House Hunting

It might reappear at some point in time on her website. Meanwhile guard your clippings. It did appear in the Globe and Mail - Toronto Saturday edition (14.01.2012). Not online at the Globe and Mail but they do provide a listing about her show at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.

Featuring works made during a recent residency on the island of Gotland, Sweden, the Alberta-born surrealist’s lyrical watercolours drew inspiration from the region’s mythology, and intertwine feminist themes with fables. The works, according to Globe art critic R.M. Vaughan, are "charmingly whimsical at first glance, but grow increasingly spirited (in all senses of the word), and at times menacing, upon further inspection."

My description of one piece that the Globe and Mail chose to reproduce in its print edition: six figures of women look as if they have just pushed a building over a cliff look down upon their handiwork (a clapboard house collapsed and sending up dust clouds). The piece is called "The Father's House". This rough description does not do justice to its feminist wit. Our six characters do strike a pose.

One wishes that more of Kristin of Bjornerud's work was available for viewing. Or simply close your eyes (after reading her description).

Bjornerud says. "For me, the house is a wonderfully rich symbol full of contradictions and narrative possibilities. It can be read at once as a domestic space, a shelter, a sanctuary or a prison." As for the female figures, the artist says they’re "taking control of the symbol" as well as an act of solidarity and a small rebellion. "It’s destructive, but it’s also a joyful act, at least for some of the characters."

From a Galleries West write up by Janet Nicol of a show at Gallery Jones, Vancouver.

And thanks to Gallery Jones one can view a small reproduction of the watercolour and gouache work on paper. Still seeing a small digital image or even a sizeable reproduction in a newspaper, would not match seeing the 60" x 40" piece. Different ways of seeing. A point not lost on the artist who knows that even in the face of the same object, viewers views will differ or as Janet Nicol concludes "She talks about leaving certain ambiguity in the work to invite conversation with the viewer. 'It would be quite boring if we all read images the same way.'" Or approached wrecking the same way.

And so for day 1251
17.05.2010