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***Out of Site, Out of Mind***
Writing project submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts
By: Cortney Stephenson
Low Residency MFA
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Spring, 2020
Primary Advisor: Tyler Coburn
2nd Reader: Priya Gheysari
3rd Reader: Luke Jenner
[[START]]
This document is copyright the author, and may also contain content that is owned by third-party rights-holder(s). Do not copy or distribute for commercial purposes.
//OUT OF SITE, OUT OF MIND//
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/cstephenson-work.jpg" width="400px">->IMAGE 12]]
My intentions for the written and installed adaptations of //Out of Site, Out of Mind//, have been drastically impacted by being self-isolated this spring. Throughout this writing process, I have identified elements that I consider key for engaging with others, many of which have now been disrupted—a phenomenological or lived experience with the work (or art objects) was the most impacted.
I chose to use hypertext as a way of bringing in the reader as a user that could interact with a document whose material integrity is in flux. Perhaps one day it will not be accessible, and could potentially bear marks of migration—as with the installation of paper panels with construction hardware such as staples and nails—adding layers to the object’s physical memory. I think of this hypertext platform as a writing-based mirror for—or the counterpart to—my studio based practice. Originally conceived to be a companion to the physical installation version of //Out of Site, Out of Mind//, an aim of this project was to add broader accessibility and context to both pieces.
Some references within this document were originally cited and discussed in my paper //Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes//, which explored the artists Edward Burtynsky and Laura Millard’s use of technology to change viewer perception. Integral elements of my studio practice were developed through this research and further evolved and expanded on within this writing.
//Out of Site, Out of Mind//, remains in progress and will continue to be added to as new components are completed and updated. Like the relationship between the material and the beholder necessary to make an art object, there is an implication of the necessity of a user or reader in the presence of the work. Therefore, I think it is vital to maintain an accessible online version of this document while these works continue to evolve.
[[ABSTRACT]]
[[LANDSCAPE & GEOLOGY]]
[[HISTORY, PERSONAL]]
[[PROCESS & OBJECTS]]
[[PRESERVATION & TIME]]
[[BIBLIOGRAPHY->REFERENCES]]
[[NOTES]]
//THE IDEA OF LANDSCAPE(S)//
//Elements of Geology// becomes a metaphor for how I am engaging with the production of my work: digging through memory and material, mapping personal experiences that are driving influences in my studio practice. I think this is most appropriately expressed as a landscape. As with other concepts of nature, landscape is a complex (and contested) term without a fixed consensus. I will discuss some of the different positions and uses of landscape—particularly, the human-centric construct of western landscapes, which serve as reflections of the social and individual identities of the person(s) [[constructing->construct]] them.
[[WHAT IS A LANDSCAPE ANYWAY?]]
[[SYMBOLS]]
[[ROCKS]]
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//HISTORY, PERSONAL//
<video controls src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/b/6570939-398681494131301818/junction_walk_test__791.mp4"> width="640" height="480" video controls autoplay></video>
When I was in grade 9, we were assigned a project researching the neighbourhood that we lived in, the history, boundaries, etc. When I looked up my address, my block did not seem to be officially part of any specific neighbourhood. I chose to assign my home to the area called the Junction. It turns out that this place would play an influential role in my perception and understanding of the development of cities, the history of place, cycles of development, birth, life, and entropy, and ultimately how human spaces are environments.
During a research visit to the Toronto Archives last year, I came back to the history of the Junction, looking at ephemera and planning materials from early points in the neighbourhood’s history. The story came full circle when looking through a microfilm of street plans and maps, I happened upon the street I grew up on, clearly delineated as a part of the Junction neighbourhood.
[[THE JUNCTION->The Junction]]
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-1896_orig.jpg" width="400px">->JUNCTION IMAGES]]
I have been looking back into the history of my practice, and in doing so, at the parallels between my life, family, and environment. These connections have fueled parts of my practice since I was a teen; the relationships and sometimes serendipitous coincidences that inform the narrative of my connection to place.
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/windemere-and-dundas_orig.jpg" width="300px">->IMAGE 3]]
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//PROCESS & OBJECTS//
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-2489.jpeg" width="100px">->IMAGE 4]] [[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-2491.jpeg" width="100px">->IMAGE 5]] [[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-2492.jpeg" width="100px">->IMAGE 6]] [[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-2494.jpeg" width="100px">->IMAGE 7]] [[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-2496.jpeg" width="100px">->IMAGE 15]] [[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-2498.jpeg" width="100px">->IMAGE 9]]
A site-specific work of art is designed explicitly for a particular location and has an interconnection with that site. If the work is removed from that site, then it may lose or be dissociated from a substantial part of its meaning.(69) The analog components of //Out of Site, Out of Mind//, were intended to be executed as a non-site-specific piece, that when installed responded to, and took on physical marks related to the environmental characteristics of the location that it is installed in—permanently keeping signs of its exhibition. The panels would be stapled to the gallery walls, bending around corners, cut away to accommodate architectural features; framed by the forms and boundaries of the space like wallpaper—being a corporeal environment, and depicting a mnemonic memory structure. Visitors would have been invited to be a part of this landscape—to touch the walls and move objects—shaping physical elements of the space through their implicit or incidental intervention. Movement and exploration of the situation would allow the observer to become a participant. Information about the work would be provided peripherally and centrally, it could be received through multiple senses simultaneously. The work would be encountered socially, providing information that may be ambiguous, conflicting, redundant, contradictory, as well as symbolic. There is an opportunity for action and manipulation, not only passive observance. It is a landscape.(70)
In developing my proposed installation, I wanted to express the layering of memory through time, like the build-up of sediment. Layers of material accumulate on top of each other, but other geological phenomena interfere, pushing and shifting materials into each other, driving buried things to the surface. By developing a visual language that would symbolically represent diverse aspects of the narrative that I was working through, I could repeat them across the different panels as actants occurring through serial expressions of memory.
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/cstephenson-detail-2.jpeg" width="400px">->IMAGE 11]]
The use of abstraction was an important tool to prevent myself from forming a too literal depiction tied to specific places or events. I believe this allows for a less prescriptive experience for the //beholder//, keeping the work open to be read and overlaid with their own symbolic (landscape) associations. An ephemeral suggestion of representation. I chose to work with materials that perform their entropy within different time scales, changing at different rates relative to each other—such as fluorescent pigments which are not lightfast; watercolour paper that bends and tears as it holds and supports other materials; cyanotype emulsion that continues to expose in light and remains vulnerable to water that would finish the process. Liquid latex can act as a barrier, a resist, and yet is susceptible to deterioration; paper that bends and tears. These material shifts happen on a more human time scale, linking them to an experienceable life span.
[[HOW DO OBJECTS HOLD MEMORY?]]
Currently, in this sense, all images of my work in this document could be considered incomplete; to be in states of transition; or are acts of proposal. This liminal existence poses conceptual questions of the experience of the processes of archiving and documentation, of perception, and what is a phenomenological experience.
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/cstephenson-detail-5.jpeg" width="400px">->IMAGE 13]]
Kim Grant chronicles the evolution of the ways in which artistic process has been understood and addressed in her 2017 book //All About Process//. One of the issues raised is that the discourse of //Process// may have become viewed as a trope, or a way of evading finality. Grant explains this as:
***“The discourse of process has perhaps become more than anything a strategy of deferral and a rejection of completion. It is a means to evade final judgments of value or quality, even a refusal to define basic terms on which to base such judgments. The artist engaged with the process does not need to assess the product; activity, both mental and physical, is everything […] The final product will never be as satisfying, as filled with power and potential, as the process of its making. Products, even great works of art, belong to the world of finite things; they have limits and deficiencies. Process, by contrast, is infinite.”***(71)
I do not agree that //process// supersedes the resultant object, but perhaps they occur as two different stages within the existence of art objects. I find when I am making things (engaging with material), that is the fulfilling and exciting part of the process. Making is how I process information, ideas, and learn best. It is a continuous chain of actions that blends influences together.
[[PROCESS->Process]]
Thinking about commonalities of past influences and the connectivity between work, I had to take my studio process into consideration. When I am actively making something, I feel the most engaged with it—as an extension of myself. Often I feel like my work is completed only when I am no longer working on it—this is also when the piece stops being a part of me. This perception of separation or disconnection becomes the moment that, despite my involvement in producing it, the //work// becomes a //thing// that has an agency in its own right.
