Arranged Objects

Four months have gone by and I've neglected my art blog terribly.  I had good intentions to write a second installment on the exhibition at 2 Rooms Contemporary Art Projects in Duntara, NL.  Hoping that the old adage "it's never too late" is true, I present the following glimpses of  Table of Contents by Catherine Beaudette.  This continuing series of displays explores "the visual and conceptual rhetoric of museological presentation."  Artifacts and natural specimens from her personal collection form the basis of the exhibition.  These rural relics and oceanic items blur the boundaries that are often constructed to separate nature from culture and past from present.  The collections are exquisitely beautiful and their temporary home in an old home in the community so apt.    Enjoy.


 Room 1- Left Side

Room 2  - Right Side

Redefined - Hinge

My latest work is a reexamination of objects that I used in a body of work three years ago. Many of them were picked up at the sight of an old family building which has long fallen into the ground and disappeared. Only rusted metal and rotting boards are left.  The hinge and wallpaper in the piece below reference the separate  male/female worlds of work prevalent in the fifties and sixties when I was growing up. Like the eroding wallpaper and hinge things are changing in that arena. 

Wallpaper with Hinge (2008) 26 x 14 in. Mixed media on board

Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Art Bank Collection

 Redefined - Hinge ( 2011)  16 x 16 in. Mixed media on board

My new work is leaving the realm of male female roles and work behind as I study the object themselves and how they relate to the interior and exterior landscape. This piece has different characteristics than the other two pieces from Redefined I  recently wrote about.  The hinge is not integrated into the background, rather it hovers like some kind of alien ship.  No matter how much I tried to give it an embedded feel it didn't work out.  I stopped trying and listened to the painting.

Attachments

Hinge (2008) 14 x 7 in. acrylic on board

Toggle (2008) 14 x 7 in. acrylic on board

An attachment can be simple or complicated, a feeling, or an object /device. Considering just the root word it can be an action. Often what we choose as content in art is based on attachments- things we are attracted or attached to, things that add to our life in some way. Attachments also serve as a vehicle for moving images of our work and ideas to interested parties. What a useful word!



One of the most prevalent attachments in our lives are locks. They provide a sense of safety by keeping undesirable "elements" out. Locks also work in the reverse and have a captivity role.

Through the centuries the development of locks has moved through many phases ranging from rope ties through wooden locks, metal locks, to the keyless locks of today. I was struck by the changes in how we protect our homes the other day when I brought my three year old grandchild home. I was getting ready to ring the bell when she lifted a flap on their new lock and poked her finger in to open it. It was like a science fiction action to me but to her it was how you opened a door. It was so removed from what I knew of locks in my childhood. We didn't even lock our doors at night. We had locks but the keys were lost!

In my wanderings I've found sheds and their modes of protection interesting. In small communities there doesn't seem to be too much thought to keeping others out. You won't find any hi- tech solutions here. In the community where my summer house is located usually a movable latch or a bent nail through a hook seems to do the trick.


This is really a timeline of security. I bet the lock is the most recent addition to this door but is seems almost useless. It makes me wonder when it was opened last. The paintings above were created from source material I found among the remains of my Grandfather's old fishing shed.



This collection of items brought me back to a time when things were simpler and personal attachments were probably more important than what would be found behind any locked door.