Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Dalhousie Art Gallery has been invaded. There are squirrels underfoot, bears around the corner, and tigers taking in the sights. You can hear dogs, cats, and goats in the corners of the gallery; horses dash across the walls, and a stuffed raccoon calmly eats Cracker Jacks from a box in a corner.

Despite the cheerfully chaotic state of the display space, curator Peter Dykhuis is not offended by the intrusion of the furred-and-feathered set. Truth be told, he orchestrated it.

“This project’s been in my books for about four years,” says Mr. Dykhuis, who is curating Dal Art Gallery’s new exhibit — Exalted Beings: Animal Relationships. “I’m really interested in the relationship between human beings and the species of animals that are considered close to us… I’m looking at them as having a special relationship with human beings.”

The relationships portrayed are rather unpredictable. In William Wegman’s film fragments from the ’70s (Smoking, Spelling Lesson, and New And Used Car Salesman, among others),

Panel discussion In conjunction with the exhibition Exalted Beings: Animal Relationships, Dalhousie Art Gallery will be hosting a catalogue launch and panel discussion on Thursday, Oct. 2, 8 p.m. The panel will be moderated by the exhibition's curator Peter Dykhuis and will feature participating artists Barbara Berry, Michael Fernandes, Susan McEachern, Jan Peacock and Mitchell Wiebe who will discuss their works in relation to the exhibition. As well, the newly-published exhibition catalogue will be launched and available for purchase. This event is free of charge and everyone is welcome.

Wegman tries to teach his dog to smoke, corrects the animal’s “spelling,” and uses the dog as a bartering tool. Wegman’s short films are amusing and thought-provoking. “He set up these projects with his dog at a time when other people were making rather large monumental sculptures,” muses Mr. Dykhuis. “He started with something that is really close and familiar, which is his dog. He almost sets up this comedy routine between the two of them. But in almost all of these videos, the dog is in some ways the smarter of the two.”

In another corner of the gallery, Kelly Mark’s Sniff plays on a loop. An unidentified hand offers an unimpressed cat several different objects, including a Bible, a liquor bottle, a twenty-dollar bill, and a kitchen knife. “What he looks at quite closely are things that he can play with,” Mr. Dykhuis says, noting the cat seems especially fond of the leather-bound Bible.

“The dog and the cat have both become rock stars in their own ways,” he chuckles. “In many ways, the artist is kind of upstaged by the animal.”

Exalted Beings has been a long time in the making for Mr. Dykhuis. “To me, this is a dream come true, to have all the work together,” he says. He started with a small group of core artists, and incorporated more talent as the exhibit’s plans grew organically. “I grew the project from four artists into 11. I just had the ability here (at Dalhousie) to map it out.”

Exalted Beings is eye-catching but there is a deeper message—a method to the menagerie. “I was really specific about the subject matter of the show, in that it’s not really about the description of animals,” says Mr. Dykhuis. “There are animals in here as content, but the project’s called Exalted Beings… the subject matter is the relationship between animals and human beings.” 

Exalted Beings: Animal Relationships is curated by Peter Dykhuis and features artwork by Barbara Berry, Tonia Di Risio, Michael Fernandes, David Harper, Kelly Mark, Susan McEachern, Jan Peacock, Corinna Schnitt, William Wegman, Mitchell Wiebe, and Jon Knowles. It runs until October 5 in the Dalhousie Art Gallery. Admission is free.