Jane Bennett, a professor of Political Science, speaks about objects having a kind of //thing-power//, that affects humans and other objects (and is not dependent on human perception to exist). During a talk at The New School in 2011, Bennett discusses the idea that //thing-power// works by exploiting a certain porosity to any //body// (be it human, or metal or other). It is the nature of bodies to be susceptible to collaboration, infusion, etc. by or with other bodies; permeable and aggregate bodies where //things// are considered a piece of self that can act upon and be acted upon by external objects. Humans are constantly entering and leaving other larger assemblages of ideologies, objects, etc. that are composite and porous bodies. She suggests that, conceivably, //things// work on us by tapping into the human inorganic, establishing a kind of sympathetic response (a form of relationality) between bodies that are classically assigned to different categories (like alive and inorganic) and are not tied to usability or utility.(72)
Perhaps this is where the art object happens, as an assemblage relationship between the material thing and the viewer. In //Art + Objects// (2020) Graham Harmon presents the //Art Object// as something that happens in the relationship between the beholder and the work, that they combine to fuse into a third object. Harmon writes “[I]n a first sense my mind is something different from the various objects I perceive, judge, or enjoy, but in a second sense my relation with these things can be taken as a unified object in its own right. Yet one we view intentionality as a unit, it follows that I and the things meet as separate entities on the interior of that larger unit [...] For the point is not that we can step outside ourselves, but that we can never step outside the hybrid objects of which we form a part”(73)
This hybrid space seems like an opportunity to create a bridge between my time and someone else’s. Through a phenomenological experience of being part of an art object, inviting the beholder to participate in part of the process—the passage of these material things—creating an invitation to be situated within this space.
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-2609_orig.jpeg" width="400px">->IMAGE 14]]
[[RETURN TO START->START]]
//WHAT IS A LANDSCAPE ANYWAY?//
//Landscape// can refer to a variety of different concepts. A landscape can connote an idea of the construct of nature or non-human phenomena. It can refer to the specification of, or rather the representation of an environment, the shaping of space and ideas, an art object. These meanings and interpretations may be used together but they remain situationally distinct.(2) Anne Whiston Spirn, author and professor of landscape architecture, says that “[Y]ou see a combination of meanings that associate a place and the people who dwell there, past and present. Land means both the physical features of a place and its population.”(3)
The word //landscape// has origins in Middle Dutch, the term //landscap// referring to region, as well as the German //landschaft// and Old Norse //landskap//.(4) //Skabe// and //schaffen// mean to shape, and like the suffixes -//skab// and -//schaft//, can also mean association, partnership, a connection.(5) To me, this suggests an interconnectedness between entities that effect and affect each other. Spirn continues that “There is a notion, embedded in the original word, of a mutual shaping of people and place: people shape the land, and the land shapes people.”(6) This relationship seems particularly relevant in how these views are physically framed. Spirn also adds that “In Old English, it implied both an association with a place and a physical shaping. Later it grew into its current sense of //view//, a panoramic view.”(7)
In his 1999 book //Landscape and Western Art//, Malcom Andrews describes how “[A] landscape acquires significant organization as a result of certain extrinsic and intrinsic factors. A frame establishes the outer boundaries of the view; it gives the landscape definition. The frame literally defines the landscape, both in the sense of determining its outer limits and in the sense that landscape is constituted by its frame[...]it wouldn’t be a landscape without that frame.”(8) But if the word //landscape//, in this context, is intended to refer to specific fixed or specified areas, perhaps this //frame// can be read as a kind of visual [[//region//->region]] in that the framing acts as a kind of boundary, separating the content as well as the surrounding contextual environment. In //The Art Seminar//(9) James Elkins states that “The understanding of landscape as ‘landscope’ is a sign of another sense of landscape, our fourth sense: landscape as viewed object, as something built out of representations of space and time. This sense of a thing viewed can open out in several directions [...]”(10) With reference to the western tradition, this implies that everything involved in the construction of a //landscape// (//object//) exists in a physical material form and also as elements that are assembled within environmental and social contexts and framed together. These elements act on as they are acted upon; they are in a cycle of perceived formation. The construction of landscapes within this context act as a reflection of the social and cultural identities of the persons building them.
[[IS IT A LANDSCAPE?]]
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//REGION//
A region is an area that displays some form of homogeneous, cohesive, or collective criteria that distinguishes it from neighboring areas.(13) These composed ideological boundaries may be based on specific occurrences, such as the distribution of natural phenomena, or arbitrarily constructed like a garden wall. A landscape at least partly exists within a selected container, edge, border, or frame.
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//IS IT A LANDSCAPE?//
Through my research, I have come to the conclusion that there is no consensus of meaning that can pin //landscapes// into one fixed expression. However, in their (1982) paper //Landscape Perception: Research, Application, and Theory//, Ervin Zube, James Sell, and Jonathan Taylor sketch a theoretical framework for determining how landscape is defined through human perception. Using their set of conditions, can you determine if something is a landscape?
1 - Landscapes permit movement and exploration of the situation and force the observer to become a participant.
2 - Landscapes provide information that is received through multiple senses which is processed simultaneously.
3 - Landscapes provide peripheral as well as central information. Information is received from ‘behind’ the participant as well as from in ‘front’.
4 - Landscapes can simultaneously provide redundant, inadequate, ambiguous, conflicting and contradictory information.
5 - Landscapes cannot just be passively observed, they provide opportunities for action, control and manipulation.
6 - Landscapes provide symbolic meanings and motivational messages that can call forth purposeful actions.
7 - Landscapes are almost always encountered as part of a social activity; they have a definite aesthetic quality and they have a systemic quality (various components and events are related.)(14)
These criteria are offered for quantifying //landscape// relative to human perception. However, I think they also can be applicable in determining or distinguishing //visual// landscapes, or landscape //objects//:
1 - Consideration #1: //Landscapes// permit movement and exploration of a given situation, forcing the observer to become a //participant//. This could imply any participation with an environemnt, or art object.
2 - Consideration #2: //Landscapes// provide information that is received through multiple senses and processed simultaneously. Looking at the work of [[Laura Millard->Laura Millard]] from the early and mid-2000s, the change in depth of field from the use of a wide-angle lens (compared to the human eye alone), coupled with the physical application of material (such as paint), create a different phenomenological experience in the viewer, playing with their visual perception of the reality of the visual plane, and that of the physical object.(15)
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/meltwater-iv_orig.jpg" width="300px">->Meltwater IV]]
Walter Benjamin affirms in //The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction// (1935) that “[I]n photography, process reproduction can bring out those aspects of the original that are unattainable to the naked eye yet accessible to the lens, which is adjustable and chooses its angle at will. And photographic reproduction, with the aid of certain processes, such as enlargement or slow motion, can capture images which escape natural vision.”(16) I would suggest that this interplay between material and visual input, as well as the means with which the images are produced, also touch on this simultaneous processing.
3 - Consideration #3: //Landscapes// provide peripheral as well as central information. Information is received from ‘behind’ the participant as well as in ‘front.’ Millard wants the viewer to know that hers are //unreal// images composed by the artist,(16) returning to a reference of a kind of original //aura// in the experience of being present with a work of art.(17)
Looking at the work within my own studio, this process of providing environmental information read through multiple senses (input that is peripheral), was suggestive of a three-dimensional space. In this I see a room (as a kind of framing of space within a structure) as a means of experiencing the work from this phenomenological perspective, as itself a form of //landscape//. Returning to Millard’s work, she is engaging in the imaging of landscapes in ways that are not physically possible for humans to perceive from our bodily perspectives. Yet I think the push to translate the experience is very much present within the work. This set of conditions has been key in how I am identifying landscapes and structured my studio practice for the development of //Out of Site, Out of Mind//.
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/install-sketch-cstephenson.jpg" width="300px">->IMAGE 2]]
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//CONSTRUCT//
In this context what I mean by using the term construct, is in the sense of the word that a construct can be //anything// constructed, especially something of the mind, like a concept specially devised to be part of a theory. It is an object of perception or thought, formed by a combination of present with past sense-impressions. Immaterial. Making or forming by fitting parts together. To frame, build, erect as opposed to, say from linguistics—group of words forming a phrase, as distinct from a compound.
[[RETURN TO START->START]]
//MICHÈLE WHITE//
Due to COVID-19, the conversation and studio visit with Michèle White that was originally intended had to be posponed. The following profile makes use of alternative resources.
