Gathie Falk

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Gathie Falk has a gift for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.
I vividly recall seeing an early Falk work, The Dog Boys’ Picnic, some
30 years ago in Ottawa. This sculpted group of seven life-sized dogs was
art with a difference, because Falk knows how to take familiar objects
and sights, such as apples, an old dress or carousel horses, and turn
them into unforgettable images or objects. This large-format celebration
of her work on glossy paper includes 100 images, 66 in full color.

The text consists of six substantial essays by Robin Laurence, Ian
Thom, Mayo Graham, Bruce Grenville, and Sarah Milroy. Grenville, senior
curator of the Vancouver Art Gallery, writes in a preface of Falk’s
subject matter, of its deeply personal presence “grounded in the
events and objects of everyday life”—how Falk’s work flows from an
intense scrutiny of her daily environment. Falk herself speaks of the
need to “know your own sidewalk really intimately in order to find
significance in it.” She can make the commonplace extraordinary. “To
Be a Pilgrim,” an essay both biographical and critical, notes that
Falk’s childhood was marked by profound tragedy and loss.

The five contributors have shaped a valuable study of Falk’s life and
work. Good writing and fine photography shape an impressive work.