New exhibition explores legacy of two female architects

A new exhibition has opened at the Mitchell Art Gallery (MAG) in Edmonton, Alberta.

The immersive exhibition, by artist Hazel Meyer and media historian Cait McKinney, is called GLAD YOU CLOSER HOME / NEW WHITE WHISKER MARY and imagines the spaces between the correspondence, amateur 8mm film recordings, and modernist buildings that architects Mary Imrie (1918 – 1988) and Jean Wallbridge (1912 – 1979) left behind. The title of the exhibition was borrowed from a telegram in the collection.

Imrie and Wallbridge operated the first architecture firm in Canada run by women at Six Acres, the home they built for their work and life together in west Edmonton.

Since 2014, Meyer and McKinney have been collaborating to explore their shared attachments to queer histories and accessibility politics through research, writing, video, and archival interventions. Together, they take up experimental methods for livening up archives related to sexuality and LGBTQ history.

McKinney and Meyer’s collaboration is rooted in how queer history lives in research and archives. Past projects have explored topics such as ruins, the feminist sex wars in 1980s Vancouver, and the Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives porn VHS collection. Their work treats archives as sites for “fantasizing, questioning, and feeling amongst objects and ephemera,” and the relevance those items hold in the contemporary moment.

Alongside the exhibition, the MAG is also collaborating with various community partners to put a spotlight on the legacy of Wallbridge and Imrie.

At a time when homes they designed are being torn down to build new infill properties, these tours and talks aim to be a bridge between the legacy of these architects, their modernist buildings, visions for social housing, and the importance of queer history.

The exhibition will run from now until December 7, 2024.

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