Join Calgary artists in an archeological dig of lost and forgotten items

In the basement of a more than 100-year-old building, there's a treasure trove of memories, photos, and pin-ups disintegrating on the walls.

Inside the Sparrow Community Artspace, an artistic archeological dig is happening four artists, inspired by each other and the items they find, are hoping to have community conversations.

Theartists are encouraging Calgarianswho live in Bridgeland or Crescent Heights to dig through their forgotten boxes and bring what they find to the de Waal Building.

Artist Jenny Tzanakos saysunlike a gallery show, no two days are the same, as they all continue to work and uncover new items and interests.

"If you imagine a dig site, it changes from day to day," Tzanakos said. "You go in and you scrape away at things every day we dig a bit more, not just with the stuff around us, but within ourselves, and excavate our own feelings and ideas."

"I think it's a way for us to bring each other together in an experience and understand our collective history," Tzanakos said.

This one-month residency is calledExcavation and is on as part of Exposure Photography Festival until the end of February.

The piece in the middle of the room by Ramsey Kunkel acts as an anchor for conversation. One day, driving by Tom Campbell's Hill nearby, Kunkel had an idea.

"I need to have a piece that is representational of where we have been and what's here," Kunkel said.

So, he dug it up and laid it on a birds-eye-print of the hill's topography.

"Everything that's around us now has been built upon this, and this is where it stays, no matter what, and everything else is, you know, temporary."

In each corner of the artist's space, there are photos and prints, letters, and trinkets. Things these artists have dug up, or re-printed and remixed from found items.

Self-taught artist Lucy Altrows said part of the fun, for her, is finding things and letting her imagination run wild.

She's photographed the pin-up photos still stuck to the walls downstairs, a scale, ancient-looking cleaning cans, and other found objects.

"Just things in nooks and crannies that sparked the imagination for me," Altrows said. "A lot of this is about taking objects that are found or that you see and you don't know anything about any kind of exploring what that does with your imagination kind of filling in the blanks."

On one table, there's a stack of letters and a handwritten census card long ago, one of the de Waal Building residents wasn't home when the census worker came knocking.

Photographer Colleen Rauscher takes her work outside in the neighbourhood. Snapping photos of buildings and using double exposures to overlay different aspects of the Bridgeland Riverside facades.

"It's like snapshots of maybe a different time or a different, you know, it's kind of overlaying the memories," Rauscher said.

She said already people have been answering the call for stories and items. It's an exciting way to get a sense of place and community.

"This kind of connects you a little bit more to the neighbourhood in the community that you're in," Rauscher said.