Rhonda Pelley: Certain Strange Visions
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The Fool -
The Magician -
The Priestess -
The Empress -
The Emperor -
The Hierophant -
The Lovers -
The Chariot -
Strength -
The Hermit -
Fortune -
Justice -
The Hanged Man -
Death -
Temperance -
The Devil -
The Tower -
The Star -
The Moon -
The Sun -
Judgement -
The World -
Ace of Swords -
II of Swords -
III of Swords -
IV of Swords -
V of Swords -
VI of Swords -
VII of Swords -
VIII of Swords -
IX of Swords -
X of Swords -
Princess of Swords -
Prince of Swords -
Queen of Swords -
King of Swords -
Ace of Wands -
II of Wands -
III of Wands -
IV of Wands -
V of Wands -
VI of Wands -
VII of Wands -
VIII of Wands -
IX of Wands -
X of Wands -
Princess of Wands -
Prince of Wands -
Queen of Wands -
King of Wands -
Ace of Cups -
II of Cups -
III of Cups -
IV of Cups -
V of Cups -
VI of Cups -
VII of Cups -
VIII of Cups -
IX of Cups -
X of Cups -
Princess of Cups -
Prince of Cups -
Queen of Cups -
King of Cups -
Ace of Disks -
II of Disks -
III of Disks -
IV of Disks -
V of Disks -
VI of Disks -
VII of Disks -
VIII of Disks -
IX of Disks -
X of Disks -
Princess of Disks -
Prince of Disks -
Queen of Disks -
King of Disks
Christina Parker Gallery is pleased to announce Certain Strange Visions, an exhibition of new work by Rhonda Pelley. This ambitious project, seven years in the making, reimagines Newfoundland history and iconography through the 78 images of the Tarot, envisioning a conversation between past and present.
The exhibition will open with an artist reception on Friday, June 20 from 6–8pm, and will continue until July 12. Music at the opening reception will be provided by Kira Sheppard.
In this digital collage series, archival and contemporary media are woven together to blur the line between past and present. Each image operates like a shifting lens where fragments of history, myth, politics, and personal memory collide and fall into new patterns. Power is broken into pieces, then reassembled with satire and sorrow. Sight is severed, ears are harvested, and tongues are locked in ice and salt. People are fused with elements of nature, and the skeleton of a caribou is wrapped in a body bag. There are headless birds, breached homes, thieves with rusted coins, a single boot pressed into the earth and a black dog lost at the edge of the colony.
I have used tarot in this series because it’s a system full of rich visual and psychological symbolism. Each card holds layers of meaning: colours, gestures, objects, and archetypes. Tarot tells stories. It is a visual language of the psyche.
By using digital collage, I’m able to create compositions that are layered and fractured—much like looking through a kaleidoscope, where the view is constantly reconfiguring itself into new forms. Archival material, pop culture, photography, news media and historical iconography all intersect in ways that invite multiple readings.
This kaleidoscopic approach reflects the experience of living within overlapping settler histories—especially in a place like Newfoundland and Labrador, where colonial legacy, spiritual imagination, and working and governing class identity form a dense, multifaceted reality.
Rhonda Pelley was born in St. John’s, then spent her early childhood in Nelson, British Columbia before returning to Newfoundland with her family in the late 1970s. Pelley is a second-generation visual artist who employs photography, compositing, collage techniques and data projection to create surreal and evocative images that explore the political and psychological aspects of identity. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, Christina Parker Gallery, RCA, Headquarters 57 and Leyton Gallery (St. John’s), Campbell River Art Gallery (British Columbia), Galerie Les Territoires (Montreal), the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the Musée de l’Elysée (Switzerland). Pelley’s artwork has been published in books and publications such as Chatelaine, Room, Geist, Newfoundland Quarterly and Riddle Fence, and she is the recipient of the Rogers Communication NL Book Writing Award for Non-Fiction for Island Maid – Voices of Outport Women (co-created by Sheilagh O’Leary). In 2018, her Newfoundland Tarot project was showcased in Canadian Art magazine in a feature article by Leah Sandals. Pelley lives in downtown St. John’s with her partner and their two cats.
We acknowledge the support of ArtsNL, which last year invested $5.3 million to foster and promote the creation and enjoyment of the arts for the benefit of all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
We also wish to thank the City of St. John’s and Newfoundland Canvas for their support with this project.
While this series focuses on settler histories, we recognize Newfoundland and Labrador as the unceded territory and ancestral homelands of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit peoples.