DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THE WEATHER

When Justin Waddell and Rick Silva meet up, they inevitably talk about the weather. But their discussion goes well beyond small talk: the weather forms the basis of their shared artistic inquiry.

The two met at the Alberta College of Art + Design, when both were teaching first-year studies and drawing. Waddell now teaches in ACAD’s photography program and Silva has moved on to the University of Oregon.

The two collaborate over social media, a process that can lead to slight confusion as they try to retrieve, say, an image that one has sent the other but can’t quite remember if he used Facebook, Instagram or email to do so. This minor annoyance aside, Waddell says the “fractured” approach has its benefits and is conducive to working on multiple things. “We don’t really have a linear process,” he says. “We don’t take one idea and follow it through to its conclusion.”

In part this is because the two have slightly different interests. While they are both interested in photography, Waddell is more “object oriented” and Silva’s interests run more toward new media.

After Weather, which is at Stride as part of Exposure, reflects these different approaches. The exhibition consists of photographs, videos and sculpture. Waddell contributed the latter in the form of pieces that function as thermometers and barometers. Silva has created 3-D renderings of enigmatic scenes like an iceberg draped in banners that read “resist.” Waddell says the impetus for After

Weather was the mundane art of talking about the weather but grew from there. “We’re both interested in our place in larger natural systems—the sun rising, the Earth tilting,” he says. “Things that are bigger than you.”

After Weather: Until March 3 at Stride Gallery.