WayneBenedet

This collection is dedicated to the pioneering spirit that built this country. Not only to those who have left a legacy, but also to all of us who continue to work and develop this country. The images in this collection are old and often they are decaying. Yet the spirit that built these structures lives on and continues to flourish in this country and in many others. It is to this ongoing pioneering spirit that this collection and show is dedicated. Voice of the Pioneer was displayed in the following communities OPENING SHOW: The Sentinel Courier Pilot Mound, Manitoba Fall 2011 Burrow Trails Arts Centre - McCreary Manitoba December 2011 to January 2012 Pembina Hills Art Gallery - Morden Manitoba - February 2012 Golden Prairie Art Gallery - Carman Manitoba, April 2012 Mennonite Heritage Village Gerhard Ens Gallery - Steinbach Manitoba - May 1 - June 15, 2012. Killarney Manitoba - August 2 to September 28, 2012 at Lakeland Regional Library, 318 Williams Ave. Tiger Hills Arts Gallery - Holland, Manitoba - October 2012 Boissevain and Morton Regional Library - Boissevain, Manitoba - March 1- April 30, 2013. This show consists of 43 images from "Voice of the Pioneer" and selections from "An Old Ride - Classics in the Rough". Watson Art Centre - Dauphin, Manitoba - Mid July and August 2013 Artists Statement When I think of history, I tend to see it in my mind like windows moving through time. Each window is a slice or a period of time. The first window that I perceive represents the people themselves and the periods in which they lived. Voice of the Pioneer speaks to a time that is roughly 75 to 150 years ago. All of these individuals who lived at the beginning of this period are gone, but the things that they created, used and worked with continue on in our present world. This continuation of what these individuals created is the second window which spans multiple generations and times and comes down to us in the present. But even this time window will eventually end and in some cases already has ended, as the relics of the past disappear. The next window is comprised of the oral and written history. If this window is oral, it can be very short lived but will usually touch at least two generations beyond the level of creation and usually it remains within a few family units. If however the history is written, it can touch many generations, even when the actual connections are lost or even when no actual familial or friendship connection exists. This kind of window can have long term impacts on many generations, but even it eventually ends though it may take many thousands of years to do so. The final window is the most translucent of all. It is comprised of the intangible voice, or message of the past that we perceive when we hear the history or see the remains that people created and used. The images in Voice of the Pioneer are intended to connect us with that voice, but how we perceive it will be totally dependent upon our own personal experience, our own past The images will not speak to each person in the same way. Some of the images will not speak to some people at all. Because the individual experience of each viewer is unique, it is not possible for any one image to contain the totality of that voice or message. Rather, the voice is contained in the collection of the images rather than one or two. Some of the images will speak more readily than others of familiar themes. For example, the images of the old homes often speak to people of the values or family and relationships, or about simpler times in the past. Other images are less connected to some of us or are more complex and so the voice is not as readily heard or even understood. In doing this series, I have found that as I spend more time with these images, they seem to have the ability to speak at ever deeper levels. So even though I may have taken the pictures and created the display, the images tend to speak of their own accord, and have their own unique message which is clearly not the message that I have heard or even intended. The message to each of us is unique but only of course, they can only speak when we are prepared to hear.