{{Short description|Canadian visual artist and educator}} {{Infobox artist | name = Barbara Meneley | image = | alt = | caption = Barbara Meneley ''A Complicated Hole'' video still 2014. | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | movement = new media art | awards = | patrons = | image_size = | known_for = visual artist | training = | education = Simon Fraser University,<br> Emily Carr University of Art and Design,<br> University of Regina,<br>Queen's University | notable_works = ''Unsettling the Last Best West: Restorying Settler Imaginaries'' | website = {{URL|https://www.barbarameneley.com}} }}
'''Barbara Meneley''' is a contemporary Canadian visual artist and educator based in Regina, Saskatchewan.<ref name=Horowitz2014/> She is known for her new media art, which brings together elements of media, installation art and performance art in solo and curated group exhibitions throughout Canada.<ref name=Mosurinjohn2012/><ref name="RACAR2014">{{cite journal|date=2014|title=Unsettling the Last Best West: Restorying Settler Imaginaries|jstor=43203126|journal=RACAR: Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review|volume=39|issue=1|last1=Meneley|first1=Barbara|pages=36–37|doi=10.7202/1026199ar|hdl=1974/13751|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Miliokas">{{cite news|last1=Miliokas |first1=Nick |title=Art can be found in unusual places |url=http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=146330c7-1f4c-4cc3-9045-17d967808325&sponsor |accessdate=18 March 2016 |work=The Regina Leader Post |date=September 4, 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331004017/http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=146330c7-1f4c-4cc3-9045-17d967808325&sponsor |archivedate=31 March 2016 }}</ref>
==Background== Meneley received a BA in Communications (1994 Simon Fraser University), Visual Arts Major (1995–1999 Emily Carr University), MFA Visual Arts in Intermedia (2009 University of Regina), and PhD in Cultural Studies (2011–2015 Queen's University).<ref name=Mosurinjohn2012>{{cite web|last1=Mosurinjohn|first1=Sharday|title=Barbara Meneley Ph.D candidate, Cultural Studies Engaging Creative Practice in an Academic Context|url=https://www.queensu.ca/sgs/barbara-meneley-student-profile|accessdate=13 March 2016|website=Queen's University School of Graduate Studies|date=23 April 2012}}</ref><ref name=PhD>{{cite thesis | last = Meneley | first = Barbara | degree = Ph.D | date = 2015 | title = Unsettling the last best West: restorying settler imaginaries | publisher = Queen's University | oclc = 930056842 }}</ref>
Meneley is an instructor at The University of Regina and First Nations University of Canada in Regina, Saskatchewan.<ref name=Leader/><ref name="CV">{{cite web|title=Barbara Meneley (CV)|url=https://www.barbarameneley.com/cv.html|website=Barbara Meneley|accessdate=18 March 2016}}</ref>
== Methodology ==
According to Dr. Risa Horowitz, a cohort of Canadian university-based artist-researchers, such as Barbara Meneley, employ practice-based research methodologies in which the "functions of research, creation and dissemination are complexly iterative, intertwined and reflexive", more prominently than in traditional art practice.<ref name=Horowitz2014/> Meneley's new media art brings together elements of media, installation art, performance art, as well as cultural mapping practices such as engagement in dialogic practice with observers, historical analysis and theoretical inquiry.<ref name=Mosurinjohn2012/><ref name="RACAR2014"/> For example, during a work's development, Meneley follows a deliberate routine of being open to public input and commentary, so that the background research and the artwork is in part a product of engaged dialog.<ref name="e-fagia">{{cite web|title=Symposium on Decolonial Aesthetics from the Americas Toronto, Canada 10, 11, 12 October 2013|url=https://www.e-fagia.org/news/Decolonial_Symposium_Programme2013.pdf|website=e-fagia visual and media arts organization|accessdate=18 March 2016}}</ref> This reflects an interest in educating through creative expression, in acknowledgment of an ideology that all people have within themselves creative capacities, which can be accessed by locating their personal means of expression.<ref name=Horowitz2014>{{cite journal|last1=Horowitz|first1=Risa|title=Introduction: As if from nowhere... artists' thoughts about creation|journal=RACAR: Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review|date=2014|volume=39|issue=1|page=27|jstor=43203121}}</ref><ref name=Mosurinjohn2012/> According to Reyes, individual artist-researcher projects come together in socially engaged art practices which incorporate "elements including workshops, exhibitions, residencies, pedagogy, curatorial practice and collaboration."<ref name="Reyes">{{cite book|last1=Delos Reyes|first1=Jennifer|title=Open Engagement: Art After Aesthetic Distance|date=2007|place=Regina, Saskatchewan|publisher=Post Conference Catalogue|pages=2–4 and 22–23|url=https://issuu.com/chillrock/docs/post__conference_catalogue}}</ref>
