Treat your senses and go see this exhibition: Megan Hepburn: Passing Through Smoke, curated by Steven Tong at CSA Space, on until July 28th.

Megan Hepburn’s latest show is a collection of ‘olfactory objects’ and a painting created during recent residencies in Bulgaria and Vermont.

Walk into this small gallery space and you’ll find a striking painting in jewel-toned greens, objects including a book, a sweater, a bowl of mandarin oranges, and decaying cut flowers positioned around a large centre table. And then there’s a pile of soil and a spading fork in one corner and a pair of dirty rubber boots in another. Through objects embedded with perfume, the artist offers specific moments/memories of her late mother, who, we gather from the exhibition guide, suffered from Parkinson’s disease. Brief captions and fragrance notes like: sunset on dry brush; sage; hay; horsehair; tobacco; leather hide; scrubby coniferous trees; whisky; and wild flowers transport us, in a way, to these specific moments. An audio work by Alex Muir After Blue Flower Thief (2019) tells a story in the background, but a little too quietly to actually follow. (Or perhaps I was just distracted by touching and picking up the objects and testing their scents.)

Hepburn is an artist working primarily in oil painting and drawing. She has a line of super interesting natural perfumes, Cracher Dans La Soupe.

CSA Space is an independent Canadian project space founded in 2005 by Christopher Brayshaw, Adam Harrison, and Steven Tong. CSA exhibits innovative contemporary artworks of all kinds.

To visit, go to Pulpfiction Books during business hours two doors over (2422 Main St), where you’ll likely find Chris Brayshaw behind the counter, trade a piece of your I.D. for gallery keys and off you go!

SHOW RUNS UNTIL JULY 28 @ CSA SPACE

CSA Space

Neighbourhood: Main Street

#5–2414 Main St.

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