Michèle White has a broad artistic practice and career as an educator, and is currently a Professor in the Drawing & Painting department at OCAD University (OCADU). White’s work is deeply attached to the “[P] hysical practices in art production, the history and meaning of materials and processes are central to the artist’s visual practice, research, and teaching.”(48) In her 2020 talk at OCADU, White discussed her work from the perspective of her life, saying that she does not “[A] spire to an art career but an art practice […] life is short but art is long, try to find a way to leave some cell behind that can grow into something new.”(49) In her practice, often drawing on sources in literature, White investigates manifestations of the unconscious and the invisible in the visible world.(50)
The relationship White describes between the internal and external (worlds, forces, perspectives, etc.) is evident, particularly in work that draws inspiration and imagery from physical environments. Her current series //The Stones of Florence// (2019-2020), arises out of her 50-year engagement with the city of Florence from multiple positions as a “[T] raveler, student, artist, teacher, researcher, and lover.”(51) Named for the works of Mary McCarthy and John Ruskin, //The Stones of Venice//, these works (mixed media paintings and digital prints), were produced using materials from Florence and the Etruscan hill town of Fiesole. The pieces, made from pigments—including rocks, stones, and earth collected in Italy—are suspended in wax that was absorbed by a ground of marble dust collected in the hills of Carrara. White describes these works as //Her Stories//(52) and I think this can be interpreted in two ways: as a recounting of a physical and phenomenological experience of place (the physical streets that were walked) and, through the lens of memory and the mind, as a remembrance of a place experienced from multiple positions and across several decades.(53)
I consider these abstract works to be a kind of exploration of landscape. They are temporal and consider moments in time; they frame and reference specific locations; and they utilize symbolic visual language through the application of materials.
[[<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58ebcaa215d5dbf58c175b0a/1580059400661-Q5ESU5ASUE7IJSGE6E2Z/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kCf6sH9c437gbvAmanPzSKV7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z5QPOohDIaIeljMHgDF5CVlOqpeNLcJ80NK65_fV7S1UX9BjT0aodku4kW7zVKsVhHUYE7KkzVhPCrX_H8J_bRhTkxC0aoRwwbnj8JuJQ_2MQ/33F.jpg?format=500w" width="400px">->Michele white stones of florence]]
White has another project that are relevant to my work: the multiple iterations of the //Nuclear Garden//. This series spans multiple media including painting, reprography, and video—made in response to the community of Port Hope, Ontario, and its relationship to the area production of nuclear power and disposal of low-level radioactive waste.(54) Produced in the early 1990s, this project engages ideas of power, loss of childhood, constructs of idyllic nature/paradise, and terrible beauty; linking the nuclear landscape to the history of landscape depiction through the use of appropriative strategies.
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/michele-white-nuclear-garden_orig.jpg" width="400px">->Michele White Nuclear Garden]]
White references the work of 'landscape masters' from the //Golden Age of Landscape Painting// such as Rembrandt, Constable, Turner—and later Impressionists like Monet.(55) She transmutes the Darlington, Pickering, and Wellesleyville nuclear plants (and their surrounding environments) into something that exists within these historical contexts. White creates surfaces that beg deeper inspection; penetrating them provides a visceral experience.(56)
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//LAURA MILLARD//
Due to COVID-19, the conversation with Laura Millard that was originally intended to be included as a part of this project had to be posponed. The following profile makes use of existing resources.
Laura Millard is an Ontario-based artist whose primary focus has centered on the production of landscapes in a variety of media. She has been the recipient of multiple awards and has participated in several notable residencies; most recently The Arctic Circle Artist and Scientist Residency Program which brings together international artists, scientists, architects, and educators to provide a shared experience. Participants engage in the myriad issues relevant to our time and develop professionally through fieldwork and research, interdisciplinary collaborations, exhibition opportunities, and public classrooms;(61) while simultaneously exploring the high-Arctic Svalbard Archipelago and Arctic Ocean. Millard has a deep exhibition history in artist-run, commercial, and public galleries within Canada, and Internationally.
Initially trained as an on-site, //en plein air// landscape painter, Millard’s work has blended elements of traditional western landscape painting with other media including multiple modes of photography. Apprehensive and distrustful of the production of work following the colonialist traditions (such as those from the [[Hudson River School]]) that utilizes //the long horizon line//—that vantage point that looked deeply into the distance as a means of //claiming it all//. Millard’s work aspires to change the perception of these same significant environments depicted in traditional landscape painting. Her //Meltwater// series (2010) focused on specific locations such as the Columbia Icefields (the hydrological apex of North America), creating intimate encapsulations of place.(62)
Shifting perception (and perspective) is a repeating device within Millard’s practice. In her work from the mid-2000s, she used a telephoto lens to find a different way of seeing each drop of water over a waterfall, looking at the individual parts in a sustained way. In //Meltwater//, Millard was interested in how and what the lenses see.(63) According to Millard, the digital speed of the camera-capture allows for something that is being experienced phenomenologically, but is not perceivable by the human eye; to be held for a split-second in consideration; to create a change in how the viewer engages with images; and to question what is really there—what they are really seeing.(64)
The images in this body of work are further augmented using digital editing software, which acts as a //subtractive colour system//, and analog applications of paint, an //additive colour system//. These techniques are employed to let the viewer know that an unreal image has been constructed. Millard further alters the viewer’s perception by combining physical elements that push up from the surface of the work and approach the viewer on their side of the picture plane; at the same time, the photographic plane of the image recedes into something they can’t touch.(65)
In //Crossing// (2017), the focus is shifted from micro-expressions of moments in time to a macro-visualization of gesture and mark-making that exists on a significantly longer timescale. Here, Millard uses a snowmobile to create large-scale drawings in snow on a frozen lake, which she documents via aerial drone photography.(66) The lakes became singular drawing surfaces that shifted and changed with fluctuating situations and environmental conditions. For example, the different winter temperatures that would sink imprints and previous marks into the ice on the lakes. The resultant photo-based images were further altered with the application of analog materials such as oil paint and pencil. Through this combination of technologies, Millard brings together some of the contradictory ways of seeing and representing landscape.(67) In addition to these works acting as a presentation of //landscape//, they also reference the layering of //memory//. The accumulation of marks is a physical representation of this within the environment.
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/snowmobile-drawing-loopy-lines-2019-watercolour-chalk-pencil-on-photograph-rag-paper-framed-30-22-x-40-22.jpg" width="500px">->LoopyLines]]
Millard’s most recent work, //Ghost Net Drawing, Svalbard,// (2020) brings the focus to yet another distance—a mezzo scale—in relation to a human perspective. The piece, recently exhibited at Angell Gallery, reinterprets the drawn lines from the frozen lake through a large fishing net Millard found while participating in the Arctic Circle Residency. From the water, Millard reclaimed a //ghost net//, a discarded or lost commercial fishing net that she dragged ashore. This object brings the scale of the work back into an intimate and relatable space cued to the human body. In the exhibition essay for the (2020) exhibition //How Dark Does It Get When The Lights Go Out?// Noah Gano discusses Millard’s work: “Recovering and using the net to draw the symbol for infinity in the ephemeral snow, Millar continued her approach to large-scale land art by photographing the drawing with a drone and painting print, rendering it to memory, and preserved. As in the cycle of life, the land is returned to itself.”(68) This scale relationship is left abstract and ambiguous save for the intervention of a fox in the surrounding snow. Millard’s repeated challenging temporal and physical perception has been influential on the way I have approached the production of //landscapes// within my own practice—combining memory, a physical environment, archiving, time, and the object of art itself.
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//SYMBOLS//
At its most basic, a symbol is //something// that stands in for something else. It is often a material object representing (or intuited as representing) an abstract or immaterial construct like an idea, quality, or being that holds meaning contextually outside of the literal physical properties of the object or sign itself (like the concentric circles on a target, or a Jasper Johns painting).(18) Extrapolating from this definition, anything can act as a symbol including marks, characters, letters, etc.(19)
These elements become symbols—symbolic—and hold meaning based on the association and relationships attached to them within individual and collective contexts.
[[SIGNIFIERS]]
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//SIGNIFIERS//
A signifier—a person, object, image, sound, mark, etc.—signifies or indicates //something//, and is distinct from its meaning.(20) A sign is a mark, symbol or device, a gesture, that has special significance that distinguishes it from other features. Signs can be conventional and represent particular sets of information,(21) but they can also be individualistic. A sign can be a kind of mark-making; to put a mark //on// something.