Meneley has stated that because her process is often determined through experimental responses to a particular discourse<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mackenzieartgallery.ca/admin/aMediaBackend/original?slug=shift-symposium-dialogues-of-migration-in-contemporary-art&format=pdf|title=SHIFT dialogues of migration in contemporary art|last=Strandline Curatorial Collective|website=Mackenzie Art Gallery|date=2011}}</ref> "[she has] to be clear on what [she says] textually, and doing that contributes to clarity in [her] material work. Again, as at every stage, process of problem solving are integral, incorporating inquiry and resolving the aesthetic, conceptual, material, and practical elements."<ref name=QU>{{Cite web|url=http://qspace.library.queensu.ca/handle/1974/13751|title=QSpace at Queen's University: Unsettling the Last Best West: Restorying Settler Imaginaries|website=qspace.library.queensu.ca|access-date=2016-03-08}}</ref>
==Works== Her projects have often been auto-ethnographic reflections, which analyze the discourse of colonial history, institutions, or land possession issues.<ref name="Residence">{{Cite web|url=http://www.creativemanitoba.ca/news-events/events/calendar-of-events/display,549/1297/mawa-presents-barbara-meneley-artist-in-residence-lecture|title=MAWA presents Barbara Meneley, Artist in Residence Lecture|publisher=ACI Manitoba|website=www.creativemanitoba.ca|access-date=2016-03-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220141024/http://www.creativemanitoba.ca/news-events/events/calendar-of-events/display,549/1297/mawa-presents-barbara-meneley-artist-in-residence-lecture|archive-date=2016-12-20|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Robertson>{{cite book|last1=Robertson|first1=Carmen (curator)|title=Real estate : ceremonies of possession|date=2007|publisher=Art Gallery of Regina|isbn=9781896432762}}</ref><ref name="Estate">{{cite web|title=REAL ESTATE: Ceremonies of Possession September 4 to October 13, 2007|url=http://www.artgalleryofregina.ca/RealEstate.html|website=Art Gallery of Regina|accessdate=18 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326015616/http://www.artgalleryofregina.ca/RealEstate.html|archive-date=26 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> A partial list follows.
===''I Have a Secret'' (2007)=== This project has been screened in Toronto,<ref name="TUFF">{{cite web|title=I have a secret|url=http://www.torontourbanfilmfestival.com/films/i-have-secret|website=Toronto Urban Film Festival (TUFF)|accessdate=18 March 2016}}</ref> Calgary, Kingston<ref name="Square">{{cite web|title=Square Pegs V|url=http://www.modernfuel.org/art/programming/event/575|website=Modern Fuel|accessdate=August 15, 2012}}</ref> and Saskatoon. The short experimental film was considered "remarkable for its linear innocence".<ref name="Wegg">{{cite web|last1=Wegg|first1=James|title=Toronto Film Festival - Secrets|url=http://www.jamesweggreview.org/Articles.aspx?ID=1016|website=James Wegg Review|accessdate=18 March 2016}}</ref>
=== ''Luminance'' (2009–2010)=== Meneley created ''Luminance'' as the Isabel Johnson Shelter Artist in Residence in Regina, Saskatchewan. She worked with people in shelters to create a city-wide participatory display of ice lanterns. "In creating this connection we extend awareness of domestic violence issues beyond the physical confines of our shelters and suggest that everyone has a role in making all spaces safe."<ref name=Mosurinjohn2012/>
===''The Breathing City'' (2010)=== Meneley was an artist-in-residence at the Saskatchewan Arts Board in 2010. She worked with visitors to the ''Queen City EX 2010'' to create a collaborative art installation, ''The Breathing City''.<ref name="SAB2010">{{cite web|title=Saskatchewan art at Queen City Ex|url=http://www.artsboard.sk.ca/news/1963-sask-art-qce|accessdate=13 March 2016|website=Saskatchewan Arts Board|date=2010}}</ref><ref name=Ex>{{Cite web|url=http://www.artsboard.sk.ca/partnerships/queen-city-ex/queen-city-ex-2010|title=Queen City Ex 2010 - Saskatchewan Arts Board|last=Cataldo|first=Sabrina|website=www.artsboard.sk.ca|access-date=2016-03-12}}</ref>
=== ''The Whispering City'' (2010) === ''Natural Forms: idyllic landscape and social forms in contemporary practices'' was a curated group exhibition held at Neutral Ground Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan. Meneley's ''The Whispering City'' examined civic planning and the "City Beautiful" movement.<ref name="Hampton">{{cite book|last1=Hampton|first1=John G. (curator)|title=Natural forms|date=2011|publisher=Neutral Ground Artist Run Center|location=Regina, SK|isbn=9781895522235}}</ref> City plans and maps were incorporated into a mobile made of long strips of light paper; these moved and turned with the slightest movement of observers. Meneley's intent was to give viewers a sense of agency, reinforcing the idea that "Everyone makes a mark on their city, each person can change the city fabric."<ref name="Gourlie">{{cite web|last1=Gourlie|first1=Martin|title=natural Forms|url=https://roberthengeveld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Natural-forms-reginaurbanecology-review.pdf|website=Regina Urban Ecology|date=September 14, 2010}}</ref> Meneley has emphasized the importance of integrating architecture into local environments.<ref name="Bessai">{{cite journal|last1=Bessai|first1=Margaret|title=Nature in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction|journal=Blackflash|date=February 5, 2011|url=https://roberthengeveld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Blackflash-review-Kentucky-perfect.pdf|accessdate=18 March 2016}}</ref>
