Upcoming exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel

Hi Everyone,

I'm back in the studio again preparing for an upcoming exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto curated by Shannon Gerard.

 
Using print as a primary strategy, the Open Studio Artist Members in PINK
PEARL work with paper, artist books, material arts, sculpture, and animation
to address notions of erasure, transcendence and accumulation. Print media
is often characterized by a material emphasis on subtraction and addition.
As a dug hole is mirrored by the mound of dirt it unearths, any removal of
material from the surface of a print matrix implies an accumulation
elsewhere. What meaning can be found in those liminal spaces between minus
and plus? Works in PINK PEARL move past surface engagements with etched
plates, burned screens, grained stones, carved wood and cut paper to explore
the concepts of erasure and transcendence. Using print as a primary
strategy, artists in PINK PEARL create works on paper, artist books,
material arts, sculpture, and animation.
 
Works from OPEN STUDIO members: Nadine Bariteau, Tara Cooper, Elizabeth
D¹Agostino, Shannon Gerard, Geneviève Jodouin, Lauren Nurse, Nick Shick,
Amanda Nicole White and Tobias Williams

PINK PEARL

Dates of the exhibition
8 December 2011 to 8 January 2012
 
Opening Reception Date
Thursday 8 December
7-10 pm

Here's a couple of pics of the work in progress and some installation shots.  If you're around on Thursday please join us for the opening.  The show will be up until January 8.

Most of the year has been dedicated to learning the video editing program and compiling the film footage to create several short videos. Thanks to the fantastic filmakers Cliff Caines (www.cliffcaines.com) and the dynamic duo of Tara Cooper and Terry O'Neill (www.taracooper.com) who assisted me along the way! Here's a 1.5 minutes sneak peak of a 8 minute film. Sadly, my father passed away suddenly in June and never got to see any of this come to fruition. So this one is dedicated to my dad.

The Longing Project

Last year I had the opportunity to participate in an artist residency at Palazzo Rinaldi located in Southern Italy on the hilltop village or Noepoli. (www.palazzorinaldi.com - see previous posts). For several years I have explored the notion of acclimation and space relationships within nature and but always reflected the path my family took from Italy 60 years ago. As they settled in the suburbs of Toronto and raised my siblings and I, it was clear that new and old roles influenced our daily lives and upbringing often being a rich experience but peculiar all at the same time.

For years, I have felt a cultural limbo between the life my family established for me in Canada and the life they brought with them from Italy, which influenced us in many ways. As a result I have always felt a longing to belong.

Recently, I decided that it was time to go back to Italy for a family visit. But this was not going to be our regular vacation for my husband and I with the family. Rather, this trip was going to be a research excursion documenting the village and the homes my parents grew up in, as well as my extended family and the community at large. My intention was to travel from Central Italy primarily from the region of Lazio, the area where my family and ancesters reside to the Basilicata region in Southern Italy; my last stop Palazzo Rinaldi.

During my travels I accumulated hours of video footage, a large collection of photographs, interviews and stories. When I arrived at Palazzo Rinaldi, I spent a large chunk of time on drawing studies and the organization of video and film footage.

Finished drawings

Finally had a chance to complete the most recent drawings. I have been working on a number of studies based on my interests in human interaction and the acclimation by an organism to environmental and physical change. The research of entomology, botany and elements such as birds, insects, and broken fragments of organic elements remind me of familial sites and surroundings both past and present. These studies created from charcoal and collaged screen prints on Gampi paper are part of on installation that is currently in progress.