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Jennifer
Dickson Biography
Photo: Lawrence Cutting, 1962
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Jennifer Dickson is one of Canada's most distinguished photographic
artists. Her earlier work, The Secret Garden (1976)
and Three Mirrors to Narcissus (1979), challenged assumptions
about gender and sexual roles in Western society. During the
1980's and 1990's, she traveled extensively in England, France
and Italy, focusing on the structure and symbolism of historic
gardens. Beauty and its desecration became obsessions, culminating
in The Last Silence: Pavane for a Dying World (1993-1997).
This exhibition was shown in 15 venues, including Rome and Mantua,
before becoming part of the permanent collection of the Canadian
Museum of Contemporary Photography (CMCP), an affiliate of the
National Gallery of Canada.
Jennifer Dickson has photographed extensively in Turkey.
A solo exhibition, Sanctuary: A Landscape of the Mind,
ran from September 2005 to January 2006 at the Royal Academy
of Arts in London, England. For the first time it was possible
to see her contemporary response to the complex cultural layers
of Classical, Byzantine and Ottoman history of Turkey. The
exhibited works have now become part of the holdings of the
Library and Collections of the Royal Academy.
Jennifer Dickson's most recent portfolio, The Gods,
deals with the love affair of the Roman emperor Hadrian and
a beautiful young Bithynian, Antinous. This sequence of images
was purchased in 2006 for the permanent collection of the
CMCP.
In April 2002, the National Archives of Canada established
the Jennifer Dickson Fonds, a project that will be ongoing
until the death of the artist. The collection has been deemed
to have national significance and will eventually hold all
Jennifer Dickson's original photographic material.
Recent publications of Dickson's work are in Descant
121: Turkey: Inside/Out (2003) and Descant 128 (Volume
2): Venice, Imagined (2005).
Jennifer was named to the Order of Canada (CM) in 1995. She
was awarded an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1988 by the University
of Alberta, Edmonton. She was elected to the Royal Academy
of Arts, London, England in 1970 (RA). In 2002, she was given
the Victor Tolgesy award for cultural leadership by the Council
for the Arts in Ottawa.
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