A Vue Weekly review of Saturday Mornings, The Diner by Carolyn Jervis.
“Also posing questions about the use of an exhibition space to its full potential is the exhibition currently in Latitude 53’s ProjEx Room: Saturday Morning, The Diner. Artists Sarah Fuller, Lindsay MacDonald, and Lia Rogers bring the small town Alberta diner into the art space through video recordings of the Alberta Cowboy Trail’s best eateries.
As you watch the video from a diner booth, peruse the laminated menu and play with the inoperable tabletop selection box, it is clear that an important prairie history is being recorded and celebrated. The question remains, however, as to whether this could be a more fully realized art installation to support that history more fully. A refinement of exhibition elements, such as making the video quality higher, and a revision of the “menu” of diners captured in the interviews and videos, could really enhance the focus on the marvelous history and culture of small town Alberta the artists have captured, not to mention enhance the feel of the show. Exhibitions such as this one raise the challenging question of how the recording of histories can be shared with fidelity without the erasure of art-based process and practice.”
