legs: a collaborative exhibition by Christine Fellows, Chantel Mierau, Jennifer Still

Winnipeg, MB – Gallery 1C03, the campus art gallery of The University of Winnipeg, is pleased to present the Canadian premiere of the award-winning short film, legs.

legs is an elegy—a poem written with the full length of the body.

Winnipeg artists Christine Fellows (music/sound/stop-motion), Chantel Mierau (costume/video) and Jennifer Still (poet) work in stride with life’s undoings—snapped clotheslines, drained swimming pools, shimmering nylon runs—to translate Still’s poem into a video installation. In the process, they discover what falls away is not necessarily gone.

Jennifer Still: “Embodying my poem with Christine and Chantel expands my sense of voice into its fullest being: swimming the poem, singing the poem, wearing it! Our process shows me how a poem can live and be lived: inside and outside all at once, hovering just above and below the furling, unfurling, crumpling page.”

“legs create[s] a gap that connects several generations of women… The film distinguishes itself through its unique object creations and an extraordinary timing that often borders on the absurd. Colourful mourning in glitter. What’s left when the body’s gone? Stockings.”
–Jury statement from the ZEBRA International Poetry Film Festival (Berlin), where legs was awarded the 2023 Ritter Sport Film Award

legs was created in the Red River Valley on Treaty One Territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Treaty Three Territory, Pine Falls, Manitoba, with generous grant awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and Manitoba Arts Council.

The exhibition program will feature a discussion with the artists and a hands-on poetry workshop that invites participants to create their own unique, wearable “care tag” poem.

Exhibition Hours
Monday – Friday between 12:00 and 4:00 pm from November 23, 2023 until February 16, 2024 (closed December 23, 2023 – January 7, 2024).

Affiliated Public Events
Reception: November 23, 2023, 4:00 – 6:00 pm at Gallery 1C03
Conversation with Christine Fellows, Chantel Mierau and Jennifer Still: Date/time/location TBA
Care Tag Poetry Workshop: Date/time/location TBA

Acknowledgments
Gallery 1C03 is on Treaty 1 Territory, the homeland of the Red River Métis and the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininew, Anishininew, Dakota and Dene peoples and our water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.

Getting Here and Accessibility
Maps of The University of Winnipeg campus, including accessibility and parking maps, can be found at https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/maps/. The Gallery is located on the main floor of Centennial Hall at 515 Portage Avenue. Accessible, street-level visitor entrances with auto door openers and ramps are via Portage Avenue, Ellice Avenue and Spence Street. The gallery doors are equipped with auto-openers. There is a gender-neutral, accessible washroom less than 100 feet from the Gallery entrance. Our exhibitions and affiliated events are free to everyone.

For more information and media interviews, contact:
Jennifer Gibson, Director/Curator, Gallery 1C03, The University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9
Phone: 204-786-9253
Email: j.gibson@uwinnipeg.ca
Website: www.uwinnipeg.ca/art-gallery