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Tuesday April 22nd to Saturday May 17th, 2008 |
Gallery#1 |
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Vancouver artist, Faith Moosang studied theatre and politics at the University of Guelph and then went on to attain a BFA from Emily Carr and an MFA from the Simon Fraser University. An accomplished artist with an extensive exhibition history, Moosang is best known for her photography, film, video and installation work. Through her work, the artist confronts the space between political agency and the anti-aesthetic. March to May, portrays the artist's photographic reflections of the war in Iraq. Using the Iraqi landscape and following the timeframe of March 20th, when the bombing in Baghdad commenced, to May 1st, 2003 when victory was declared by US President George Bush, the artist abstracts the televised visuals through extended exposure times. "Each photographic image manifests as a durational record of approximately five seconds of selected real-time video segments of the televisual event. The extended exposures lend themselves to visual abstraction and, by extension, to political obfuscation - a purposeful disavowal whose intent is the denial of a place of purchase." (Moosang) The artist creates a skewed sense of reality and a confused, altered timeline. The result is a surreal view of a very real tragedy. This deliberate obfuscation actually serves to illuminate the fact that our view of the actual events of war is very controlled and influenced by what the media chooses to reveal to us. "This piece works within the interstitial of space and time. It lies between the real-space of war, with human bodies, machines and geography, and the dematerialization of those elements into the televisual spectacle - between the real-time of war and the hyper-fluidity of satellite transmission. Geography and time-zones play their part. What day is it in Iraq? When did this particular assault take place? Yesterday? Today? Tomorrow? It slips into the surreal." (Moosang) "I want people to ask questions, not only of the work, but of the world we inhabit." (Moosang)
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| Gallery#2 Sabrina Ovesen - Candies |
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Also from Vancouver, artist Sabrina Ovesen attended Ryerson Polytechnical University in Toronto, where she earned a Bachelor of Applied Arts in 1994. The artist has also studied at the Media Arts Institute at Capilano College since moving to the west coast. The focus of the artist's investigation was and continues to be the photographic arts. Ovesen examines the relationship between the decorative arts and femininity in her portraits of porcelain figurines. The figurines are of different time periods, status and cultures and are presented on brightly coloured backgrounds. Ovesen has collected them as second hand throw away objects and has given life to them. In a few of her works, she has entered two figurines into one portrait sitting to make the prints either comical or politically charged. The viewer is put in the position of voyeur and is encouraged to examine these frozen but beautiful images of women and to consider and invent relationships between the objects. Candies likens these objects to women in several aspects: both are small, controllable, collectable and have secret lives. "Arm candy, eye candy, and candy ready to eat. I want the eye to enjoy traveling over the surface of my images and I also want my images to contain something to chew on. Because I live in a female body, many of the images I create concentrate on issues of femininity and the body. Recently, I have become interested in investigating the relationship of decorative arts and the female body as decorative." (Ovesen) "I want to make images of these women that give back their power and mystery. Photographed with candy coloured backgrounds, and the ambient early morning light, they have strayed away from their homes on shelves and mantles. Some of the images portray the figurines “life size”, without displaying their entire body. I also intentionally photograph the faces from the viewpoint of looking up. These figurines are made to be looked at, but now they can also look back. They are no longer under the viewer’s control." (Ovesen) |
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NOAA Members Wall - featured artist: Chiara Costa - Faces of Africa |
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This month our members wall features local artist Chiara Costa. Originally from Brazil, Costa has been drawing since she was a child. At her mother's knee she learned how to draw realistically. She admits to being a perfectionist and insists that photorealism chose her. She currently makes art full time. The artist's only demand upon herself is to enjoy her creativity "passionately and unconditionally". "Art is a powerful communication tool. The mediums are different languages and each artist speaks their own dialect. In my opinion, there are no rules for what you should or should not create, or can and cannot question with your art. Nevertheless, the art product belongs in the world so I am learning to speak a universal dialect, one that is my own but everybody will understand. In other words, an artist is entitled to her/his own style as long as she/he is passionate about it. With portraits, specially concerning to realistic ones, what might seem obvious sometimes reveals other ideas or thoughts. Realism as an art school with its different styles might be a lot more daring than people might imagine. Some viewers could misunderstand it and say it has no “creativity” because it “reproduces” what the eye sees. However, realism is a choice that takes a lot of courage. It has to achieve what it was meant for since the beginning. It is a way full of challenges. Translating the power or grace of a look, a smile or tears is I dare to say, a talent that not every artist can count on. The realistic artist is someone fearless that trusts her or his own capacity to take it all the way." (Costa) |
| Vertigo Window Display - featured artist: Helena Valk | |
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This month our "window on the street" features local painter Helena Valk. Fresh, unfettered and joyful could be used to describe this artist's colourful acrylics on canvas. Passersby are sure to be intrigued and are bound to linger at the corner of 30th Avenue and 31st Street in downtown Vernon for a hit of colour and an inspiring moment or two. Artist Statement:
I have lived in BC for about 18 years in Kitimat, Revelstoke and Vernon. The Okanagan is beautiful and inspiring. I am an untrained artist and love to just let my paintings evolve with no planning. Having worked most of my life in the clerical field it is now great to be free and express myself in this way. Colour and shapes in an unstructured whimsical composition reflect my personality and sense of freedom.
I find it is better for me not to get too much advice or direction or to try to copy another artist's style and just be myself. (Helena Valk)
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Exhibition
Proposals: Please print a copy of our form and send
it off to us with the information requested. Previous Exhibitions: |
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