Colleen Alcorn (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, Guelph based artist who creates work that focuses on tension and spaces between. Working primarily with wood, metal and fabric in various combinations, their mixed-media sculptural assemblages aim to provoke and bring forth questioning. Through their work, they desire to create balance whilst exploring themes of identity, interpersonal connections, upbringing and commonly shared experiences of queer individuals.
Included in this show are 10 attempts to find a feeling.
One that comes at night when you are alone and vulnerable.
You look behind you as if there is someone following.
There is nothing else here. There is no one there.
“The void was seen as a place of possibilities rather than realities, an imaginary space not governed by any known laws, filled perhaps with God—the unknowable, the unrepresentable, and the indescribable, empty, infinite nihil.”
Elina Gertsman. The Absent Image: Lacunae in Medieval Books. Penn State University Press, 2021, page 33
Uninherited Memory revisits images; places, people, and moments, from my family’s past. The photos were taken before I was born, leaving me with little context or sentimentality. I often do not know the people or places I am depicting. This position interested me as an artist, almost assuming the level of familiarity as the viewer when they first encounter my work. My approach to painting through this series has undergone a divergent evolution. The first paintings were produced with a commitment to photorealism. As time progressed, the fidelity towards photorealism faded and an appreciation for my painterly process took priority. This show encapsulates an artistic journey I undertook while exploring photos with nothing but a distant connection.
A collection of things thought and seen between November and January documented on 86 drypoint prints creating a preciousness out of ideas that would have otherwise came and went, unnoticed.
Erin Grant is an interdisciplinary artist who often explores distorted boundaries, while also considering the constructions of relationships in a world conforming to society. Her work is often influenced by strangers of Guelph’s nightlife, capturing people’s raw perceptions and emotions within a given moment. By collecting various images/ texts from randomly selected participants, she is able to create new meanings and interpretations within her paintings/drawings.
Gabriel Evans-Cook is an artist primarily interested in photography. His work has revolved around looking outwards into his interpersonal relations and juxtaposing those experiences against a nagging and ever-continuous introspection. His work presents vignettes that reflect lived experiences frozen in time combined with observations deduced from an attempt at self-awareness. His findings are presented through an unpolished and stylized lens.
Both exhibiting artists have been Guelph residents for over half a decade. Each of which relies on the city (or its absence) to evoke their next subject of creation. The walls of What Are You Lookin’ At? hold documentarian styled photography by Gabriel Evans-Cook in combination with mixed media drawings by Erin Grant. Erin and Gabriel incorporated an element of performance in the process behind What Are You Lookin’ At? as the two artists went out into the streets of Guelph, searching for community participation to collect quotes to interpret, drawings to appropriate, and portraits to capture.
“A Girl’s Childhood” transports viewers to a world of colour and magic by using bright colours and playful mediums. Individual cultures, upbringings, spirituality, and passion for art harmonize into a body of work that is full of childhood fantasies, memories, and a sense of growing-up. Subject matter such as body image, spirituality and menstruation illustrate a developmental connection to femininity, and the use of textile and soft sculpture mediums allude to the historical connection between women and craft. “A Girl’s Childhood” aims to curate a space of wonder that sparks connections to the viewer’s own childhood stories or memories, while also exploring what it is like to be a girl through the retrospective lens of three adult female artists.
