Artist Statement
The idea is to create a tight geometric abstraction that incorporates its own ruin, or wound, or window-through. I always proceed from an intuitive, indirect impulse. Whether making sculptures or painting on skulls, plywood, or archaeological-like objects, my purpose is to artistically juxtapose the ancient and contemporary cross-culturally, to retain the sculptural and pictographic.
Works included are from the Pyramid and ABS Sculpture series.
The Pyramids
There are 12 in the series using 14,880 hand-painted blocks made with MDF (medium density fibreboard) using latex enamel industrial paint. Each pyramid is built with 1,240 1.5″ x 1.5″ x 1.5″ stacking blocks and each block is painted from a palette of 14 colours. The blocks are not glued in place. To exhibit this work requires the blocks to be stacked each time. Each pyramid measures 22.5″(H) and 29.5″(W).The ABS Sculptures
88 in the series, this work is about the sacrificial, the dispossessed, and the theological at the core of all mystical traditions. After seeing Aztec stone carvings at the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City in 2013, I began using off-the-shelf 1.5″ black ABS plumbing parts to make abstract, semi-abstract and mask-like minimalist sculptures that indirectly use Aztec forms as their impulse. I believe that a contemporary artistic play with the ‘ancient’ and metaphysical using banal yet sculptural, utilitarian and/or industrial materials lends this work a sacred irony.
re:location
A Multidisciplinary Art Exhibition
Salt Spring Arts is proud to present the 2024 annual Spring Art Show, re:location — a reflection on location within contemporary, multidisciplinary perspectives.
Mahon Hall, April 12 ― 28, 2024
Curator: Annika Hagen Siemsen
The theme and title of the 2024 Spring Art Show is re:location, heralding the expansion of our artist community in recent years. In shaping ‘re:location’ I have brought together 18 multidisciplinary artists from various stages in their careers, many who have recently moved to the island, and have asked each one to delve into their personal stories of adapting to life on the Gulf Islands. This exhibition leans to the contemporary and steps away from conventional depictions of “island beauty,” aiming to uncover conceptual studies of identity, the dichotomy of isolation and community, and the impacts of displacement. Through a rich mix of media, ‘re:location’ confronts and connects complexities in our collective experience.
For this artistic exploration of time and place, we present 18 multidisciplinary visual artists based in the Southern Gulf Islands. Link through below for more info.
