With over 30 photographic images spanning two floors, the Button Factory’s latest exhibition, SHIFT: Time Collisions and Disappearing Landscapes challenges viewers to take a closer look at the communities we live in.
“It’s about all the changes happening in the Waterloo region…social changes, economic changes, political changes,” explains artist Marc Walton. With photos ranging from 2006 to just a few weeks ago, artist Mark Walton works to capture the shifts that occur to shape our ever-changing landscapes.
The first floor strictly presenting images from the Kitchener-Waterloo community, Walton’s striking photos invite people to slow down, and really look at the unique details of local scenery that we so often miss.
“You look at it a little differently and it makes you think about your community differently”, explains Walton.
The range of familiar scenery such as Princess Cinema, and Kitchener’s Lang Tannery contrast more secluded landscapes of a Mennonite graveyard and a thunderstorm’s purple sky to illustrate Walton’s point of the unique collision of past and present that make up the KW community.
“The presence of the Mennonite community makes the difference … they’re just so rooted in the past. There’s a collision of culture, a collision of thought.”
Although the second floor of the Button Factory displayed photos from a variety of locations in South-Western Ontario, all of Walton’s photos are magnificent in colour as well as content. “The weather always plays a part in it because it adds mood,” said Walton, giving credit to the atmosphere of his photos.
With pictures ranging from foggy, cloudy, clear and even stormy skies, Walton explains that it is common for him to wait weeks, or even months for the perfect weather condition in the scene he is trying to capture.
Mark Walton’s SHIFT: Time Collisions and Disappearing Landscapes opened Feb. 1 and runs until March 29 at the Button Factory in Waterloo.