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//THE HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL//
The Hudson River School consisted of a large group of artists working from roughly 1825-1870. The name does not reference artists depicting a specific geographical location but rather a similar intent within the work.(57) Deeply connected to ideas of American expansion and manifest destiny, their paintings of an //untamed countryside// became symbolic of a nationalistic //prosperity// and //limitless resources//. Despite this interest in an //independent American culture//, these works remained saturated with European influences,(58) and helped propagate ideals of national expansion and manifest destiny; the supposed inevitability of the continued territorial expansion of the boundaries (of the United States). This idea of destiny was used to justify colonial actions such as the continued accumulation of land through annexation, money, and violence.(59) If a figure appears in these pieces, such as in the work of Thomas Cole, it is always subordinate to the majesty of the surrounding landscape.(60)
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//ROCKS//
Geology is everywhere, encompassing the study of a living Earth. It exists outside of a direct human frame of reference: how it was made, the forces that have shaped and continue to shape it.(22) Objects of geology are present in outcrops of granite, layered soil, and are interconnected with human constructions such as sand, gravel, and cement, which are used in the construction of buildings and structures. They are also part of making everyday things like chalk, pencils, colour pigments, computers, and more.(23) Rocks are everywhere, forming significant portions of the ecological environment—of the //physical landscape//. They are interwoven into the construction of visual and phenomenological landscapes.
When I was a kid, my family and close family friends would travel from Toronto to outside the town of <a href="http://www.gumptioninc.org/2017/06/02/brief-history-nobel/"; target="_blank">Nobel, Ontario</a>.Nobel, Ontario. We drove along highway 400, continuing north on the old highway 69—two lanes that passed between the rock walls of the Canadian Shield, one of the world’s largest continental shields;(24) the face of which was bisected by the remaining halves of drilled tunnels. My dad told me it was from blasting with dynamite; this is where I began my rock collection.
In the 1990s, when I started collecting rocks, they were tied to direct experiences of the places they came from. One of the clearest and deepest memories I have of rocks, as a child, begins with throwing fist-sized rocks at boulders and rock faces in an attempt to split them open to see what was inside. The rocks split apart, leaving marks on the surrounding boulders, forming smaller pieces of a whole that I could fit back together like puzzle pieces. What I remember is the comradery of that day and a sense of exploration and learning. Picking up and carrying them, holding them, keeping them close like a treasured toy or memento. These pieces of rocks have since become surrogate objects for this memory.
I have accumulated other //rock objects// in the subsequent decades, from special moments, to gifts from friends. In the process of exploring my relationship to rocks, last summer I went looking for this collection and unfortunately it was nowhere to be found. In the time since beginning this collection, many life changes and moves occurred, and these objects shifted from being seemingly vital to ephemeral things that could be left to disappear—things that did not seem necessary to carry with me. Through this current excavation, my relationship to rocks—and the deeper connections I formed with them—has been renewed.
[[ROCKS IN THE STUDIO]]
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//ROCKS IN THE STUDIO//
Last summer, I contacted my SAIC 2020 cohort to help me rebuild my rock collection. Asking them to contribute whatever //rocks// they chose was, in part, a means of replicating the associated meaning of my lost collection and embracing an organic gathering method—similar to the chance encounters with rocks in my childhood—that would produce a group of objects not exclusively of my design. I intentionally left the parameters open to interpretation and provided little direct instruction. Some examples of the rocks that came to me:
1 - Priya gave me some of the mini pebbles, which resembled the rocks she used in her ritual studio practice.
2 - Lacee collected an assortment of rocks from one of the beaches on Lake Michigan.
3 - Katie contributed river rocks from Utah that she was going to paint with her kids.
4 - Kristin, my studio neighbour, brought me rocks from her garden—and pieces of cement, acting as rock fragments in the environment.
5 - Enma shared a personal story.
6 - Penny organized a trip to the monument-carving business that has been in her family for several generations.
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-2606.jpg" width="300px">->Rock collection]] [[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-3340.jpg" width="300px">->Rock collection]] [[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-3337.jpg" width="300px">->Rock collection]] [[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-3341_orig.jpg" width="300px">->Rock collection]]
In my studio, these physical rock-objects began to serve as materials, tools, and representations of the people who offered them; became debris and detritus while retaining the materiality of //rocks//, and contributed to the work I am producing. Each became a piece of this identity-scape, holding the memory of these people, and of the experiences and places we shared.
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/cstephenson-detail-3_orig.jpeg" width="300px">->Image 1]]
[[RETURN TO START->START]] //HOW DO OBJECTS HOLD MEMORY?//
In an interview on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio show //Tapestry// author Meik Wiking discussed various approaches to intentionally cultivating and remembering moments from your life. Wiking says that memories are “The glue that holds human beings together over time, this ability to connect to the past self and shared experiences connects us to other people [...] we often remember stuff by association, or we remember our memories by association."(25) Finding ways to instill meaningful moments (time) in what we surround ourselves with allows us to imbue objects and places with associated memories. Wiking is concerned primarily with the happy or joyful memories but also addresses the sadness as well, noting that “We engage in nostalgic activity when we are feeling sad [...] traveling back in time and revisiting those experiences where we felt this sense of connection."(26) Perhaps the lived experiences of //landscapes// are tied to this expression of associated memory, or to the way that memory is built. According to Wiking, humans can use all senses (not just vision) to build new experiences. Actively engaging your senses is one of the tools we have as memory architects.(27)
[[ROCKS]]
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-3344.jpeg" width="300px">->Rock collection Images 2]]
Artist [[Michèle White]]
Artist [[Laura Millard]]
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//BIBLIOGRAPHY//
81 Year Old Commodore Amiga Artist - Samia Halaby” //YouTube// Video, 9:14, “The Guru Meditation” March 5, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=sDfIkXf3uzA.
Andrews, Malcom. “Landscape and Western Art.” //Oxford University Press//, New York (1999)
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Bennett, Jane. “Artistry and Agency in a World of Vibrant Matter” Youtube video, 1:14, September 13, 2011. Posted by “The New School” (September 27, 2011) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q607Ni23QjA
“Code of Ethics and Guidance for Practice of the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property and of the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators” //The Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property & The Canadian Association of Professional Conservators)// (2000/2009) https://www.cac-accr.ca/about-us/#reference
"conservation, n.". OED Online. March 2020. Oxford University Press. https://www-oed-com.proxy.artic.edu/view/Entry/39564?redirectedFrom=conservation&. Accessed May 3, 2020.
Clavir, Miriam. “Preserving What is Valued: Museums, Conservation, and First Nations” UBC Press, (2002)
Elkins, James. “The Art Seminar,” in Landscape Theory, ed. Rachael Ziady DeLue & James Elkins. //New York: Routledge//, (2008)
Ewen, Anne. “Laura Millard: Crossing”, //The Cairn: Digital Edition// (January 2019) Volume 2, Issue 1. https://www.whyte.org/post/laura-millard-crossing. Accessed March 9, 2020.
Gano, Noah. "How Dark does it Get When the lights go out?" //Exhibition Essay//. (2020) Angell Gallery, Toronto.
Gopnik, Blake. “The Weekly Pic: Laura Millard”. //On Art//. October 30, 2017 https://blakegopnik.com/post/166955906703. Accessed March 19, 2020
Grant, Kim. “All About Process: The Theory and Discourse of Modern Artistic Labor,” //The Pennsylvania State University Press//. (2017)
Harman, Graham. “Art + Objects”. //Polity Press//, (2020)
Hayles, N Katherine. “Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary” //Indiana, University of Notre Dame Press,// (2008)
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Ippolito, Jon & Rinehart, Richard. “Re-Collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory” //MIT Press//. (2014)
Kramer, Ash. "Vital Materialism" Philosophical Materialism: a study of early modern literature and contemporary theory. https://scalar.usc.edu/works/material_philosophy/vital-materialism.
Accessed April 20, 2020.
Laura Millard, interviewed by Lori Starr “Interview: Laura Millard Uncut” //Vimeo// video, 19:22, December 03, 2010. Posted by “ArtSync”, (December 6, 2010). https://vimeo.com/17524936
Lorch, Benjamin. “Landscape”. The University of Chicago: Theories of Media Key Word Glossary. (2002) https://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/landscape.htm. Accessed March 10, 2020.
Lerner, Ben. “The Custodians: How the Whitney is Transforming the Art of Museum Conservation.” //The New Yorker//, (January 4, 2016) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/11/the-custodians-onward-and-upward-with-the-arts-ben-lerner. Accessed May 2, 2020
Mahon, Patrick. "Laura Millard: Recent Work Pari Nadimi Gallery" //Border Crossings//, 08, 2002, 82-83, http://proxy.artic.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest com.proxy.artic.edu/docview/215537317?accountid=26320. Accessed March 15, 2020.
Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. "ROCK ONtario" //Queen's Printer for Ontario//. (1994) http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/POP001//pop001.pdf. Accessed March 19, 2020.
