pm.