Around the Bend: The Whimsical World of Michael Chisholm

Patricia Morley is a professor of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University, an associate fellow of the Simone de Beauvoir
Institute, and author of Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

Why create lawn art? “To make people smile,” is the answer of one of
Nova Scotia’s folk artists. Chisholm’s purpose in photographing lawn
art, folk art, lawn dummies, and animals is similar.

A spirit of fun pervades the collection as it does the folk sculptures
of Nova Scotia that inspired this photographer. Chisholm’s
entertaining images are accompanied by brief and amusing texts that
often feature anecdotes of his encounters with local folk artists. Most
of his photographs involve landscape, since a piece of folk art is
usually integrated into the landscape in which it is found.

A Chisholm photograph is a creation, not merely a recording: a new
composition that uses the work of another artist as the point of
departure for his own statement.

Around the Bend is a delightful and dynamic photographic collection,
evidence that a sense of humor is alive and well in Nova Scotia.
Chisholm’s reputation may never rival that of Yousuf Karsh, but he
deserves to be celebrated as a master of the Absurd.