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Site-Specific. “Art Terms”. //The Tate//. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/site-specific. Accessed March 5, 2020.
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Spirn, Anne Whiston. “The Art Seminar,” in Landscape Theory, ed. Rachael Ziady DeLue & James Elkins. //New York: Routledge//, (2008)
Stephenson, Cortney. “Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes.” Essay, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.
“Toronto Fire Insurance Atlases and Plans”, //The Toronto Public Library Archive//. https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/history-genealogy/lh-toronto-fire-insurance-plans.jsp. Accessed April 29, 2020.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. //Canadian Shield//. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (1998, 2019) https://www.britannica.com/place/Canadian-Shield. Accessed March 20, 2020.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. //Hudson River School//. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.(May 30, 2018) https://www.britannica.com/art/Hudson-River-school. Accessed March 25, 2020
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. //Region//. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (1998, 2019) https://www.britannica.com/science/region-geography. Accessed March 25, 2020
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. //Thomas Cole//. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (1998, 2020) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Cole. Accessed March 25, 2020.
Vaccaro, Joan A. “The Quantum Theory of Time, the Block Universe, and Human Experience” //Philosophical Transaction, the Royal Society Publishing//. (2018) A.37620170316 http://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0316. Accessed April 27, 2020.
Wallis, George W. "Chronopolitics: The Impact of Time Perspectives on the Dynamics of Change." //Social Forces// 49, no. 1 (1970): 102-08. doi:10.2307/2575743. Accessed April 27, 2020.
“What is Conservation?” //The Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property//. https://www.cac-accr.ca/conservation/. Accessed April 29, 2020.
White, Michèle. 2020. "A Life In Art 3". Presentation, //OCAD University//, February 27th, 2020.
White, Michèle. "Michèle White Bio" (2019) https://michelewhite.squarespace.com/bio/. Accessed March 28, 2020
White, Michèle. "Nuclear Garden" Statements. (1993) https://michelewhite.squarespace.com/statements. Accessed March 28, 2020.
White, Michèle. "The Stones of Florence" Statements. (July 8, 2019) https://michelewhite.squarespace.com/statements. Accessed March 28, 2020.
Wiking, Meik. Interviewed by Mary Hynes "Tapestry" CBC Radio, 38:52, December 6, 2019. //Imbedded Audio Player//, Posted by the CBC.(December 6, 2019) https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/making-happy-memories-and-ditching-old-stuff-1.5386065/treasure-map-of-happy-memories-a-guide-to-remembering-the-best-moments-of-your-life-1.5386117
Zube, Ervin H. Sell, James L. Taylor, Jonathan G. “Landscape perception: Research, Application and Theory,” //Landscape Planning//, Volume 9, Issue 1, (1982) 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3924(82)90009-0. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304392482900090) Accessed March 2, 2020.
Martin, Anna. "Brief History of Nobel" the Parry Sound Project, (June 2, 2017) http://www.gumptioninc.org/2017/06/02/brief-history-nobel/ [External Link]
[[RETURN TO START->START]]
//NOTES//
(1) N Katherine Hayles, “Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary” (Indiana, University of Notre Dame Press, 2008) 1-42.
In the Chapter Electronic Literature , What Is It? N. Katherine Hayles includes descriptions of user (reader) interactions alongside descriptions of the examples of the different works of electronic literature themselves.
(2) Lorch, Benjamin. “Landscape”. The University of Chicago: Theories of Media Key Word Glossary. (2002) https://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/landscape.htm The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(3) Spirn, Anne Whiston. “The Art Seminar,” in Landscape Theory, ed. Rachael Ziady DeLue & James Elkins. New York: Routledge, (2008) 92
(4) Lorch “Landscape”. The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(5) Spirn, “The Art Seminar,” 92
(6) Spirn, “The Art Seminar,” 92
(7) Spirn, “The Art Seminar,” 93
(8) Andrews, Malcom. “Landscape and Western Art.” Oxford University Press, New York (1999) 5 The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(9) “The Art Seminar,” in Landscape Theory, ed. Rachael Ziady DeLue & James Elkins: Each volume in The Art Seminar series began as a round table discussion in front of an audience, and was later transcribed and published within “Landscape Theory”.
(10) Elkins, James. “The Art Seminar,” in Landscape Theory, ed. Rachael Ziady DeLue & James Elkins. New York: Routledge, (2008) 94
(11)“History of Junction Triangle” Toronto Neighbourhood Guide, (Accessed May 1 2020) https://www.torontoneighbourhoods.net/neighbourhoods/west-end/junction-triangle/history
(12) Subject, Danielle. “A History of Prohibition in the Junction” Indie88. (May 2, 2017) https://indie88.com/a-history-of-prohibition-in-the-junction/ (Accessed May 1, 2020)
(13) The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Region. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (1998, 2019) https://www.britannica.com/science/region-geography
(14) Zube, Ervin H. Sell, James L. Taylor, Jonathan G. “Landscape perception: Research, Application and Theory,” Landscape Planning, Volume 9, Issue 1, (1982) 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3924(82)90009-0. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304392482900090) 22 The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(15) Laura Millard, interviewed by Lori Starr “Interview: Laura Millard Uncut” Vimeo video, 19:22, December 03, 2010. Posted by “ArtSync”, (December 6, 2010). https://vimeo.com/17524936 The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(16) Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” In: Illuminations, edited by Hannah Arendt, translated by Harry Zohn, from the 1935 essay. Schocken Books, (1969) https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/benjamin.pdf 3-4. The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(17) Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” 6-10 The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(18) "symbol, n.1". OED Online. March 2020. Oxford University Press. https://www-oed-com.proxy.artic.edu/view/Entry/196197?rskey=PQwTQz&result=1 (accessed April 11, 2020)
(19) "symbol, n.1". OED Online.
(20) "signifier, n.". OED Online.
(21) "sign, n.". OED Online.
(22) Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. "ROCK ONtario" Queen's Printer for Ontario.(1994) 3 http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/POP001//pop001.pdf
(23) MNDM. "ROCK ONtario" 3
(24) Canadian Shield. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.
(25) Wiking, Meik. Interviewed by Mary Hynes "Tapestry" CBC Radio, 38:52, December 6, 2019. Imbedded Audio Player, Posted by the CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/making-happy-memories-and-ditching-old-stuff-1.5386065/treasure-map-of-happy-memories-a-guide-to-remembering-the-best-moments-of-your-life-1.5386117 (December 6, 2019)
(26) Hynes "Tapestry" CBC Radio
(27) Hynes "Tapestry" CBC Radio
(28) Ippolito, Jon & Rinehart, Richard. “Re-Collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory” MIT Press. (2014) 14
(29) Lerner, Ben. “The Custodians: How the Whitney is Transforming the Art of Museum Conservation.” The New Yorker, (January 4, 2016) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/11/the-custodians-onward-and-upward-with-the-arts-ben-lerner
(30) Lerner, “The Custodians” The New Yorker
(31) "conservation, n.". OED Online.
(32) “What is Conservation?” The Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property. https://www.cac-accr.ca/conservation/ (Accessed April 29, 2020)
(33) “Code of Ethics and Guidance for Practice of the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property and of the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators” The Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property & The Canadian Association of Professional Conservators) (2000/2009) https://www.cac-accr.ca/about-us/#reference 1
(34) “Code of Ethics” The Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property & The Canadian Association of Professional Conservators) (2000/2009) 13
(35) Lerner, “The Custodians” The New Yorker
(36) Ippolito & Rinehart “Re-Collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory” MIT Press. 15
(37) Clavir, Miriam. “Preserving What is Valued: Museums, Conservation, and First Nations” UBC Press, (2002) 248
(38) Clavir, “Preserving What is Valued: Museums, Conservation, and First Nations” 249
(39) Lerner, “The Custodians” The New Yorker
(40) “81 Year Old Commodore Amiga Artist - Samia Halaby” YouTube Video, 9:14, “The Guru Meditation” March 5, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=sDfIkXf3uzA.
(41) Rovelli, Carlo. “The Order of Time.” Translated by Carnell, Simon and Erica, Segre. Riverhead Books. (2017) 91
(42) The basic Planck units are length, mass, temperature, time and charge.
(43) Rovelli, “The Order of Time.” 125
(44) Vaccaro, Joan A. “The Quantum Theory of Time, the Block Universe, and Human Experience” Philosophical Transaction, the Royal Society Publishing. (2018) A.37620170316 http://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0316
(45) Rovelli, “The Order of Time.” 150
(46) Wallis, George W. "Chronopolitics: The Impact of Time Perspectives on the Dynamics of Change." Social Forces 49, no. 1 (1970): 102-08. Accessed May 5, 2020. doi:10.2307/2575743. 107
(47) "process, n.". OED Online.
