The Tom Thomson Art Gallery is gearing up to host a talk from a local doctor who survived 63 days alone in the wilderness.
Dr. Teimojin Tan, who is a doctor with Grey Bruce Health Services put his survival skills to the test on the History Channel’s survival show Alone.
Aidan Ware, the director and chief curator of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, says that the talk will be “Really intriguing because Teimojin has had such an interesting array of experiences surviving 63 days alone in the Canadian wilderness… And I know a lot of local people were following [it] and rooting for him.”
She explains that the gallery wanted to host an event with Tan so he could share his experience, adding, “I think being on your own like that in the wilderness and sort of exploring the depths of what it takes to survive, both physically and mentally, will be something that gets more deeply explored in the talk.”
The gallery is going to be incorporating art pieces from their current exhibit from nicholas x bent, titled ‘isolation of wildness.’
Ware explains they were also able to pull some of the work by Tom Thomson as well, saying they curated an exhibition of his work, that also explores the concept of growth rings, like a tree, that explores how art interprets nature.
The idea was to create the atmosphere of understanding the difference between the concepts of nature versus wilderness, which touches on both the peaceful solitude of nature and the harsh desolation of the wilderness.
Ware adds, “Nature is often considered something that is recreational, but the wilderness is not. It’s something that is to be endured for survival. So I think it’ll be a really interesting conflation of the art and the talk.”
Based on the reality program’s information, participants were left on their own in Big River, Labrador starting on September 18th, 2021.
The December 3rd event is already booked to capacity, but they are doing a waiting list.