Tag Archives: Royal Family

Culture

Long Live Our Noble Queen

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As the world mourns the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, we undoubtedly acknowledge the scope of her public service for over 70 years. She is one of the most recognized and famous people on the face of the earth. 

My parents travelled to England when I was young and could (hope to) catch glimpses of the Royal Family, including the Queen, outside Buckingham Palace. My family, one could say, became Royal Watchers. Years later, I’d be hired by former MPP Toby Barrett UE who I quickly learned harbored profound respect for Queen Elizabeth II.

Shortly after officially becoming our longest reigning Monarch, Toby penned a newspaper column that began with: “Queen Elizabeth II is the only British Monarch in history properly trained to change a spark plug!” As Toby said at the time, the statement exemplified the character of our Queen.

Elizabeth learned to change a spark plug at 18 (during the Second World War) after joining the British Army Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service. She served as an army truck mechanic and as an ambulance and army truck driver.

Elizabeth carried an incredible responsibility throughout her life, beginning at a young age. Upon taking the throne in 1952, she witnessed enormous social change. At 25, Elizabeth became Queen, and was officially crowned at her coronation two years later.

During her reign, Queen Elizabeth visited Canada more than any other country – 22 times. She must have had a special place in her heart for our country and its people, as she was known to refer to Canada as home. From the outpouring of sentiments, the feeling was indeed mutual. 

On September 8th, the Queen’s children travelled to Balmoral, near Aberdeen, after physicians placed her under medical supervision. Later in the day Thursday, news spread that the Queen had passed away peacefully in the afternoon. A sad, solemn day.

Queen Elizabeth II officially made Liz Truss Britain’s prime minister two days before her passing. Truss would become the 15th prime minister to meet with the Queen. The meeting was at Balmoral Castle, in the Scottish countryside, where Boris Johnson first arrived to begin the power transfer. The first prime minister the Queen met with during her reign was Winston Churchill – a leader I often quote.

Last Thursday, Prime Minister Truss described Queen Elizabeth II as the rock on which modern Britain was built and continued by saying that she had “provided us with the stability and strength that we needed.” In times of adversity, the Queen has steadied nations with her strength and stoicism – the embodiment of a true leader.

Succession plans have long been in place, and the Queen’s son, Charles III, will become King. As an aside, I met Prince Charles and Camilla a few years back at a function in Toronto. It was a cheeky meeting and one I will never forget. 

While we all come to grips with the passing of a lady who impacted our lives in ways, we did not realize, Britain is preparing to usher in a new era in the nation’s fascinating history. Britain, Canada and the Commonwealth will undoubtedly embrace the King and offer him loyalty and devotion, exactly as Her Majesty would have wished.

For the Silo, by Bobbi Ann Brady MPP Haldimand-Norfolk

Art

Surreal Aspects Of All Expressed In Artwork

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Many have been humbled simply standing in a darkened field and looking to the stars. Indeed the great thinkers of the many generations that have come and gone are regarded as giants when in fact they were merely humans dropped to their knees by the wonder that is the universe all around us. There is as much wonder in a blade of grass as there is in a cosmic nebula, as much mystery in a drop of water as in the dark matter we yet fail to comprehend.

James Hart Dyke is based in Brighton, England nestled between the water and the south downs. In his studio he works largely on commissions. Last November Hart Dyke traveled to Patagonia and is now painting mountain landscapes from this trip for an exhibition in London at the end of the year. Landscapes are his life’s work and his love for the art form has infused his life and career with adventure and physicality as he climbs and hikes the places he later paints. “Enduring the landscape in some way, I find that combination of painting and physicality very exciting…it’s what my painting is about, really,” he says. Hart Dyke has been embedded with British forces in war zones on commission from the UK military. In Baghdad he painted while two soldiers stood guard. This tradition of bringing artists along to paint is long standing and important to the regiments of the UK. The work created is kept in the collections of the individual regiments and displayed in the mess hall, documenting the history of each for the soldiers to witness. The tradition dates back before photography when artists were the only window to a visual representation of the action of the battlefield.
Artists’ representations of war convey more than just the actual imagery of what is going on before them. The emotions of the situation are infused into the work, as well. Hart Dyke has had an unusual career. His work has led him to a position as artist in residence for the British Secret Intelligence Service as well as to work for the Royal Family. For the British Secret Intelligence Service, Hart Dyke helped to commemorate the centenary by documenting things in paint. As an artist he was able to venture where photographers could not go due to the highly sensitive nature of the work done there. His paintings from this series are quite surreal, a nod to the rather unusual nature of the work the British Secret Intelligence Service does. Hart Dyke studied architecture which he is still passionate about despite eventually moving to painting. His entrance into the painting world began with commissioned paintings of buildings. In reality, Hart Dyke began painting at the age of eight and despite his foray into architecture he never truly gave it up. There was inevitability to his career as a painter. Because of the physical nature of his process, art has become in a very real sense James Hart Dyke’s sport. To hear more about this, James Hart Dyke’s unusual career, and about the tradition of artists on the battlefield, listen to the complete interview.
Kambui Olujimi recently exhibited work titled Red Shift. The title refers to celestial bodies in space that cannot be seen because of shifts in the spectrum of light. Through this lens, Olujimi contemplated the mythology of whiteness as an unseen force. Olujimi describes how the mythological space of whiteness plays out in the physical world through policy, allocation of resources, and myriad other ways. He references descriptions of mass shooters as “lone shooters” in a way that removes them from the space of violence pervasive in the US. Presidential assassins are another example. These two groups of predominantly white men are somehow isolated, removed from the larger conversation about violence in the US creating a Red Shift that in a sense conceals them from the rest of the data.
For the exhibition, Olujimi created collages from news imagery of the alt-right coupled with drawings. Olujimi’s current project centers on fragmentation of identity. His love of films informs this work. In particular he references the accidental announcement of La La Land for Best Picture in 2017 when in fact the film Moonlight claimed that title. His concept deconstructs and reassembles that moment, elongating it and examining the feeling of elation followed by crushing deflation. “A lot of my work is around these things that I call inevitabilities…I’m interested in bringing those inevitabilities out of the space of the implicit. Once you give them shape and weight and gravity and start to manifest them in some way, the incongruities and absurdities, the surreal aspects all become very evident and we are able to become more critical of them in that space.” It is these gaps, these “moments of silence” that inform Olujimi’s work. To hear more about this powerful art, listen to the complete interview.  For the Silo, Brainard Carey. 
Featured image- Mercy Doesn’t Grow On Trees, 2016 Wood, glass, hair, gold leaf, ratchet straps 150 x 48 x 30 inches