2 Bridge Street, second floor window
Little Brown Bat is a drawing, in white neon, installed in downtown Sackville. Referring to the ongoing decimation of this bat population by White-nose Syndrome, the work is conceived as a metaphor for the complex interrelation of humans and other animals.
It is theorized that bats in North America were first exposed to the fungus by spelunkers who had inadvertently carried it on their equipment from caves in Europe. The North American species lacked the immunity of their European cousins and the sickness spread quickly, first appearing in 2006. By 2014, almost 99% of little brown bats in southern New Brunswick were wiped out.
Animals have figured in the independent and collaborative work of both artists for several years. The shifting relationships between humans and their encompassing environment, as well as the collaboration and competition between humans and other life forms, points to the entanglement of our fates. We hope that this work will resonate as a ghostly illumination of that connection.
Paula Jean Cowan is an interdisciplinary artist living in Sackville, NB. She was born in London, Ontario and raised in the nearby small town of Thamesford, population 2000. She holds a B.A. from Queens’ University, a B.F.A. Honours from the University of Western Ontario, and an M.F.A. from the University of Guelph. Much of her artistic practice involves either fat politics or animals & how humans interact with them. In 2008 she moved to Sackville, New Brunswick in with her awesome husband Chris and her wonderful stepson, Christian. She makes art as often as she can, bakes incessantly and makes costumes for, and plays with, her 5 year old son, Gruff.
Chris Down is an artist, teacher and writer living in Sackville, New Brunswick. He has exhibited his work nationally at the Art Gallery of Calgary, Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Museum London, Forest City Gallery, the Owens Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Windsor, and the Peter Buckland Gallery, among others. He has written features, reviews and catalogue essays for a variety of publications in Canada. He is currently associate professor in painting and drawing at Mount Allison University.
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