"Edelweiss" Closing Event: Lantern Gifting and Celebration

Artists Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky welcome you to join them in celebrating the closing of their exhibition Edelweiss.

As part of this closing event, the artists will undertake a performance in which they gift the watercolour, mulberry paper, wire and beeswax lanterns they have created for the installation, dispersing these personal memories from Trevor's family home into the world.

The artists have been gradually making and adding new lanterns to Edelweiss as the show has progressed. Please join us for this special occasion, to see the work in its complete state, and have a chance to take part in the gifting performance.

Please note: Registering for this event does not guarantee you a lantern, however it does offer you the opportunity to be gifted one.
How it works: Once you arrive and check in with us, you will receive one ticket for the lantern queue until all lantern tickets are gone – first come, first served. When you arrive at Esker, you will be asked to queue in order of arrival and, if there are lantern tickets still available, your group will be given one.

During the event, the lantern tickets given will be called in numerical order – someone from your group must be present at the event with the lantern ticket in hand when your ticket number is called, otherwise the next number will be called, and your ticket will become invalid. When your ticket number is called you can enter the black shed that houses the lanterns in the Central Gallery, meet the artists and select one of the available lanterns.

Please note that each family / household / registered group is eligible to receive a single ticket for the queue, and each ticket offers the possibility of receiving one lantern only for that group. This is to offer the chance to as many folks as possible to enjoy and take care of these works.
There will also be refreshments, and a DIY lantern-making activity as part of the celebration. The completed work will be viewable for the first hour of the event.

Tickets will be released in batches leading up to the event, and in-gallery on the last weekend of the exhibition. Registration is ESSENTIAL and only available through Eventbrite.

Please register with an email address that you monitor regularly. You will receive a confirmation email prior to the program. You must reply to the email to confirm your attendance. If you are not able to confirm, your spot will be offered to another attendee. This system has been implemented to ensure as few tickets as possible go unused, and all lanterns end up with a home. We very much appreciate your cooperation and look forward to seeing you at the event!

Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky, based in New York and Toronto respectively, have worked collaboratively since 2004. Their work has increasingly incorporated communal aspects of making, such as DIY tutorial videos and virtual crafting bees, in the context of economies of appropriation, trade, and the gift. Their recent video project Crafts Abyss was hosted by the Museum of Arts & Design, New York. Other exhibitions since 2022 include a major temporary public installation for OpenArt, Orebro; and solo exhibitions at Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto; the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Arts Center at Governors Island, New York; and the Owens Art Gallery, Sackville. Their work is in collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Vancouver Art Gallery; and the Musee d’art Contemporain de Montreal. They were awarded the 2014 Glenfiddich Prize and were the 2022 L.L. Odette Sculptors in Residence at York University, Toronto.

Images: Installation views of the exhibition Edelweiss by Rhonda Weppler & Trevor Mahovsky. Photo by: Blaine Campbell.

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Respect and Inclusion: By registering for this Program you agree to co-create, in collaboration with Esker Staff, Artists and Volunteers, an atmosphere of mutual inclusion and respect for all persons. This includes speaking, acting and behaving in a way that is absent of violence, harassment, racism, intimidation, bullying or discrimination of any kind regardless of, and not limited to gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, culture, age and ability. This includes in online/digital forums.

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Should you require any support, or have any questions, please reach out to: programs - at - eskerfoundation.com

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