Skip to content

Train Dreams rolls into Coquitlam art gallery

The opening reception for Train Dreams is Saturday at the Art Gallery at Evergreen, with an artists' talk at 2 p.m.
train
Train Dreams

From Simon Brothers’ perch in Stratford, he can overlook the massive CN Rail shops, an industrial site that closed in 1989 — a century after it was built by the Grand Trunk Railway to fix steam locomotives in southwestern Ontario.

Its existence is a controversial one, for sure.

In 2010, the city took over the 17-acre property and, since then, the city council has flipped back and forth about what to do with the land.

Many residents see it as an eyesore and want it banished but others, like Brothers, want the historical landmark restored and reinvented with a creative flair.

A few years back, Brothers and three of his childhood friends got permission from the city to step inside the now-vacant structure to document it for a new art installation called Train Dreams.

They wanted their senses to carry them as they walked through the derelict building, to close their eyes and imagine the sights and sounds of large transport machinery being pounded back into shape.

“It’s like a cathedral,” Brothers said of the building, during an interview from his hometown last Friday, “and it provided us with a great canvas to start our project.”

On Saturday, the filmmaker and audio artist Nick Kuepfer — one-half of Common Collective, which also includes Mark Preston (photographer, documentary video editor and video artist) and Luke Mistruzzi (stop-motion animation and documentary artist) — will be in Coquitlam to show their results.

The pair will speak about Train Dreams at a reception at the Art Gallery at Evergreen at 2 p.m. before their exhibit is officially unveiled.

Produced in 2014, Train Dreams was the first artistic project for Common Collective. Its goal was to craft experimental work using their varied disciplines and specialties, Brothers said. 

Train Dreams, which has been shown around Ontario and after Coquitlam will travel to Nelson, has special meaning this year as the country marks its 150th anniversary, he said. 

While the narrative centres on the history of Stratford, its theme also translates well to rail communities across Canada — especially Port Moody, where the Golden Spike was nailed to recognize the western terminus of the CP Rail line.

Besides the images gathered from the old Stratford shops, Brothers also sourced archival train footage   from around southwestern Ontario and the U.S. as well as from his own grandfather’s photography collection. 

Brother’s ancestor documented steam locomotives and their passengers while working for Cannon.

Kuepfer’s audio compositions and looping techniques augment the pictures, using degraded elements to give a sense of the history and a dream-like quality. 

Train Dreams, Brothers said, “is romantic but it’s also abrasive. There are lots of moving parts and moving sounds. It’s a piece very much rooted in the past and blends like fragments of memory.”

• Train Dreams runs at the Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam) from March 4 to May 7. The opening reception is on Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. with the artists’ talk at 2 p.m. Call 604-927-6555 or visit evergreenculturalcentre.ca.

jcleugh@tricitynews.com