(48) White, Michèle. "Michèle White Bio" (2019) https://michelewhite.squarespace.com/bio/
(49) White, Michèle. 2020. "A Life In Art 3". Presentation, OCAD University, February 27th, 2020.
(50) White, Michèle. "Michèle White Bio" (2019) https://michelewhite.squarespace.com/bio/
(51) White, Michèle. "The Stones of Florence" Statements. (July 8, 2019) https://michelewhite.squarespace.com/statements
(52) White, Michèle. "The Stones of Florence" Statement
(53) White, Michèle. "The Stones of Florence" Statements. (July 8, 2019)
https://michelewhite.squarespace.com/statements
(54) White, Michèle. "Nuclear Garden" Statements. (1993) https://michelewhite.squarespace.com/statements
(55) White, Michèle "A Life In Art 3". OCAD University
(56) Mahon, Patrick. "Laura Millard: Recent Work Pari Nadimi Gallery" Border Crossings, 08, 2002, 82-83, http://proxy.artic.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest com.proxy.artic.edu/docview/215537317?accountid=26320.The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(57) Hudson River School. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.
(58) Hudson River School Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.
(59) Heidler, David S. and Heidler, Jeanne T. Manifest Destiny. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (March 20, 2020) https://www.britannica.com/event/Manifest-Destiny
(60) Thomas Cole. Encyclopedia Britannica
(61) Artist and scientist led, The Arctic Circle brings together international artists of all disciplines, scientists, architects, and educators who collectively explore the high-Arctic Svalbard Archipelago and Arctic Ocean aboard a specially outfitted Barquentine sailing vessel. Its participants engage in the myriad issues relevant to our time and to develop professionally through fieldwork and research, interdisciplinary collaborations, exhibition opportunities, and other engagement. The Arctic Circle program supports the creation and exhibition of new and pioneering work. http://thearcticcircle.org/program/
(62) Laura Millard, interviewed by Lori Starr “Interview: Laura Millard Uncut” Vimeo video, 19:22, December 03, 2010. Posted by “ArtSync”, (December 6, 2010). https://vimeo.com/17524936. The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(63) Starr “Interview: Laura Millard Uncut” ArtSync. The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(64) Starr “Interview: Laura Millard Uncut” ArtSync. The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(65) Starr “Interview: Laura Millard Uncut” ArtSync. The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(66) Gopnik, Blake. “The Weekly Pic: Laura Millard”. On Art. October 30, 2017 https://blakegopnik.com/post/166955906703. The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(67) Ewen, Anne. “Laura Millard: Crossing”, The Cairn: Digital Edition (January 2019) Volume 2, Issue 1. https://www.whyte.org/post/laura-millard-crossing. The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(68) Gano, Noah. "How Dark does it Get When the lights go out?" Exhibition Essay. March 2020. Angel Gallery, Toronto.
(69) Site-Specific. “Art Terms”. The Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/site-specific (accessed May 14, 2020).
(70) Zube, Sell, Taylor, "Landscape perception" 22 The reference was also cited and discussed in my paper Burtynsky & Millard: Changing Perception of Landscapes, 2019.
(71) Grant, Kim. “All About Process: The Theory and Discourse of Modern Artistic Labor,” The Pennsylvania State University Press. (2017) 246
(72) Bennett, Jane. “Artistry and Agency in a World of Vibrant Matter” //Youtube// video, 1:14, September 13, 2011. Posted by “The New School” (September 27, 2011) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q607Ni23QjA
(73) Harman, Graham. “Art + Objects”. //Polity Press//, (2020) 174
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//THE JUNCTION//
The Junction is one of Toronto’s oldest neighbourhoods, dating back to the 1880s. Founded in 1884 as the Village of West Toronto Junction, at the crossroads of Dundas Street West and Keele Street, it was eventually merged with other surrounding villages and became the Town of West Toronto Junction. Even before the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) moved in, the area was a hub for railway workers, with three railways already running through the area. With the introduction of the CPR, however, the area saw a quick expansion with the addition of freight yards and maintenance shops.(11)
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/junction-2.jpg" width="500px">->IMAGE 3]]
The Town of West Toronto was annexed by Toronto in the early 1900s. The area became a rapidly growing community, however, by the 1960s the commercial railway lines bypassed the Toronto Junction and this led to a decline in the local industry and jobs. In the year 2000, the Junction’s alcohol ban was finally lifted after a referendum vote was carried out.(12) This change seemed to be an economic turning point that, combined with rising housing costs in Toronto, started a new era of gentrification for the neighbourhood.
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//PROCESS//
It is interesting to consider this idea of //Progression// and //Change// inherent in //Process//—the language implicating a future state of the materiality. The past occurs in the thematic content (memory), the present in the observer, and future time is implicated in the materiality of change. Process is as much the journey, or story, as it is the exploration of the interaction between materials and ideas.
Like the term //Landscape//, a //Process// is mutable and can be considered differently depending on the context. Process is a series of actions, a procedure, or course of action. The steps taken towards a specific outcome, a succeeding, or the succession of things in order as a sequence or progression. Process can also be seen at the passing or lapsing of //time//, as in the progression of time like the changing of seasons. Philosophically a becoming rather than staying static implying the perception of //change//, of a //progression// into something new.
According to the Oxford English dictionary, a process is also a part of communication, and can be considered a kind of narration, recounting a story, making an account, an argument, or even a play.(47) For me, the layered nature of //process// is vitally important to the production of my current work, as the emphasis of exploration of materials and narrative are a large part of what has propelled the development of this work. In identifying the incompletable nature of the work, finality of state shifts in its importance into something that cultivates different relationships.
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-3283.jpg" width="300px">->IMAGE 10]] [[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-3290.jpg" width="300px">->IMAGE 10]] [[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/cstephenson-studio-3.jpg" width="300px">->IMAGE 10]]
[[MAKING->Making]]
[[RETURN TO START->START]]//ABSTRACT//
Each individual can perceive time differently: something seen as a remnant, a seed of the future, or parts that move or sit still—these perceptions, meanings, and associations differ from person to person. If there is no single time, I would argue that there is no single landscape either. Instead, landscape refers to the elements or ecosystems that compose it; an assemblage of material and symbolic components; their meanings shaped by context. As with time, the perception of these symbols also depends on the individual’s experience. Using elements from the genre of landscape, I survey these elements within multiple frames of my experiences; time becomes a compositional element.
By focusing on a personal exploratory perspective within contemporary discourse, //Out of Site, Out of Mind//, investigates several elements such as preservation, collecting, objects, landscape, memory, time, process, and entropy. It interweaves these thematic concerns and discusses their impact on the perception of specific events, locations, and the formation of symbolic relationships. One form of the project (a fragmented hypertext document) allows for individual reading experiences while maintaining a connection between the different components. Bound to the cycle of technological change, this hypertext is susceptible to its own prospective entropy, engaging another micro-mezzo time scale through the document itself.
//Out of Site, Out of Mind//, performs a personal geological survey: mapping, excavating, and digging into the traces of my past experiences and major influences on my practice. In my current studio practice, I am constructing abstract symbolic landscapes through drawing and painting media, which often exhibit dual properties; like wax, both permeable and a preservative.
The current iteration of //Out of Site, Out of Mind//. can be accessed on my <a href="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/out-of-site-out-of-mind.html"; target="_blank">Website</a>
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//IMAGE LIST//
Cortney Stephenson. DUST (2019) Acrylic marker, highlighter, colour pencil, liquid latex, oil pastel, and cyanotype emulsion, on watercolour paper.
Cortney Stephenson. Detail of Untitled Work In Progress [WIP] (2020) Acrylic paint, pencil, tape, colour pencil, on watercolour paper.
Cortney Stephenson. Image of uncut stones from the monument building studio (2019)
Cortney Stephenson. Studio Shot: WIP of recently applied exposing cyanotype. (2019)
Cortney Stephenson. Studio Shot: WIP of exposing cyanotype in multiple stages. (2019)
Cortney Stephenson. Detail of Untitled WIP (2020) Acrylic paint, pencil, colour pencil, stapels, liquid latex, tape, oil pastel, cyanotype emulsion, and a screw on watercolour paper.
Cortney Stephenson. Studio Shot: Rocks from Katie holding down paper. (2020) These are the three rocks that I have grown closest to since starting the SAIC Rock collection. I often hold them while I'm thinking or anxious.
