Painting Remix: in Search of Justice by Briony Haig

Artist Statement:

In Painting Remix: in Search of Justice series I take ephemeral moments of rebellion and create a permanent record of them in paintings.  I work from photographs and notes of protests that I, my husband, my daughter and/or my niece have participated in and photographed. The protests we have joined were on the topics of International Women’s Day, Take Back the Night, anti-fascism, high tuition fees, and safe and affordable transit, Pride, and climate protests. I am continuing my series and intend to document protests on additional issues such as intersectional feminism, labour, and poverty.

I like the idea of using painting, which is still so tied to portraiture and landscape in the public mind, as the medium to pay homage to these significant events. I am inspired by Charles Demuth’s “Buildings, Lancaster, 1930”, and his use of Precisionism. I experiment with Precisionism in some of my paintings to represent the fractures these issues cause in our society.

I use bright saturated colours to represent the joy and playfulness of life even though it is imperfect.

I started this series after attending an anti-fascist protest in 2018.  Four women were in bright playful costumes as clowns against fascism. This inspired me to think about protests in a new way;  that they could be playful and colourful and not just serious; and that maybe they would be more effective if they were fun or colourful.  I started my series then, and bright colour and a playful element has been and will be in all my paintings.

A common thread in this series is sticking up for the underdog. I’ve always felt for underdogs.

Briony Haig works in bas-relief sculpture, figurative sculpture, painting and animation. She was born in, and currently works in Winnipeg. She lived in Portage la Prairie from 1979 - 2001 and was involved with the Portage and District Arts Council as a member of the XO Committee and chair of the board. She studied art at the University of Manitoba School of Art from 1993-97, and taught art at Elmwood High School for 15 years.

Biography:
Winnipeg artist Briony Haig works in figurative and bas-relief sculpture, painting and animation. She studied art at the University of Manitoba School of Art from 1993-97, and additionally has studied polymer clay at the Northwest Polymer Clay Guild, drawing at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and participated in the year long Foundation Mentorship program at Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art. Haig continues to work with her amazing mentor Brenna George.
Haig has participated in twenty Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA) group exhibitions, including Artist Mothers, Artist Teachers, and Members shows. She participated in the group show “Breaking the Silence on Domestic Violence” which showed at the Winnipeg Art Gallery exhibition in November 2018, the MHC Gallery June 2021 and again at the MHC Gallery from November 19, 2021 to January 15, 2022. Haig has always been a part of artist groups or artistic activities, including being on the board of the Portage Arts Council in the 1980s, belonging to art groups and artist teacher groups. She taught art in Portage through the ArtSmarts program in the 1990s and in her home studio. She taught art at Elmwood High School in Winnipeg from 2001- 2015 and learned so much about art through that work. She is currently on the board of Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art and a member of the Gimli Art Club and the Bechdel Seven artist collective. She has painted virtually every day of the pandemic and found solace in it. She is delighted to be showing her work in Portage.

EXHIBITION RESPONSE | PAINTING REMIX: IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE | BRIONY HAIG | 2022

By: Laura Lewis

The Precisionism inspired works of Briony Haig’s Protest Paintings create nuances of nostalgia and silent revelry. Combinations of vibrant, geometric backgrounds, juxtaposed with finely detailed figurative renderings generate a beautifully orchestrated harmony.

With a muted palette, Haig depicts tumultuous situations frozen in time. The artist draws inspiration from first hand experiences of attending various protests in Winnipeg. She is inspired by both local and global social justice movements, and challenging topics such as sexual harassment, alcoholism, and climate change.

In You'll die of old age; we'll die of climate change, 2021, Haig depicts a young person participating in a climate change protest at the Manitoba Legislature. The figure is holding two protest signs, the text of which carries the title of the painting itself. The colorfully rendered background filled with brightly lit figures united in protest is a sharp contrast to the central figure. Dressed almost completely in black except for a dark red scarf wrapped around the bottom half of their face: a symbolic indicator of the current times.

The tone shifts from painting to painting in this exhibition: From Clowns Against Facism, 2018, which has a seemingly playful response to an incredibly dark and historically oppressive movement, to Leather Chaps, 2022, where Haig depicts a person sporting full BDSM attire at a Pride picnic in the 90s, walking amid other proudly queer folx of that era. Collectively, this body of work accentuates the spectrum of protest experiences in a unified manner, while simultaneously allowing onlookers to relate and contextualize their personal experiences to the work.