News: March 1, 2024

On Tuesday, March 12 at 7PM EST on Zoom, Paul Walde will be in conversation with Professor of glacial geology Emmanuelle Arnaud (University of Guelph) to discuss themes related to his current exhibition Glacial Resonance on at the McIntosh Gallery at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario.⁣ The talk will be moderated by McIntosh Curator Dr. Helen Gregory, and will delve into their respective research on glaciers and illustrate how different disciplines can spotlight the urgent impacts of climate change on glacial ecologies. Together, they will consider questions related to climate anxiety and environmental collapse, such as: What is revealed by the melting of glaciers, what have we lost, and what lessons can be learned for the future?⁣
This online event is free and open to the public, registration is required. Sign up now through the McIntosh Gallery link here.

News: January 15, 2024

Weather Events opens on February 2nd at the Grand Forks Art Gallery in Grand Forks, BC. This solo exhibition features two sound and video installations by Paul Walde based on site specific performance works referring to anthropogenic climate change: Requiem for a Glacier and the newly completed Of Weather which is being exhibited for the first time. The opening is from 6 pm to 9 pm on the 2nd and there will be an artist talk on February 3rd at 1pm. The exhibition continues until April 27th.

News: January 1, 2024

Glacial Resonance opens on January 19th at the McIntosh Gallery at Western University in London, Ontario. This solo exhibition features two of long-form sound and video installations by Paul Walde featuring glaciers as the central subjects made 10 years apart: Requiem for a Glacier (2013) and Glacial (2023). The opening is at 7pm on the 19th and runs until March 16th. 

News: September 1, 2023

The Nature of Silence is featured in the exhibition In the Present Moment: Buddhism, Contemporary Art, and Social Practice, which opens Thursday, September 14th at the Walter Phillips Gallery at the Banff Centre. The exhibition is curated by Haema Sivanesan and other artists include: Sameer Farooq, Robert Filliou, Tomoyo Ihaya, Haruko Okano, Tina Pearson, Chrysanne Stathacos, Susan Stewart, Charwei Tsai, and Lam Wong as well as artist books, multiples and scores by George Brecht, Robert Filliou, Dick Higgins and Takako Saito; John Cage; Dick Higgins; Robert Filliou; Pauline Oliveros; Yoko Ono; and La Monte Young. The exhibition runs until December 13, 2023.
The Nature of Silence (2012) documents the moment and location of the 60th anniversary of the premiere of John Cage’s most famous work 4’33”. Shot on location at Maverick Hall near Woodstock New York, this work suggests that Cage’s interests may not have been just about silence, but in landscape and the environment, as Cage’s chosen venue, Maverick Hall, is a partially outdoor venue in the Catskill Mountains.

News: June 1, 2023

Paul Walde is presenting new work in the solo exhibition Imaginary Landscapes at MKG127 in Toronto.
In Water Music (2022-23), a grid formation of whole notes printed on a metal panel is submerged in the Pacific Ocean and photographed as the tide comes in. Incoming waves and the resulting optical distortions multiply, resize, and reposition the notes to auto-generate a new musical composition when overlaid onto a standard music staff. These photographic prints are exhibited alongside Imaginary Landscape Paintings (2012-2023), a series of painted interpretations of American composer John Cage’s Imaginary Landscape compositions (1939-1952). In 2012, Walde began to collect every version of these works he could find— including YouTube posts of excerpts of professional recordings, student performances, and amateur renditions. Each painting was then made on a panel constructed in size relating to the duration of the corresponding recording with white oil paint representing silence, and marks made in response and consideration to frequency, amplitude, and duration of sound. MKG127 is located at 1445 Dundas St. West, Toronto. The opening is on June 3rd from 3-6pm and the exhibition runs until July 1, 2023.

News: May 25, 2023

Paul Walde is presenting Glacial, his latest sound and video installation at the Sound Genres: Exploring Sound as a Foundational Practice symposium at the University of Victoria. The symposium runs from May 26th until May 28th and the work is on view in the Visual Arts Building. On Saturday May 27th Walde is chairing the first session entitled Sound Practices.

On May 31st Walde will be in conversation with Dr. James Fox at the Company of Ideas Forum at The Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park on Hornby Island, BC in a session entitled: Notating Nature: Reflections on Scoring Techniques in which they will discuss various approached to music and sound notation as part of Walde’s artistic practice.

News: May 15, 2023

This week Paul Walde is in Chicago alongside fellow Awi’nakola: Tree of Life art clan members, which includes Rande Cook (Ma’amtagila), Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde (Kanienke’haka), Kelly Richardson, and Chicago-based curator Stephanie Smith, to make a series of presentations as part of Awi’nakola Chicago 2023– a week-long visit in which the artists will connect with colleagues here, share ideas, and plant seeds toward future collaborations. The schedule includes: SIDEBAR at the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago on May 16th, a lunch time discussion at the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society on May 17th, and Dialogues at Watershed Art & Ecology in association with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on May 19th. Awi’nakola” means “we are one with the land and the sea.” It is also the name for a foundation started by a group of Indigenous knowledge keepers, scientists, and artists working together to find effective responses to the climate crisis and educate others through the process.

