A study of the strata of the built environment - particularly at the scale of domestic spaces. As these spaces evolve and are inhabited over time, memories and experiences accrue into personal histories. Gaston Bachelard’s notion of the home as a repository for imagination and potential underscores the works, which amass a collective material history anchored in the personal. Working with house paint, cut canvas and other assorted media, an image of contemporary Vancouver emerges, suggesting varied histories and aesthetics.
mixed media on canvas, 30”x24”, 2023
mixed media on canvas, 12”x9”, 2022
mixed media on canvas, 12”x9”, 2022
mixed media on canvas, 12”x10”, 2022
mixed media on canvas, 16”x10”, 2022. Image: Rachel Topham Photography
These works use seams and house paint, exploring everyday domestic aesthetics with colour naming histories and the changeability of the city. Canvases are worked with paint, cut and pulled apart and reconfigured.
mixed media on sewn canvas, 16"x12", 2022. Image: Rachel Topham Photography
latex house paint on sewn and collaged canvas, 16"x 12", 2023. Image: Rachel Topham Photography
latex house paint, mirrored cloth on sewn canvas, 30”x24”, 2023
mixed media on sewn canvas, 16"x 12", 2021. Image: Rachel Topham Photography
mixed media on sewn canvas, 16"x12", 2021. Image: Rachel Topham Photography
sewn canvas, mirrored cloth, lighting gels, 16"x12", 2022. Image: Rachel Topham Photography
mixed media on sewn canvas, 16"x12", 2022. Image: Rachel Topham Photography
mixed media on canvas, 16"x12", 2021. Image: Rachel Topham Photography
mixed media on sewn canvas, 16”x12”, 2022
latex house paint on sewn canvas, 48"x66”, 2022. Image: Rachel Topham Photography
mixed media on sewn canvas, 48"x66", 2023
mixed media, 48” x 36”, 2023, Image: Rachel Topham Photography
mixed media, 48” x 36”, 2023, Image: Rachel Topham Photography
mixed media, 48” x 36”, 2023, Image: Rachel Topham Photography
Working with a material whose primary function is to transform light, False Fronts shifts the role of lighting gels into the architectural, exploring the connection between the constructed worlds of film and the built environment. No longer strictly a conduit for light, the gels reveal characteristics of reflectivity, translucency and opacity that engage with glass, mirrors and ubiquitous curtain walls. The fabric-like pliability of the works brings up what writer Lisa Robertson has characterized as a softness, or changeability, that underlies the urban condition. It is a condition that, counter to a perceived fixity of built form, contains permeability, porousness and diaphanous qualities which speak to instability and transformative potential.
Hand-sewn salvaged lighting gels, wax pencil, 11.5"x"12", 2020
Hand-sewn salvaged lighting gels, wax pencil, 20"x"10.5", 2020
Hand-sewn salvaged lighting gels, wax pencil, 16.5"x12", 2020
Hand-sewn salvaged lighting gels, wax pencil, 10"x"11.5", 2020
Hand-sewn salvaged lighting gels, wax pencil, 10"x"13", 2020
Hand-sewn salvaged lighting gels, wax pencil, 10"x"13", 2020
Hand-sewn salvaged lighting gels, wax pencil, 12.5"x9", 2020
Hand-sewn salvaged lighting gels, wax pencil, 7.5"x12", 2020
Hand-sewn salvaged lighting gels, wax pencil, 7"x"8", 2020
Canvas thread repeatedly dipped in paint salvaged from typical residential use, becoming functionally more diffused in the process. This layering reflects the cultural and material histories embedded within it, including domestic beautification.
Installation view. Salvaged house paint, canvas thread, 2018. 86"X.75"X.75" each. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Installation view. Salvaged house paint, canvas thread, 2018. 86"X.75"X.75" each. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Salvaged house paint, canvas thread, 2018. 86"X.75"X.75" each. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Salvaged house paint, canvas thread, 2018. 86"X.75"X.75" each. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Salvaged house paint, canvas thread, 2018. 86"X.75"X.75" each. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Salvaged house paint, canvas thread, 2018. 86"X.75"X.75" each. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Salvaged house paint, canvas thread, 2018. 86"X.75"X.75" each. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Salvaged house paint, canvas thread, 2018. 86"X.75"X.75" each. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Salvaged house paint, canvas thread, 2018. 86"X.75"X.75" each. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Salvaged house paint, canvas thread, 2018. 86"X.75"X.75" each. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Double-glazed residential window units, injected with paint from a historical paint colours program. As the paint settles over time it separates, creating an almost geological layering. These paintings disrupt the usual function of window units, and associated transparency and reflectivity, as colour acts as a blockage alongside it’s typical role of protection and rejuvenation. The pre-existing paint names (Vancouver Green, Pendrell Verdigris, etc.), connect to property valuation and aesthetics, referencing the colonial overtones in the most mundane of materials.
Acrylic, glass, silicone, aluminum. 18"x12"x.75", 2018. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Acrylic, glass, silicone, aluminum. 18"x12"x.75", 2018. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Acrylic, glass, silicone, aluminum. 18"x12"x.75", 2018. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Acrylic, glass, silicone, aluminum. 18"x12"x.75", 2018. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Acrylic, glass, silicone, aluminum. 18"x12"x.75", 2018. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Sealed Units (Vancouver Green, Pendrell Verdigris, Comox Sage, Kitsilano Gold, Oxford Ivory). Acrylic, glass, silicone, aluminum. 18"x12"x.75", 2018. Image: Michael R. Barrick, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
A labour-intensive mark making explores spatial relationships through a focussed materiality. Each piece contains variation and imperfections that run counter to an overarching grid pattern. Qualities of order, disorder, regimentation and improvisation create tension and dynamism that animate each piece, depending on variations of scale, composition, density and colour.
graphite on canvas, 28”x28”, 2019
graphite on canvas, 28”x28”, 2019
A site-specific series that focuses on the environmental context of studio space, in response to building envelope porousness and entropy in the built environment. Using watercolour shavings on paper, materials were left on the studio floor overnight during particular weather patterns that generated ingress water, dripping through ceiling membrane, electrical outlets etc., activating the shavings. The result is a time-specific record of architectural space and intertwining climactic conditions.
Watercolour shavings, ingress studio water, graphite on Rives BFK, 25"x19", 2017
Watercolour shavings, ingress studio water, graphite on Rives BFK, 25"x19", 2017
Watercolour shavings, ingress studio water, graphite on Rives BFK, 25"x19", 2017
Watercolour shavings, ingress studio water, graphite on Rives BFK, 25"x19", 2017
Watercolour shavings, ingress studio water, graphite on Rives BFK, 25"x19", 2017
Watercolour shavings, ingress studio water, graphite on Rives BFK, 25"x19", 2017
Watercolour shavings, ingress studio water, graphite on Rives BFK, 25"x19", 2017
