Graceful in her principles, reserved in her rhetoric, generous in her practice, an artist, Colette Urban passed June 16, 2013. She was my teacher at the University of Western Ontario.  I helped her install her exhibition, “Pin-Up” at grunt gallery the fall of 2011. There is a film about her work entitled, “Pretend Not To See Me, the Art of Colette Urban“. Her favourite film, if I recall correctly, was, “Last Year at Marienbad”.

Some will remember her at home, astride an elephant. I see an image, perhaps a mis-memory; just a flash of a figure, head-to-toe in black spandex, a shadow running through a Canadian shopping mall. A performance artist. Her body implicated in the work. The image, the experience amplified just enough for us to feel a whisper from another humanity. It is these most delicate connections that form the bonds of community. For some of us there is heroism in this work. She is missed.

Written by Demian Petryshyn

Colette Urban exhibited “Pin-Up” at grunt gallery in October-December, 2011.
Colette Urban Performed “Hoot” before a screening of “Pretend Not to see Me” at the Emily Carr campus November, 2011: