Interview with Pan Wendt: Erica Rutherford: Her Lives and Works

Gallery Blog

Over the next few months, we’re in conversation with artists, curators, and others regarding our current exhibitions at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. 

This week, we chat with Pan Wendt, our senior curator at the CCAG, about his role in curating Erica Rutherford: Her Lives and Works. The exhibition is at the CCAG until January 5^th, 2025. 

Presenting a retrospective is a remarkable undertaking. When curating this exhibition, which era of Erica Rutherford’s work stood out to you the most?  

PW: Before embarking on the research for Erica’s retrospective, I had a general knowledge of her life and career, and I had read her autobiography, but I wasn’t very familiar with certain periods of her work, especially from the 1970s and earlier. It was amazing to encounter the variety in her work and each of the phases she went through. I suppose if I had to zero in on one body of work standing out, I’d choose the very late work, The Human Comedy series, which feels like a perfect summation of everything she had done up to that point. 

Erica’s transformative relationship with gender is expressed through much of her artwork. Given the adversity and challenges faced by the trans community, did you feel a sense of social or ethical responsibility when undertaking this exhibit? 

PW: Absolutely. With most exhibition projects I have to contend with my own blind spots and areas of ignorance, but this one in particular I had plenty to learn if I was going to do justice to Erica and her work. For that reason, it really had to be a bit of a collective undertaking. Decisions were often heavily influenced by Erica’s own words, stated in her writings, or by conversations with trans scholar Eva Hayward, who has written extensively on Erica, or with the help of the incredible research of curatorial assistants (especially Lee Richard, who is himself trans); there’s also the Rutherford family. Among my colleagues, Trevor Corkum in particular was generous with advice in areas I wasn’t too sure about, especially with respect to didactic texts. There were other ethical questions associated with this show, and some I’m still grappling with, as we begin to think about publication. For example, how to present the 1949 film Erica produced in South Africa, which had a mostly Black cast and was intended for a Black audience. I relied on the opinions of a Black South African film scholar when I was thinking about how to contextualize this work in the exhibition. He described the film (which looks very problematic now) as both “patronizing” and yet extremely important in the history of Black South African self-expression and the process of eventual political liberation. For this reason, I felt it was important to show, but also to put in context.    

In contrast, Erica’s creative accomplishments transcended far beyond her identities. Was it at all challenging to separate Erica’s ‘lives’ from her ‘works’? 

PW: To some extent, they can’t really be separated. But Erica was such a remarkable and committed artist that I do think her work speaks for itself without requiring direct reference to biographical details. I think the joy in colour and exuberant boldness of much of the work crosses boundaries. For me this is very life-affirming work, period. I think it’s okay when art is “about” everything but the specific challenges we face, too. It’s sometimes also work about spiritual and psychological turmoil in general, as well as more specifically about her own struggles. I think it can be both. 

In what ways has the recognition of Erica’s work changed since the Human Comedy show from 1998? And did you draw inspiration from this show or others by Rutherford? 

PW: The Human Comedy show is the origin of my own interest in Erica’s work, so yes, it’s definitely something I drew inspiration from. I saw Erica’s talk at that show, and I felt compelled to write about it. It’s the first thing I ever tried to write for publication, the review I wrote for that piece. It didn’t get published, unfortunately. But the show stayed with me. And I’ve followed closely and read everything I can find about Erica’s work ever since. Interest in Erica’s work was at a bit of an ebb when that show happened. But the exposure that it gave Erica, to new audiences beyond Prince Edward Island in particular, is likely the basis of the gradual discovery of her work internationally. Of course, the changing public understanding of gender has raised the profile of Erica Rutherford, whose work now looks in retrospect to be a focus of a courageous, and often solitary mission of working through questions that are only now being talked about in the mainstream public discourse. All of which leads back to your question about lives and works. Erica’s artwork, I believe, has contributed immensely to the conversation about gender, with impacts on her own life, and well beyond it.