Bio

Brenna George is a Winnipeg-based artist working in video and painting. Her video work has been screened nationally and internationally since 1990, at festivals ranging from Basse Normandie to New South Wales. Her drawings and paintings have been exhibited at many galleries including Artspeak and Grunt gallery in Vancouver; White Water Gallery in North Bay, Ontario. George has worked as a freelance video editor for several artists including Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, and has taught workshops in video editing, AfterEffects and digital photography. Her video work is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the Surrey Art Gallery.  Her fluid technical experiments in image editing and compositing combine with a sensibility that is humorous, visually lush and playful. Her paintings explore an identity of place, and a physical experience of Canadian landscape. 

Raw and gestural, they suggest the isolation of the artist in nature. Still lifes, that take as their subject banquet tables, small animals, cakes and birds, toys placed in theatrical tableaux, address her experience and that of other women. Small in scale, they are subtle and poignant investigations of the space of the domestic.

Works

Spring

  • 2013
  • Brenna George

In my video “Spring” I evoke the emotion of spring, where the bleakness of winter cracks open to the fragile but unstoppable bounty of springtime hope. I am playing with the flat surface of video and keeping the consciousness of the square and rectangle format. I am also subtly kaleidoscoping one's vision of the world as one's hope opens up. I have set a basic narrative structure of first comes love and then comes babies with the metaphor of the tree of life, the family tree.

Spring

Dustpan

  • 2009
  • Brenna George

Time is measured in increments of what falls on the kitchen floor.

Dustpan

Winnipeg to Saskatoon

  • 2009
  • Brenna George

A road trip video. The Canadian prairie landscape is sketched in simple forms in this on-the-move approach to landscape art.

Winnipeg to Saskatoon

Calamity

  • 2000
  • Shawna Dempsey, Lorri Millan

"Calamity" follows the Wild West heroine Calamity Jane through time.

Calamity

Front Step, The

  • 1995
  • Brenna George

This video, comprised solely of one edit, is a quick peek into the reality of two video makers; video production, sex and poverty. The chatter of these lovers is the day-to-day experience of love, love as sustainable companionship. This is an average moment, perhaps one of the forgettable conversations that comprise and define our lives. Here is a man and a woman sitting on the front step on a summer evening. The Front Step is a collaboration between Brenna George and Rick Fisher.

Front Step, The

Sleep

  • 1995
  • Brenna George

Sleep is a metaphor for lack of hope, for energy that is inexplicably draining from you. Beyond caring, your passive body allows others to voyeur. A restrained pallet of only black, red, white and flesh establishes a controlled interior and a formative exploration of the soul.

Sleep

Wallpaper

  • 1995
  • Brenna George

This video visually explores the microcosm of old rotting wallpaper in abandoned farm houses.

Wallpaper

L. Bird

  • 1994
  • Brenna George

Out on the open prairie, how could you possibly feel hemmed in? Through the dialogue between a bird and a woman, the story of a woman’s situation and love relationship unfolds. As it does, so does the issue gossip as a tool of conformity to a community’s morals, expectations and the idea that truth is a very delicate and disposable item. This is all approached with a good sense of humour - the lighter something tastes, the more of it you can eat.

L. Bird

Red Riding Hood

  • 1994
  • Brenna George

This version of the classic tale is explored through the internal narrative of Red Riding Hood herself. She is consumed with overwhelming anxiety about everything in her personal life and surrounding environment. Instead of being a comfort, Grandma’s house becomes the site of her resignation to events when fatigue eventually sets in. Visually playful, the main character changes from finger puppet to paper cut out, to human actor, while her inner self remains constant.

Red Riding Hood

A & B

  • 1993
  • Brenna George

For A & B, Brenna George collaborated with her sister, Athena George. Through the process of collage mapping, these two sisters explore their personal and family histories.

A & B

They Met In A Garden

  • 1990
  • Brenna George, Laura Lamb

They Met In A Garden is an exploration and analysis of the archetypal romantic love story.

They Met In A Garden