Scan of Junction Microfilm, showing Canadian Pacific Railway Yard and Shops. PG 16
Cortney Stephenson. Detail of Untitled WIP (2020) Acrylic paint, pencil, colour pencil, cyanotype emulsion, and rocks on watercolour paper.
Cortney Stephenson. Studio Shot: Rock from Lacee supporting an acrylic plastic film on exposing cyanotype emulsion. (2019)
Cortney Stephenson. Preliminary Sketch of Installed Environment (2020)
Scan of Junction Microfilm, showing Windermere Ave. (Dates etc TBA)
Unknown. 'Temporal Mural'* at Windermere Ave. & Dundas St. W. Photo by Cortney Stephenson. (December 2019) * my term, not an official title
Cortney Stephenson. Studio Shot: WIP of freshly applied exposing cyanotype. (2019)
Millard, Lara. “ Loopy Lines” Snowmobile Drawing, Watercolour, chalk, and pencil on photograph rag paper. 30”x40”. 2019
Millard, Laura. “Meltwater III” 2012
//BEING IN TIME//
I am fascinated by time as it exists in relation to social constructs as well as how it connects to individual perceptions—the granular nature of quantum time, allowing for the accumulation of experiences, formed and passed, amassing together as memories becoming a version of //now//.
The idea of time that I identify with the most is the concept that there is no universal //now//; that no one being or thing experiences the present in exactly the same way. In his book //The Order of Time// (2018) Carlo Rovelli describes the phenomena as “There is no single time: there is a different duration for every trajectory; and time passes at different rhythms according to place and according to speed. It is not directional: the difference between past and future does not exist in the elementary equations of the world”(41) and later continues “The world is like a collection of interrelated points of view. To speak of the world ‘seen from outside’ makes no sense, because there is no ‘outside’ to the world. The elementary quanta of the gravitational field exist at the Planck scale.(42) They are the elementary grains that weave the mobile fabric with which Einstein reinterpreted Newton’s absolute space and time. It is these, and their interactions, that determine the extension of space and the duration of time.”(43) Time seems to be associated with the //ordered collection of conditional states//. It is a subjective awareness associated with the many conditional states that overlap and are ordered in terms of increasing clock time; providing a basis for the subjective perception of a ‘flow’ or ‘passage’ of time.(44)
To me, this expresses a feeling of being both singular and interconnected, that there is a relationship between what I would identify as //me// and //you// and //things//. This position is in response to the particular sets of variables that are interacted with, like the accumulation of memory in a particular place, the observation of change, and that conceivably, the passage of time is not really a characteristic of the universe but due to the specific standpoint that we have in our particular corner of it.(45) I believe this means that what elements are considered important depend on the social perception of the ‘past,’ ‘present,’ and ‘future’. However, I also see this as a call to empathy, that energy and agency needs to reach out to be shared with others.
[[<img src="http://www.cortneystephenson.com/uploads/6/5/7/0/6570939/img-0294_orig.jpeg" width="500px">->JUNCTION IMAGES]]
This perception of time is further complicated by chronopolitics and social context, which determines how time is perceived, and therefore how future actions are planned. George W. Wallis states:
***“As a set of ideas, society is related to other ideas, such as the ideas held concerning time, and it is affected by them. As a structure, it is at least partly reflective of the ideas held about it. The various belief systems can be seen as affecting each other and, in turn, as articulated with systems of action. These belief systems, which motivate and interpret action, mesh not only with present society but also with the society as it existed in the past (as it is remembered) and as it will be in the presumed future […] the present as a ‘time of transition’ can be seen as a time during which epoch-making decisions can still be made which will lead a society to a certain type of future. ‘Transition’ can also be understood as the intervening period between two stages of a predetermined sequence of events in which social trends provide the connecting links between sequential stages. The view of the present as a period of crucial decisions leads to a politics of crisis. A view of change as inevitable development with a perceived direction tends to impose a perceived task of acceptance and implementation. In one case, basic decisions are being made; in the other, basic decisions have been made and only fruition of their implications can be expected.”***(46)
I think that //Landscapes// could be considered to become a kind of freeze form of this transition in time, expressing symbols as they related to the current (or historical) social perspectives.
[[PRESERVE->Preserve]]
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//PRESERVE//
I am interested in conservation as it relates to individual and social memory. If memory is a primary foundation of identity, and aspects of identity are tied to material cultural objects, it seems like a form of amnesia when those objects are lost and changed. A concern for conservators is the separation of the object from its context or use, the choices on the part of the artist that impact the micro, mezzo, and macro experiences of their work.
Richard Rinehart and Jon Ippolito break down different forms and strategies of preservation of new media works //Re-Collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory// (2014), and early-on distinguish //history// as a set of practices (as a social memory) that sees artworks, curators, preservationists, etc. as active agents in developing //memory//, rather than as its passive subjects.(28) How makers contribute to this dialogue in the production of their own work is also vitally important to the development of future practices. An implication is that it will impact //future// generations’ relationship with and understanding of the social and cultural framework of //today//. Something that is ultimately based on that person’s point of view on the chronological impact of that object.
Many of the perspectives considered seem to revolve around temporality.(29) Ben Lorne’s article //The Custodians// (2016) says of more contemporary attitudes towards this temporality that “These days, conservators tend to seek a middle ground between Ruskin’s position, which risks fetishizing damage, and Viollet-le-Duc’s, which risks the Disneyfication of the historical record. In certain instances, the conservator will protect an image’s overall compositional effect while also seeking to acknowledge the newness, the falseness, of what she has done. Such strategies can be traced to Cesare Brandi, a twentieth-century Italian art historian and critic, who developed a method called //tratteggio//, in which the restorer fills in lacunae with a series of small lines. From a distance, the lacunae recede, allowing the viewer to experience a pictorial unity; upon closer inspection, the addition declares a loss.”(30) Commonalities between different applications of //conservation// includes ideas and actions around the //preservation// of //existing conditions//. Saving something intrinsic to the object, it is considered an observance, a stewardship, and part of the process of caretaking, mostly a prevention of falling to //destructive influences//. (It should be noted that what constitutes a destructive influence seems to be mutable and contextually determined.)
Conservation may be related to environmental phenomena or human made constructs. It is even tied to physics as in //conservation of energy or force//(31). Regarding things of material culture (such as art objects) according to the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property (CAC) //conservation// is “[A]ll actions aimed at the safeguarding of cultural heritage for the future. The purpose of conservation is to study, record, retain, and conserve as appropriate, the culturally significant qualities of an object with the least possible intervention. Conservation includes examination, documentation, preventive conservation, preservation, restoration, and reconstruction.”(32) These views are echoed in the //Code of Ethics and Guidance for Practice of the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property and of the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators//—a document that is intended to serve as a guide for conservation professionals, and as an outline of the ethical obligations of conservation professionals for use by their clients, colleagues and employers.(33) Here //cultural property// is described as objects that are considered by the society at large (or some of its members) to be of specific importance. Cultural property can be organised into two main classifications. The first are //movable// objects, including items like works of art, artifacts, books, archival material, and other objects of natural, historical, or archaeological origin. The second consists of //immovable// objects such as architecture, archaeological sites and structures of historical or artistic interest.(34)
One question that has arisen for me in considering the temporal materiality of work and experience, is how //memory// is tied to //objects//; what is the threshold that determines which change or piece fundamentally shifts something into a new object? To me, this seems to be a philosophical question that can never be answered universally. Lerner highlights the importance of intention regarding //art objects//. In conversation with Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, the head of the Whitney’s Replication Committee, it is made clear that whenever possible the artist should be the driving force in determining what interventions are taken (if any) within their work. That each change made holds the potential to shift the conceptual development of the work.(35)
Social memory can be broken down into two broad categories of formal and informal: formal is associated with recognized institutions (like museums, archives etc.) and informal is comparable to forms of remembering that are decided by populations, and may prioritize ways of keeping objects //alive// through translation or migrations.(36) It appears like a hybridization of these methods of forming memory must be considered to retain, or maintain the intention of objects.
