Heather Latter
Fort Frances artist Eric C. Keast is the featured artist for December at Baari Vakiopaine, a café in Jyväskylä, Finland.
Keast’s friend, Will Lahti, who is from Minnesota, moved to Finland about nine years ago and was the one who asked Keast about putting on an art show there.
The pair, who met and formed an arts collective in Minneapolis, stayed in touch over the years and Keast was thrilled to be able to hold a show in a different country.
“It’s very interesting,” he enthused last week. “Because we have small cultural space here in Northwestern Ontario, it’s interesting to have my works in Europe. . . .
“It is the furthest I’ve ever had any of my work,” he added. “It’s not a prestigious art location, but it is in Europe.”
Lahti let Keast choose the month he wanted to hold his show and he selected December, entitling it “The Art Show at the End of the World” to mark the end of the world on Dec. 21 as supposedly predicted by the Mayan calendar.
Keast chose 17 of his canvases, which he mailed to Finland. They were supposed to arrive Nov. 28, but unfortunately were held up at Customs and didn’t arrive in time for the opening.
But Lahti displayed photos of Keast’s works and sold one from that alone.
“I was told there was lots of serious interest in my pieces,” Keast added.
He indicated his canvases eventually were released from Finnish Customs and went up on the walls of Baari Vakiopaine after the weekend.
Keast’s art, which exhibits some influence from the founder of the Woodlands School, Norval Morriseau, deals with man’s lost connection with the world around him.
The visual alphabet of the natives of the northwest comes through in his work, without the cultural constraints.
Some of the pieces sent to Finland include “Red Turtle Canvas,” which swims amongst the cosmos but still near the Earth, and “Orca Breech,” which Keast described as an archetypal beast that we only are beginning to understand.
“We fantasize about meeting aliens but we cannot speak to the dolphins, yet,” he noted.
Keast spent the last year working on pieces for this show and indicated he had plenty to choose from, leaving at least 10 behind.
He said he had to change the show a bit because due to the limitation on the dimension to mail items, it would have cost a great deal more to send some of his bigger canvases.
All his works were done on unstretched canvas, using acrylic paint instead of oil, knowing that he would be mailing them and it would be easier to send in that fashion.
While Keast couldn’t be there for the Dec. 1 opening, he attended via the Internet, transmitting a live broadcast of his Internet television show, “Zzhorn and BingoRage.”
The program will be viewable at Baari Vakiopaine, as well as online.
“It was a lot of fun. People were watching,” enthused Keast, noting the show was streamed at 10 a.m., which was 6 p.m. in Finland.
He expected to have a show “closing” also by telepresence.
Keast is hoping all of his pieces sell in Finland, especially so he doesn’t have to pay to ship them home.
He received an Ontario Arts Council exhibition assistance grant to help with the cost of sending them there initially.
He also hopes to find another venue in Finland to house his show in the new year.
In the meantime, Keast will continue to work on his art here in Fort Frances while trying to expand the cultural economy.
He currently is involved in the local Rainy River Arts Collective.
“There’s a recognition that local artists are trying to identify with each other and we need more participation,” he remarked.
Keast studied anthropology and archeology at the University of Trent in Peterborough, Ont., but never has received any formal training in the arts.
In addition to his painting, Keast has worked as an assistant to sculptor Ed Archie Noisecat and as an apprentice at Anurag Art foundry.
He also has done some work with the Heart of the Beast puppet theater.
Keast also will continue on with his podcast, which can be viewed by searching #ZzorhnAndBingoRage at ustream.TV
“It’s becoming a much more viable way to spread your work, opinion, and reach out to an audience,” he reasoned.
For more information, visit Keast’s website at www.bingorage.com
