In late April, I was in Montreal to see Papier 2019, a contemporary fair with a large focus on works on paper. While there was a vast range of excellent work, I was drawn to the more intimate mostly black and white work. Here are some favourites, and links to the artists’ websites: Janie Julien-Fort, Jim Verburg, Luce Meunier, Chris Cran, Marla Hlady.
In addition to Karim Rashid’s iconic object, furniture and footwear designs at his ‘Cultural Shaping’ retrospective at the Ottawa Art Gallery, I am enchanted by ‘Facet’, printed lenticular lens, 2012
In ‘Where I Be Is with the Image’ (Canadian Art, Summer 2018), Nasrin Himada talks about her interest “in thinking with images as a way out of the limits of language.” While the focus of the article is on the experience of exile, I find what Himada has to say about images resonant and worth thinking about more broadly. Himada also quotes a 2014 interview with Etel Adnan by Lisa Robertson in BOMB Magazine. Both articles are good reads, here are some ideas that especially resonated with me:
“Images are not still. They are moving things. They come, they go, they disappear, they approach, they recede, and they are not even visual—ultimately, they are pure feeling. They’re like something that calls you through a fog or a cloud.” Etal Adnan
“If images are calling us through a fog or a cloud, it’s because at times they get at the limit of something before we can even speak it or write it. Instead they allow us to feel it.” Nasrin Himada
“Light is an extraordinary element. It’s a being on its own, it’s something you look at, and that also you inhabit.” Etal Adnan
“Art is not separate or alienated from how we live through the day—rather, it saturates the experience of what makes the day a day.” Nasrin Himada
Here are few photos and short video showing stages of 'At the window', along with an extract from my Liminal series artist statement:
“This series is photography based. I make monoprints by transferring laser printed photographic images manually to translucent plastic film using an acrylic medium transfer process. The laser toner transfers into the medium on the plastic film. I then carefully peel and rub off the layers of paper. The result is a transparent image on translucent film.
There is push and pull between control of the process and surrender to the accidents that inevitably happen as the work is done while everything is wet. The imperfections - tears, scratches, finger marks, unevenness - are integral to the work. These marks contribute to the ephemeral, not-quite-solid feel I want and are often some of my favourite elements. I feel a sense of the time worn, like an old film negative or film strip. I have an ever growing appreciation for the fact that the best things often happen by chance while I am busy working.”
The finished piece is 28.5x35.5". Click here to see more from this series.