News: May 1, 2023

Experimental Music Unit‘s (Paul Walde, George Tzanetakis and Tina Pearson) new album is released today and is available here.  LAND SEA SKY is the realization of a text score by Tina Pearson composed during the winter of 2020 – 2021. This was a time during the pandemic when the Experimental Music Unit was playing together remotely through networked platforms, but longing to mingle our sounds together outdoors. The score was imagined for playing at so-named Finnerty Cove, a rocky outcropping on the East shore of lək̓ʷəŋən territory on the Salish Sea, and reflects our shifting practices in consideration of isolation and connection; our relations with the place where we live and play; and a reframing of how our sounds are brought into an audio production. During the composition of LAND SEA SKY, our friend and colleague Raj Sen, director of Victoria’s Open Space, passed away. The beautiful openness and generosity of Raj’s spirit inspired the final version of the piece, which is dedicated to him. 
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News: April 1, 2023

Paul Walde’s artist project Kulshan is now available in the latest issue (39.3) of BlackFlash Magazine. The project is a storyboard for a forthcoming 12hr two channel video installation that simultaneously documents the view of Koma Kulshan (Mt Baker) from Victoria in Lekwungen Territory from dawn until dusk on the same day as a climbing expedition on the mountain in Nooksack Territory.

News: March 1, 2023

The Kamloops Art Gallery in collaboration with the Kamloops Symphony presents a concert of compositions from Paul Walde’s video installation Alaska Variations performed by members of the Symphony and conducted by Daniela O’Fee at the Gallery as part of the ongoing exhibition there Glacial Resonance. The concert features 6 works from Alaska Variations, 5 of which have never been performed live before, with the addition of Walde’s first string quartet Northern Symphony. The concert is at 2:30 on Saturday March 11th and the exhibition continues until April 1st.

News: January 20, 2023

Three of Paul Walde’s largest sound and video installations: Requiem for a Glacier, Alaska Variations, and Glacial will be presented together in the solo exhibition Glacial Resonance at the Kamloops Art Gallery. Glacial, which is shown for the first time, is a five hour work that uses musical instruments as speakers and signal processors to transform field recordings of the Coleman Glacier at Mt. Baker (Kushan), Washington to create a long form sound composition. Glacial’s video is based on a single panoramic photograph of the glacier which is animated through a continuous virtual camera path with occasional composited elements. In addition to the video installations, the large-scale photographic work Treescape Revolution No.1 will also be on view along with the studies for Requiem for a Glacier, and a selection of scores for Alaska Variations.

The opening is on Saturday January 21st at 6:30 with an artist talk/ interview at 5:30. The exhibition runs until April 1, 2023.

News: January 14, 2023

The exhibition Supply Chain Issues opens January 14th at MKG127 in Toronto and includes work by artists Sonny Assu, Hank Bull, Josh Callaghan, Germaine Koh, Khan Lee and Paul Walde. That the world has changed significantly during the last few years is stating the obvious. Besides the most profound effect the pandemic has had on human health and wellness, it has also had a serious effect on global economies. With rapid inflation and costs rising, “supply chain issues” is a phrase that has grown familiar to explain many difficulties. The artists in this exhibition delve into these issues, making work using found materials that address various aspects along the chain of manufacturing, transportation, packaging, waste and the effects of all of the above on the environment. The exhibition runs until February 11th, 2023 and MKG127 is located at 1445 Dundas St. W in Toronto, Ontario.

News: October 1, 2022

Paul Walde is presenting new work at the University of Victoria’s Legacy Galleryin the exhibition Piers which is a group exhibition showing contemporary artwork ranging across media by 18 artists spanning generations, nationalities, and backgrounds, exploring how artists’ practices change through teaching, learning, and mentorship. Additional participating artists include Katie Bethune-Leamen, Cedric Bomford, Lauren Brinson, Yan Wen Chang, Megan Dickie, Laura Dutton, Annika Eriksson, Daniel Laskarin, James Legaspi, Christopher Lindsay, Evan Locke, Danielle Proteau, Hollis Roberts, Jennifer Stillwell, Beth Stuart, Grace Tsurumaru, and Walde’s former professor Arlene Stamp. The exhibition opened on September 29th and runs until December 22nd and is located at 630 Yates street in Victoria, Canada.

News: June 15, 2022

Requiem for a Glacier is featured in an exhibition at the Columbia Valley Arts Centre in Invermere BC. This is the first time this work will be presented in this community which hosted, supported, and inspired the work! The opening is on June 25th and runs until June 30th, 2022. There will be an artist talk about the work on June 25th at 8PM.

News: June 1, 2022

Paul Walde will be presenting 3 new works in a group exhibition entitled Still Standing: Ancient Forest Futures at the Legacy Gallery in Victoria. Still Standing: Ancient Forest Futures brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to reflect on our relationship with old-growth forests in B.C. from a range of cultural and philosophical perspectives. The exhibition explores the relationships between art, ecology and activism in order to envision futures which honour reciprocal relationships with nature. Artists in the exhibition include: Carey Newman, Connie Morey, Gord Hill, Heather Kai Smith, Jeremy Herndl, Jordan Hill, Kelly Richardson, Kyle Scheurmann, Mike Andrew McLean, Rande Cook, and Valerie Salez. The show opens June 25th from 4-6pm and continues until Sept 17, 2022.

News: March 20, 2022

The Alaska Variations 3-channel video installation is featured in a solo exhibition at Indexical in Santa Cruz, California as part of their year-long exhibition series Landscape & Life curated by Gabriel Saloman Mindel. The show will be on view from April 1, 2022 to June 5, 2022. Paul Walde will be attendance Friday, April 1, 2022 from 5pm to 9pm PDT and for an artist talk the following day: Saturday, April 2, 2022 at 1pm PDT.

News: August 1, 2021

Paul Walde is presenting new work in the exhibition Last Stand: Ancient Forests, Collective Action curated by Jessie Demers which is part of Walde’s involvement with the Eden Grove Artist in Residence Program. The exhibition is at Fortune Gallery in Victoria, BC and runs from August 9th to September 4th 2021. The opening is Saturday August 14th from 3-5pm and the gallery is open 12-5pm Tuesday through Saturday.