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Colourful Commemoration 

By Karen Herland

Katja MacLeod Kessin's work fills the FOFA Gallery and spills into the vitrines. On Oct. 25 it will also be discussed across the hall in EV 1.605. The exuberant colours and simple shapes seem fairly realistic. However . . .

“Often there was a hidden joke, a punch line — more like a punch in the gut,” wrote co-curator Sara Morley in the catalogue that accompanies the posthumous celebration of Kessin's life and work. “The pieces look cheery and bright, but they have a dark side, there are things that flip,” said Lynn Hughes, one of the professors who supervised Kessin's PhD.

Hughes, along with Morley, Loren Lerner and David Elliot, came together shortly after Kessin's funeral in April 2006 and decided that an exhibit would be a fitting commemoration of her contributions to the university and the art world.

All four co-curators knew Kessin, though when they read each other's catalogue texts, they realized it was in remarkably different ways. “It helps to understand the rich complexity of this woman,” Lerner said.

Elliot was Kessin’s neighbour, and gave her advice when she first assembled her portfolio to apply to the program. He remained a supporter of her work throughout a career that spanned two decades. “It made sense to do this retrospective of her work at Concordia. She got all three of her degrees here,” said Hughes.

Hughes remembers an uncompromising young woman who followed her own muse. “She wasn't influenced by the students around her, she wasn't doing the coolest or hippest thing.” Looking around the gallery she added, “But the work feels very contemporary now.” Kessin's decision to pursue a PhD in the Humanities program was also ahead of its time.

Morley, who started in the BFA program with Kessin, and remained a closed friend despite their diverging career paths, was struck by Kessin's methodical approach. This might have been as much due to her busy life as a mother of three as about her approach to creativity.

For Morley, 366 Days is the obvious illustration of this focus. Kessin produced a painting a day for the leap year ending on Sept. 14, 2004. This show is the first time that the work will be presented. Displayed on a wall in the gallery, the bright canvases relate to each other, to Kessin's motifs and to her own illness. Kessin uses colour and humour to tease new meanings out of traditional themes or simple words.

For instance, “Born to be Blond” could be a hair dye slogan. It also reflects Kessin's uneasy relationship to her own German ancestry (she came to Canada in 1981). The Aryan connection is more concrete when juxtaposed with an image of Hitler in lederhosen floating just above and over from that canvas.

It was this element of Kessin's work that Lerner, who shares an interest in genocide and Holocaust studies, recalled in her catalogue text. Discussing Kessin's performance work (some of which is displayed through video in the show) she wrote, “In reaching for the hidden secrets and untold stories of Nazi Germany, she encourages her audiences to experience the past and give it a place in the present.”

Lerner recalled Kessin's participation in a seminar about the Holocaust in which she shared with fellow students her memories of growing up in Germany after WWII and her self-reflective interpretation of the texts.

Kessin's contributions extended to developing some of the first studio arts programs for non-Fine Arts students that the faculty offered. She also developed a program to allow women living in a shelter for victims of violence to use painting to express themselves.

“She could get people involved in art practice who were really reticent about their abilities. But in the end, they were proud of their work,” said Morley.

The vernissage at the FOFA gallery begins Oct. 25 at 6 p.m., and the show continues until Nov. 16. Sales of the catalogue will raise money towards a scholarship in Kessin’s name.