The Mind’s Eye

This exhibit explores abstract, imagined and recollected spaces through the process of gathering and reconstructing. The artists presented here explore the changing interconnectedness between time and place, people and space, and the expression of these concepts through formalist concerns, such as line and shape. This interconnectedness provides perspective on who we are in relation to our personal histories and where we are within the context of the present. Reimagining a space allows us control to reinvent and repurpose meaning where we might not otherwise hold that power, and provides the adaptability to change our relationship to our environment as a way of understanding our way forward.

Growing up in South Korea, then Fiji, then Canada, Elle Chae explores the notion of home, through its occupants and their relationship with their environment. Using personal memories as well as the stories of other families as starting material for her thought process, the results are fragmented images that lack a definition of time. Questioning the idea of necessity versus desire, Chae presents a concept of home as experience instead of place.

Andrew Beck’s paintings are reminiscent of a century gone by that blends the elements of nostalgia with uncertainty. Through the process of gathering, cropping and reassembling images, he creates scenes that unsettle the familiar narrative that those individual parts connote. He describes knowing his paintings are complete as, “when they are able to convey a moment or sensation of uncertainty, remoteness or a feeling that something is out of place.” The figures, in relation to each other and their surroundings feel like they’ve been taken out of context and the viewer is left pondering the meaning of the scene.

Unlike the work of Andrew Beck, the often inexplicable narratives of Atticus Gordon are not reminiscent of a specific time but blend the notion of past and present in a way that suggests a fictional world that is somehow anchored in our reality. Working from collected images, archival imagery and personal photographs, Gordon constructs narratives that appear illogical but still connected to the human experience. Influenced by history and technology, he questions the role that imagination plays on our understanding of our existence and purpose.

Amanda Lloyd is an abstract painter that focuses on the relationship between shapes, forms and space, using colour to evoke a sense of time, place or object. With a specific interest in process, Lloyd layers, removes, rubs and scrapes the medium in order to produce the depth seen in her work. Lloyd’s artwork differs from the other works in the show, as it is free of recognizable forms, and instead she reflects her themes through her expressive titles. She is providing you with context to the subject, like that of a writer, but still allowing the viewer to add their own experience when interacting with her work.

Acknowledgements:

Curator: Stephanie Germano
Exhibition Assistance: Siobhan Locke
French Translation: Marie-Camille Lalande
Installation: Mark Garland and Dan Austin

Partners:
BEING Studio
Studio Sixty Six

Image: Elle Chae, When The Year Is Up, 2022, oil on wood, 48 x 60 in