===''Unofficial Apology'' (2011)=== Meneley's performance piece ''Unofficial Apology'' physically acted out the word "apology" in semaphore signals, using red and white maple leaf flags. It was created as a response to the Canadian government's apology to native people for the history of the residential school program in 2008. It also sought to critique the withdrawal of government funding for the First Nations University of Canada in 2010.<ref name=Mosurinjohn2012/>
=== ''Unsettling the Last Best West'' (2012–2015) === In ''Unsettling the Last Best West: Restorying Settler Imaginaries'', Meneley undertook an auto-ethnographic investigation as a "settler, settler descendant, and treaty person, focusing on a settler audience to contribute to anticolonial dialogues and conciliation in contemporary sites."<ref name=QU /> Completed for her PhD project, it consisted of five sub-projects each contributing to her concept surrounding settler imaginaries, which are rooted in analyzing the historical advertising strategies that brought settlers to present day Canada:
* ''Leaf Forever'', video animation, 2012. * ''Unsettling'', performance at Fifth Parallel Gallery, Regina, SK, 17 May 2015. * ''A Complicated Hole'', performance video, 2014. * ''Unmapping Assiniboia'', paper and digital works, 2014. * ''Unsettling the Last Best West'', bookwork, 2014.
Meneley's work investigates how art was used in the promotion and dissemination of colonial ideologies and the recruitment of settlers to Canada in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, under the aegis of Clifford Sifton, Canada's Minister of the Interior from 1896 to 1905.<ref name=RACAR2014/><ref name=PhD/> These historic advertising strategies were the product of a cross-disciplinary approach to communication; Meneley interrogates and challenges them in like manner.<ref name=RACAR2014/> According to Horowitz, her work "appropriate(s), subvert(s) and reshape(s) the colonial visual communications strategies".<ref name=Horowitz2014/>
=== ''Prairie History Redux'' (2016) === Meneley created and displayed ''Prairie History Redux'' at the Regina Public Library (central location).<ref name=Leader>{{Cite news|url=https://leaderpost.com/entertainment/local-arts/barbara-meneleys-prairie-history-redux-is-an-artistic-reflection-of-saskatchewans-complex-history|title=Barbara Meneley's Prairie History Redux is an artistic reflection of Saskatchewan's complex history|work=Regina Leader-Post|language=en-US|date=2016-01-17|first=Ashley |last=Martin}}</ref><ref name="Martin">{{cite news|last1=Martin|first1=Ashley|title=Four samples of prairie history, as drawn by Barbara Meneley|url=https://leaderpost.com/entertainment/local-arts/four-samples-of-prairie-history-as-drawn-by-barbara-meneley|accessdate=13 March 2016|work=The Regina Leader Post|date=January 17, 2016}}</ref><ref name="MOMUS">{{cite web|title=Regina: Dunlop Art Gallery: Barbara Meneley: Prairie History Redux|url=http://momus.ca/events/regina-dunlop-art-gallery-barbara-meneley-prairie-history-redux/|website=MOMUS|date=August 18, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Beatty">{{cite web|last1=Beatty|first1=Gregory|title=Prairie History Redux|url=https://www.prairiedogmag.com/prairie-history-redux/|website=Prairie Dog|date=October 15, 2015}}</ref> The project looks at the history of the prairies from pre-colonial times to the present day, using tracings of previous works onto translucent paper, which are displayed in the library space. It was curated by Blair Fornwald, assistant curator at the Dunlop Art Gallery.<ref name="CArt">{{cite web|title=Barbara Meneley: Prairie History Redux|url=http://canadianart.ca/exhibitions/barbara-meneley-prairie-history-redux/|website=Canadian Art|publisher=Canadian Art Foundation|accessdate=18 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160321075642/http://canadianart.ca/exhibitions/barbara-meneley-prairie-history-redux/|archive-date=21 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> The works, due to their fragile form, move and respond to the motion of viewers engaging with them, creating an element of intimacy between knowledge seekers and information. Due to the vast quantities of information in the collection, Meneley explored without a systematic approach, rather selecting her imagery and texts on their initial appeal. They were then traced and grouped with other findings, sometimes of a contradictory basis, encouraging conversations and thinking around overlapping histories of the area. As in past works, Meneley "describe[s] how art is used and how to use art as a strategy for personal transformation and for social and political critique."<ref name=Horowitz2014/>
== References == {{reflist|2}}
== External links == * Artist's website [https://www.barbarameneley.com]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meneley, Barbara}} Category:Artists from Regina, Saskatchewan Category:University of Regina alumni Category:Queen's University at Kingston alumni Category:Simon Fraser University alumni Category:Living people Category:Canadian multimedia artists Category:Canadian women artists Category:Year of birth missing (living people)