
Interior of the Eaton Centre showing one of
Michael Snow and Joyce Wieland's best known sculptures, called ''Flightstop'', which depict
Canada Geese in flight. She made the sculpture with her partner Michael Snow.
'Joyce Wieland' (
June 30,
1931 –
June 27,
1998) was a
Canadian experimental filmmaker and mixed media artist. She and
Emily Carr are considered to be Canada's greatest female artists
[1].
Life
Wieland was born in Toronto in 1931 and she first studied art at Toronto's
Central Tech School. After a trip to Europe she began a job as a film animator and through this met her husband, fellow Canadian artist
Michael Snow. She had her first solo show at the
Isaacs Gallery in Toronto in 1960, which at the time meant she was also the only female artist represented by a contemporary Canadian commercial gallery.
Work
In 1963 Wieland and Snow moved to New York where they lived for ten years. She attracted critical recognition of her work but she was also once assaulted and nearly raped by a mugger. This experience soured her and Snow to New York and they soon returned to Toronto.
Wieland later divorced Snow and kept a low profile until her death in 1998 from
Alzheimer's disease. She was made an Officer of the
Order of Canada in 1982.
Films by Joyce Wieland
★ ''Water Sark'' (1965)
★ ''Rat Life and Diet in North America'' (1968)
★ ''Dripping Water'' (1969) (co-directed with
Michael Snow)
★ ''Cat Food'' (1969)
★ ''Reason Over Passion/la raison avant la passion'' (1969) (a meditation on the
Canada of
Pierre Trudeau)
★ ''Solidarity'' (1973)
★ ''The far shore'' (1976)
★ ''A and B in Ontario'' (1984) (co-directed with
Hollis Frampton)
★ ''Birds at Sunrise'' (1986)
Films about Joyce Wieland
★ ''Artist on Fire. Joyce Wieland'' (Canada 1987) directed by Kay Armatage
References
1. Joyce Wieland, Canada's Greatest Female Artist, retrieved on May 25th 2007.
External links
★
Joyce Wieland at Collections Canada