Something Strangely Familiar | aAron Munson

A response to Dwayne Martineau’s Strange Journey

If a tree hangs in a gallery and no one is around to see it, does art happen?  

This is a strange journey of work going unseen and work in progress. It is an experience of making work in a time of constraint and unpredictability, creating experiments that sometimes catch our eye and others, that for whatever reason, will never make a spark.  

While I am just beginning to know visual artist and composer Dwayne Martineau, I see similarities in our artistic processes. Our work focuses on encouraging reflexivity in perception,  questioning the assumptions that we make about each other and ourselves. 

Through these five pieces, Martineau leads us through a reflection of our world through  unfamiliar spaces, easing the desire of the mind to make sense and to tease dimension out of  what may feel like a flat world. He asks us to play, not identify. We are encouraged to simply be  with and listen to the unfolding that surrounds us, that is us. 

“I use it as a tool to crack open perspective to explore my identity and connection to the  natural world.” he writes. The work occupies a “liminal zone”, as Martineau describes it, a  space in-between where he can experience the edges of his Indigenous-Settler identity.  

Strange Jury surrounds and humbles its audience, looming over the “accused” who have forgotten their roots. Shallow Water and Shallow Fire are a frolic of light’s interactions, drawing attention to their details. Shallow Forest and The Wheel act as invitations, portals to reconnect and remember into a deeper past. This body of work feels like the beginning of an immersive and meditative installation of sight and sound. These are the pokes and prods that accompany experimentation, feeling out perspectives that have yet to be considered.

In describing the experience of having Strange Jury go unseen for the first 6 months of 2021,  Martineau mentions the importance of “flexibility and adaptability”. These are important terms  to consider now, specifically with the pandemic that has challenged our identities. Art can be a  way to encourage minds to reflect on how adaptability and flexibility shape this moment and  reimagine a way forward.  

The pandemic has disrupted and destabilized, but has also forced a shift in perception that  invites new ways of being. Personally, the path to understanding and accepting this has been  arduous. It has been its own strange journey, involving a renegotiation of my own reality and  my relationship with the world. It has taught me that the thinking mind will only get me so far,  often backing me into a corner where a way forward is unimaginable. Martineau’s work reminds  me that I am not alone in this. When one begins to quiet the mind and listen with an open  heart, we can begin to bring clarity to our experience, make space to take notice and find new  modes of being.  

Martineau’s work is a window into his journey navigating today’s uncertain terrain. Within his  abstractions of “the natural world” we enter a space that transcends the rigid frameworks of  our thinking. They are a reminder that while each of us must find our feet, we walk into the void  together. Through his familiar yet foreign spaces, there is a gentle reminder of the power of  fluidity, finding perspectives where we too may find space to create flexibility within our  identities and the stories we tell; They are invitations to open the doors of perception.

I look forward to seeing how Martineau’s process will unfold, to the moments that will be  cracked open and to making art happen in unfamiliar spaces. This is truly a strange journey for  all of us.