By Alexa Collette
Process in Progress is a documentation of the flow of consciousness from two young artists, Nevan Hinks and Colleen Alcorn.
We present you with two shelves and invite you to take a peek into the working of our minds, by flipping through the pages of our personal sketchbooks from over the past five years.
Colleen Alcorn is a queer, non-binary, Guelph based artist who creates work that focuses on the tension and space between lines. Working primarily with wood, metal and ink in various combinations, her multi- media sculptures aim to create a push and pull for the viewer’s eye. When working on a 2 dimensional scale, she aims to create balance through the use of repetition whilst exploring themes of identity, upbringing and the weight of existence.
Nevan Hinks is a Guelph based artist who uses her work to document and build the ever changing relationship with herself and her own identity. Although she works with multiple different mediums, she makes all of her art with the purpose of expressing a piece of herself. She aims to bring viewers on a story through her experiences, and to take what they feel they need from it.
This collection invites the viewer to examine the subtle nuances over a generation between two image makers. Laura’s curation of scanned slides from her father’s collection with the pairing of her own images illustrate the similarities and differences in composition, subject matter, and formal execution. These images comment on the notions of family, the inheritance of creativity, the thankfulness for one who went before, the acknowledgement of who is looking and what are they seeing, the formal elements of photography and prolific subject matter.
Daniel Vautour began his career in photography in his father’s studio at a young age. He then went on to teach the medium while working as a commercial photographer. His images show a rich interest in composition, colour, and include a variety of landscapes and portraits. Laura Vautour, his daughter, enrolled in a University photography class to better communicate with her father as he ages. Here she learned the technical processes of the medium, and her images often blur subject matter, order the image, include line work and explore the materiality of the image.
By Farhad Omarzad
In this series, I used photography to capture both the beauty and struggle I have witnessed in different countries I have travelled.
The social hierarchies of humans and animals vary greatly from culture to culture. In Greece, donkeys are used as beasts of burden to carry tourist luggage, whereas in Istanbul, animals run free and can find refuge in local shops. London is similar to Western societies where animals are heavily domesticated. As for the other residents of these countries, the energy is entirely different in each city. London’s high energy brought in crowds everywhere you went. A more reserved and simple lifestyle of fishing, playing music in empty streets, and selling food from small carts could be seen in the less wealthy countries I visited.
The attitudes towards life in these very different countries each offer something unique that should be implemented into our own lives. By looking through these small windows there is an opportunity to reflect on our regard for other life, slow down and find joy in the everyday, and accept new curious cultures.
Farhad Omarzad is a published Guelph lifestyle photographer. In his personal practice, Farhad’s experience with both rural and urban environments provides him with a unique perspective on the natural and undiscovered world around us. Travelling and meeting new people has been an opportunity to expand his understanding of different cultures beyond his own. Being of Afghan heritage, he is inspired by photographers like Steve McCurry who document vanishing cultures of places the viewer has never visited.
Emma Sultmanis
As the natural world becomes infiltrated with digital technology, human perception of nature will inevitably be affected, for better or for worse. My interests in nature, ecological preservation, and systems of memory stem from my upbringing in Muskoka and Algonquin Park; the foundation for my location-based practice. Using my background in biology, environmental science, and botany, I aim to shed light on the climate issues and anthropogenic impacts that threaten the species, ecosystems and places that inspire my art. My work examines the ambiguity of memory, the dichotomy between nature and technology, and the disenchantment of humans with the environment. Through drawing, painting, and printmaking, I aim to explore how experiences grounded in physical versus digital interactions support different ways of knowing an object or space.
My body of work, along with this gallery space, aims to address the disconnection between humans and the environment by encouraging appreciation for and reconnection with nature. Recently I have been working in collaboration with natural elements and allowing nature to be the artist. This involves frottage and use of live specimens to create lines and shapes that represent nature as truthfully as possible. Other works included in this space are reflective of photographic distortion and examine how technology can both enhance and obscure one’s experience in nature.
See more on Instagram at @emmasultyart
Victorinus Constantius de bona speranza
November 12 – 19, 2020
Description for this block. You can use this space for describing your block.
Description for this block. You can use this space for describing your block.
Description for this block. You can use this space for describing your block.
Art Store is a student run art store featuring items created by students at the University of Guelph. For more information on an individual item or artist, click on the image below or send a message to @zavitzartstore.
Gallery View:
The following exhibition consists of work created by the Specialized Studio cohort of 2020/2021.
Emma Ongman
Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan once argued that it is not the content of a message that holds importance; but instead, the characteristics of the medium itself. In other words, “the medium is the message”. Today, this is no different. In his essay, Neo-Materialism, Part I: The Commodity and the Exhibition, Joshua Simon points out that the world is full of commodities that influence how we interact with the world. There is no better example to use here than the technology that is currently allowing me to write this statement and currently allowing us to communicate with one another from our homes and through our screens as we survive a global pandemic.
If you are reading this, I am assuming that electronic signals and pixels impact your life every single day. We use our technological devices as our tools, but they are much more than just what we use them for. In this exhibition, I am interested in exploring the potential of photographic technology beyond its intended use and its capability to imitate real life. More specifically, I am interested in creating photographs that speak to their own creation. Technology and Failure is an installation that consists of scans of corrupted images that were misprinted, scratched, and covered in dust and fingerprints.
