In darkness, light takes on new meaning—softening the edges of perception, inviting wonder, stillness, and connection. Only in Dark the Light is a quiet exploration of sensory experience, a space to slow down, breathe, and simply be.
Rooted in the principles of Multi-Sensory Environments (MSEs)—spaces designed to foster sensory engagement—this work reframes their therapeutic function through an artistic lens. Projected light paintings—created from hand-painted 35mm slides and layered focal distortions—become static images within translucent lightboxes, snapshots of a shifting installation. Video installations synchronize in-camera imagery with binaural beats and sound frequencies, while a slow-turning chandelier of crystals—an interpretation of the mirrorball—scatters shifting constellations of light.
Neither wholly immersive nor passive, these works create space rather than fill it—holding a tension between structure and dissolution, stillness and motion. The works are adaptable, shaped by their environment and those who engage with them. Sound resonates beyond the audible, and colour moves beyond the fixed image. Above all, Only in Dark the Light is an invitation to experience—without analysis, without expectation. To let light and sound settle in the body, to notice the subtle shifts in perception, to find moments of quiet attunement. In the dark, the light abounds.
The artist is thankful for the support of Canada Council for the Arts and SK Arts.
-Lindsey Rewuski
Bret Parenteau: Whitesand Stream
March 29 — May 24, 2025
Bret Parenteau’s Whitesand Stream is a record of the artist’s consideration of the local topography, channeled through a synthesis of sound and video composed from regional field recordings, tape loops, synth work, and video documentation. As an artist living in Winnipeg, Parenteau visualizes connections to land and nature through experimental and improvisational audio and visual mediums. This solo exhibition bridges the geographies of Treaty 1 and Treaty 4, guided by the titular Whitesand River – a natural conduit that mirrors Parenteau’s own artistic practice: interconnected, while constantly shifting and evolving.
The works in Whitesand Stream emerge from Parenteau’s research into the Yorkton region’s ecology, informed by geological surveys and climatic studies of the area. Field recordings – captured along ditches, sloughs and riverbanks, under expansive prairie skies, and beneath forest canopies – are fragmented and reorganized through tape manipulation and noise techniques, transforming raw environmental data into intuitive landscapes. Whitesand Stream is an invitation to inhabit the liminal space between documentation and abstraction, offering Yorkton audiences a reflection of their own environment, refracted through Parenteau’s lens.
