Spring 2017

For our 2017 Spring Education Program, Plug In ICA offered a combined tour of two exhibitions: Titig Kayumanggi (Brown Gaze), by Patrick Cruz, and A Greenhouse. Evening by Ray Fenwick. The guided tour was complimented by a workshop with local artist Janelle Tougas. The combined tour and workshop introduces students to installation and immersive art practices, and the technique of improvisation. Students will be introduced to additional concepts, such as diaspora, and think deeply about the place of communication and imagination in both of the exhibitions as well as how they relate to real life. Students will also learn about the importance of placein art making, and that art can be made using simple, readily available materials. The tour will introduce students to Plug In ICA’s history and then discuss the individual exhibitions, accompanied by the workshop.

Janelle Tougas is a multidisciplinary visual artist interested in spatial qualities and their ability to specify the tone and significance of an experience. Rooted in material culture, her process stems from a phenomenological interest in the construction of material spaces and in the affective potential of objects. She makes work to find thrills in oddities, and in the polarity of sensations while investigating the ways in which we make sense of information and circumstances.

Following an environmental design degree in architecture in 2013 and subsequent independent explorations, Janelle participated in the 2015 edition of the Plug In Summer Institute. Her installation Cure de ville has been featured in Storefront Manitoba’s Cool Garden exhibition since 2015 and remains in the sculpture garden at La Maison des artistes visuels francophones. Most recently in April 2017, Janelle showed open air langueur at Flux Gallery in Winnipeg. This sculptural installation is part of her collaborative work as colleagues with Shaylyn Plett.