When considering non-western structures, reparations, and relationships with indigenous communities, as Miriam Clavir discusses in her book //Preserving What is Valued: Museums, Conservation, and First Nations// (2002) many of the people who she spoke with favoured a //both/and// approach to conservation; it depended on what was culturally appropriate.(37) However, this approach is not yet commonly applied and until relatively recently, (ethnographic) collections were primarily considered to be objects from the past rather than a part of the culture of living Peoples.(38) A more dynamic relationship between originators and institutions, seems to be closer to the methods being employed in contemporary conservation practices, like the work of Josh Kline’s //Cost of Living// that Lerner calls attention to in //The Custodians//, which will require the development of future technology to be fully realised, requiring a collaborative-like process to follow the intentions of the artist as closely as possible.(39)
Compared to the work of someone like Painter, Samia Halaby, who states that use of the Commodore Amiga computer was born out of a desire to make work that was //of her time//. The machine her work is produced on itself is the work.(40) With //Out of site, Out of Mind//, I intend for change to be incorporated into the work; acknowledging social changes to technology, material entropy, and allowing both intentional developments as well as incidental variations to be incorporated as a part of the live version. All existing files can act as a varied open edition of the piece. Perhaps the works we are making are always of the generation that the individual was producing them, but I think forms of mutable migration with different timescales, positions objects as almost different kinds of time traveling devices through social memory.
[[RETURN TO START->START]] //MAKING//
Unroll, Cut, Stretch, Staple, Mark, Write,
Stain, Brush, Expose, Darken, Soak, Shift,
Fade, Resist, Scratch, Lift, Peel, Stick,
Tape, Trace, Draw, Hammer, Tear, Click,
Watch, Touch, Wait.
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Laura Millard
“Loopy Lines”
Snowmobile Drawing, Watercolour, chalk, and pencil on photograph rag paper.
30”x40”
2019
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1 - Unfinished rocks in family monument building workshop visited with Penny, 2019.
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2 - Rocks in studio from Kristin, assisting in holding paper, 2019.
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3 - Rocks in studio, from Lacee, Katie, and Priya, traced, 2019.
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4 - Rock from Lacee, in studio, 2019. This rock was too heavy for the flight home with me and was given to the sculpture garden.
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An in-progress studio shot for //Out of Site, Out of Mind//,
Exposing cyanotype emulsion, acrylic paint, pencil, and rocks from Priya. 2020
The rocks were used to block light, acting as a negative in the photo process.
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Sketch of proposed panels for the installation component of //Out of Site Out of Mind//, including objects that are intended to be picked up and moved by viewers. The panels of paper reference a non-repeating wallpaper that can bend and react to the environmental conditions of the walls that they are installed on. The scale should be high and wide to feel like a piece of a room that can be stood in, while being a framed region, a landscape.
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Screen capture of a microfilm of a Toronto Fire Insurance Map of the Junction. Viewed at the Toronto Archives in 2019. This map shows the street that I grew up on, and previously believed to not belong to any specific local neighbourhood. This map prompted revisiting this site through Google Maps and Street View as well as returning multiple times in person. This slide does not show it, but other maps featured overlapping layers where updates had been added to existing maps without revising the date.
My home was not built yet.
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Screen capture of a microfilm of a Toronto Fire Insurance Map of the Junction. While rail lines still run through this section of Toronto, much of the infrastructure pictured here no longer exists.
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Acrylic paint, acrylic ink, white glue, candle wax, oil pastel, crayon, highlighter, colour pencil, graphite pencil, and marker on cartridge paper.
Breaking Rocks:
Geology and Sediment
Childhood, Spring.
Nobel, Driving, and School Projects
Curiosity and Exploration
Hot press watercolour paper, cyanotype, colour pencil, oil pastels, tape.
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Acrylic paint, acrylic ink, white glue, candle wax, oil pastel, crayon, highlighter, colour pencil, graphite pencil, and marker on cartridge paper.
Intersection: Framed Regions
What is a Landscape?
Plastic
Young Adulthood, Spring
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In progress image of Intersection: Framed Regions. Text selected from “What is a Landscape Anyway?”
Fluorescent Yellow Acrylic Plastic, Grey Acrylic Plastic, Hot Press Watercolour Paper, Masking Tape, Liquid Latex-Blue Masking Fluid, Staples.
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Acrylic paint, acrylic ink, white glue, candle wax, oil pastel, crayon, highlighter, colour pencil, graphite pencil, and marker on cartridge paper.
Broken Mugs:
Small pieces that were a part of a whole.
I saved the broken pieces of mugs, plates and bowls that had strong memories tied to them—positive, sad, negative, happy—I intended to use them, or repair them, but have not figured out how yet.
Hot press watercolour paper, cyanotype, fluorescent acrylic, oil pastels, graphite pencil.
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Acrylic paint, acrylic ink, white glue, candle wax, oil pastel, crayon, highlighter, colour pencil, graphite pencil, and marker on cartridge paper.
All the places that I have ever lived:
Sultan, Castlefield, Royal York, Dorval, Bloor, Windermere, Piazza Tasso, Constitution, Andros, Briar Hill, Elm Grove, Rosemount, Autumn Hill, Gordon Park, Bayview, Glenholme, Rexford, Watson, McCaul, Columbus, Via Nazionale, State, Dufferin, Dayton, Wiltshire, Dundas.
Referencing the junction rail lines that formed transit connections; metaphorically a journey; change.
Muscle tissue
Adulthood, Summer
Hot press watercolour paper, cyanotype, fluorescent acrylic, oil pastels, liquid latex, graphite pencil, acrylic ink, wax, gouache.
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Acrylic paint, acrylic ink, white glue, candle wax, oil pastel, crayon, highlighter, colour pencil, graphite pencil, and marker on cartridge paper.
Building a Rock Collection:
The Future, the Fall?
The bend and fold, a narrative climax, turning point.
Visually layered.
Community sourced collection and memories.
Watercolour paper, cyanotype, fluorescent acrylic, oil pastels, graphite pencil, fabric.
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Three of the rocks from Utah that Katie gave me.
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Photo of the building on the corner of Dundas St. W. and Windermere Ave, April 2019.
Mural artist not known.
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Panoramic photo of the building on the corner of Dundas St. W. and Windermere Ave, January 2020.
Mural artist not known.
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Cyanotype emulsion, masking fluid, colour pencil, acrylic paint, acrylic plastic, rocks from Lacee and Kristin, watercolour paper, and fabric stapled to my studio wall in 2019.
Documentation shots of in-progress work and changing of materials. I was thinking about something that leaned into the environment and location that it was installed in, and perhaps could grow and respond to the physical location of the space.
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Michèle White
"Nuclear Garden" Left: Monet's The Japanese Footbridge and the Water-Lily Pool, Giverny (altered), colour reprography on patinated copper. Right: Spent Nuclear Fuel Bay #2, colour reprography on patinated copper,
18" x 15"
1993
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Michèle White
“The Stones of Florence:”
Hot wax and mineral pigments on digital print
8” x 11”
2019
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Masking tape, acrylic ink, and colour pencil on watercolour paper. This is an in-progress detail of a section of a panel produced on one continuous roll of paper. The paper has been marked, masked, and soaked in a wash of acrylic in successive layers—building up different marks on the surface that would leave traces behind.
The ripped tape is an automatic mark that has a certain immediacy to its form, intended to be shown through the gesture of tearing through the jagged edges of the tape.
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Cyanotype emulsion, liquid latex, highlighter, acrylic paint marker, colour pencil, and self-generated text on watercolour paper. This is a section from the first iteration of the wallpaper from last summer, where working intuitively, I was thinking about pieces and particulates, trying to work out what it was about the materials and mark making that were driving this image making. Since returning to Toronto, this sections has been disassembled and combined into new works and assemblages.
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Processed and unprocessed cyanotype emulsion, liquid latex, colour pencil, oil pastels, acrylic marker, highlighter, and masking tape on watercolour paper.
This is an in-progress section of a panel that incorporates filmstrip like vignettes of different material expressions, and integrates materials from other works that have been collaged into it.
[[RETURN TO START->START]] Objects made from casts of bricks collected from my Dad’s house.
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Made in layers that can be stacked and reconfigured, they would be moveable, along with rocks, as a part of the //Out of Site, Out of Mind// installation.Viewers would be invited to interact with them during exhibition.
Made from a variety of materials including paper, polymer clay, cement, concrete, resin, and clay. Several forms are currently being use in my studio as tools.
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Laura Millard,
“Meltwater IV”
Oil on chromira print mounted on dibond.
64"x42”
2010
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Acrylic paint, acrylic ink, white glue, candle wax, oil pastel, crayon, highlighter, colour pencil, graphite pencil, and marker on cartridge paper.
Memory:
How do objects hold memory?
The Future, the Fall?
Layers of visual sediment that reference an accumulation of memories, as an expression of the experience of time/past.
Hot press watercolour paper, cyanotype emulsion, fluorescent acrylic, oil pastels, graphite pencil, wax, Acrylic ink, colour pencil., liquid latex.
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