Transcendence

Reception and artist talk: June 6 from 11am–1 pm (talk at 11:30)
In-person tour: July 16, 6:30 pm,
Virtual tour: July 14 at noon on Facebook Live

Transcendence, by Speplól Tanya Zilinski welcomes visitors to contemplate both the “infinite” and “intimate”.

Speplól is an Indigenous artist based in Hope, BC, who works with seed beads. These are tiny, measuring less than two and half millimeters wide and just over one and half millimeters tall. Alone, the beads are a speck, a small blink of colour that can be easily missed in the palm of a hand. But woven together, these little specks form brilliant tapestries, each comprising of more than 70,000 beads.

The loom beaded tapestries of Transcendence are a dramatic break from Speplól’s previous practice. These pieces lean into randomness, following a creative process rather than a precise, predetermined pattern - almost controlled chaos.  

Beads were poured into a jar in sedimentary layers and then spun in the artist’s hands. Centrifugal forces mixed the beads, merging the colours into an unpredictable bead soup. Speplól then sat at the loom, threading the beads onto the tapestry as they emerged from the jar.   

“Through this process, Spelól felt a deep sense of connection, to themselves, their artwork, the past, future and the world around them,” says Art Gallery of St. Albert Curator, Emily Baker.  

To the artist, transcendence became not only the feeling that defined the creation of this work, but the thematic heart of this series – the transcendence of self, time, material, knowledge and experience. Colours of the beads in the tapestries blend and cluster, shimmering and shifting under the viewer’s gaze.

Transcendence runs until July 18.  Special thanks to the Canada Council of the Arts for their support of this project.