Copyright 2001 by Edward Willett

"Edgy" is an adjective frequently used--maybe overused--these days to describe everything from movies to fashion. The avant-garde, it seems, has become just another marketing niche.

But the concept of the avant-garde has a long and honorable history in the art world, where artists are always seeking to be on the edge, to provoke and disturb, to question and maybe even alarm. And for 20 years Regina has had an artist-run gallery designed to expose that kind of art, by both local and visiting artists, to the world.

Neutral Ground, now located on the second floor of 1856 Scarth Street, was founded in 1982 by a group of about half a dozen local artists. "They wanted to establish a gallery to present new and alternative work and interdisciplinary work that wasn't readily accepted at most of the galleries," explains Brenda Cleniuk, administrator of Neutral Ground, "and also to have a way of accessing information and networking other artists."

The original Neutral Ground was a floating gallery, moving from location to location depending on the project. Over time it has also had three permanent locations; it's been in its present spot for the last three years.

What makes Neutral Ground different from other galleries, Brenda says, is that it's independent. "It doesn't belong to the university or the Regina Public Library, or the provincial government." Instead, it's a members-owned non-profit organization, and as a result, "it's open access. It strives to find new and edgy or experimental art and processes, new content and new ideas about old content."

What does that mean? The current project is a good example. Christine Shaw's behave takes over the gallery space, almost filling it with a wooden floor several centimeters above the gallery floor, a floor apparently suspended from the ceiling by yellow cables. There's a small amount of space around the outside edge where you can walk, but it's not wide enough to make you comfortable doing so. Instead, you have to launch yourself onto the artwork itself, which sways and bounces beneath your feet, involving not only your eyes--usually the primary gallery-going sense--but your whole body in the artistic experience.

That's the idea. As Neutral Ground's press release puts it, the environments Christine Shaw creates "provoke behaviors characteristically not included in the aesthetic experience....By challenging the existing conditions, by filling up the site with forms, the environment allows for the possibility of an event; an event which is unfolded by its participants and their corresponding actions."

You're not just looking at pictures, in other words; you become part of the art yourself.

Neutral Ground mounts 12 to 15 exhibits and/or projects a year, chosen by a committee formed and managed by the board of directors and including members and other practicing artists. "We also use guest curators, and the employees do some programming--as many diverse sources as we can access," Brenda says.

Although not all the artists exhibited are local--Neutral Ground tries to mount one international project a year, for example--the gallery does present local work regularly. "It depends on how many artists are living here and what stage their art is in; there's no quota," Brenda says.

Whatever the work being presented, one avenue Neutral Ground uses to promote it is the World Wide Web. "The Web is a relatively cheap form of disseminating information," Brenda says. "You can omit the step of publishers and the enormous costs involved with publishing a book."

So far, all of Neutral Ground's Web projects have been tied to a physical display of some kind, but in time, that could change. One on-going project is the Soil Digital Media Suite. "It's working toward that kind of a cyber-based project," Brenda says. "It's to provide means and access to equipment and training for artists to utilize technology."

Much contemporary art either utilizes or comments on technology, Brenda points out. "I think artists are having to critically looking at technology and what that means to contemporary life and society, and how they can reflect that in their work." Although painting, sculpture and drawing are valid art forms on their own without reference to technology, Brenda says, technology plays such an important role in today's society that many contemporary artists feel it is important to use their art to comment on technology and its influence on everyday life.

Staying in the avant-garde, on the edge, is always a challenge for artists. It may have been easier in the '80s, when Neutral Ground was founded. "I think '80s art had a little more to do with the edge, with being really controversial," Brenda says. "Some of those issues have been thoroughly covered."

And so, the edge moves, focusing on new issues, and Neutral Ground moves with it, to the delight of the sizable, dedicated audience Regina boasts for this kind of work. "There's a lot of support; the riskier the better for Regina audiences, we're finding," Brenda says. "There's always been a kind of art community that wants to see something they can't normally see in Regina."

They can see it at Neutral Ground.

Posted September 22, 2004