 |
Fanciful: Small Media MomentsAn exhibition exploring mediation, transformation and scale.Curated by Kim Sawchuk and Rae Staseson From Feb. 10th to April 13th |
|
A fanciful notion is one that is associated with the presence of imaginary ideas or ideals. It is often pejoratively contrasted with more serious ponderings or contemplations. The works in this exhibition challenge this dichotomy. Margaret Murphy’s Toile News paintings reference contemporary media events. Karen Trask’s videos Sweet Nothings animate words made from string. Emily Pelstring’s Fairy-Cam presents a sequence of still images depicting the antics of the two little girls who produced the famous Cottingley Fairies photos. Kelly Thompson’s woven samplers, here, there, everywhere, reproduce a phrase run through the Google translate software program.
This complex set of artworks all operate on numerous interconnected levels. Most notably they address the continuing pertinence of feminism socially, culturally, politically and aesthetically. Using aesthetic forms and materials often associated with domestic environments, crafting their works by hand– with techniques that are lovingly labour intensive– the artists bring old technologies into a playful dialogue with new media forms and formats. The use of scale is vital: these ‘small’ works are pointedly and visually understated. Yet they speak volumes. The highly tactile techniques used to fabricate these fanciful artworks reference earlier periods of production, including the Victorian era. Their quiet whispers ask us to listen to the everyday and question the power that is conferred to the media and to post-mass media forms, such as Facebook and Google. Viewed together these works unravel the infiltration of the ‘public’ media into the intimate corners of the domestic ‘private’ sphere. Their imaginative engagements are simultaneously whimsical and profoundly provocative. They illustrate the critical aesthetic potential of what, on the surface, may be dismissed as a mere flight of fancy. Margaret Murphy After a decade of working with figurines deconstructing gender and consumerism the present images mark the beginning new work that is based on current news that I read from Google, Facebook – any online source. Using a toile fabric pattern I am incorporating images from current news events into the toile design. I think of these works as a depiction of world events seen from the safety of my computer. In an attempt to de-stress my life I tried to not watch, read or hear the news. I realized quickly that it is unavoidable. Like my work of the past, these paintings juxtapose historic sentimentalized views of American life with current images and attitudes. The Occupy campaign makes an appearance in these paintings as well as the latest Victoria Secret runway show. Margaret Murphy is a New York area artist. Murphy received her BS in 1990 from Towson State University and MFA in Painting in 1992 from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, NJ. Murphy has exhibited her paintings and works on paper nationally and internationally. Murphy is also an accomplished curator mounting over a dozen contemporary art exhibitions in the New York and New Jersey area. Murphy is the recipient of several professional awards and has also participated in numerous artist residencies. A ten-year survey of her work is currently on view at Lemmerman Gallery, New Jersey City University, from January – March, 2012. Emily Pelstring This work consists of a narrative series of 3D slides retelling the story of the making of an infamous 1917 set of photographs known as the Cottingley Fairy photos. This piece tells the tale of two Victorian girls who steal their father’s camera, create paper-doll fairies, and take a very convincing set of photographs of themselves with the fairies. The photos come to the attention of the public as true documents of the supernatural. My version is a tongue-in-cheek interpretation of this event in which the authenticity of the photograph is judged by an actual ghost. Emily Pelstring is a multi-media artist who creates video installations, experimental films, performances and sound art. Pelstring obtained her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in Film/Animation/Video, and her MFA from Concordia University in Studio Arts with a concentration in Film Production. She has exhibited and screened work at various institutions in Canada and the US. Pelstring currently works out of Montreal, and has received project support from the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, the Experimental Television Center, Studio XX and SAW Video Association. Kelly Thompson here, there, everywhere continues my experience of locations, explored through the medium of weaving. Issues of place, translation and communication have become increasingly relevant to me living in Montreal. here, there, everywhere examines the role that Google translator plays in assisting or hindering the dissemination of texts. The notion of here, there, everywhere also foregrounds a “slow form” of communication: the loom literally re-constructs language, and this short phrase, row by row. This pace, and the labour of weaving, is in stark contrast to a technological environment of wireless interconnectivity where we are surrounded by the speed of interactions across both space and time. Kelly Thompson is a Montreal-based artist and researcher, exploring intersections of digital imagining and material engagement with hand and jacquard technologies. Thompson has a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, and an MA in Visual Arts from the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University. Her artwork has been exhibited in group and individual exhibitions nationally and internationally. Her work is in public collections at the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, and in numerous private collections internationally. In 2011, Thompson’s work Vanish/Survive was showcased in Lithuania. Thompson is currently working as an Assistant Professor at Concordia University in the Faculty of Fine Arts – Studio Arts. Karen Trask : My creative process has developed as a series of poetic investigations exploring experiences of memory, time, presence and absence through language. Writing, playing with word meanings and narrative formats and experimenting with early textile-arts technologies, such as spinning and weaving, are all part of my approach to making art. I want to touch words; I want to touch the space between words. In the video installation Sweet Nothings, I write in both french and english using a variety of materials to explore the
Karen Trask is a multidisciplinary artist living in Montreal. Creating works in video, installation, artist-books and performance, Trask has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada and around the world. Two of her videos were presented at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in Montreal: Mothertext (1999) and Winter Fruit (2002). Two recent videos were presented at FIFA 2011: Unlearning the Piano and À rien. Her work can be found in public and private collections. Trask is currently doing a residency in Toronto. |
|