Artist Statement
Over the last few years, I have built a solid professional practice whose focus has mostly been on visual art. I was educated in a very formal institution; in the past few years, however, I have concentrated more and more on the theoretical, conceptual and performative/ephemeral aspects of my work. I consider my art to exist in the experience, process, dissemination and thought (of myself, as the artist, as well as of the audience.) I now work with very varied material, but do not think my body of work is disjointed. I think of my major media as context. Though my education was very formal, I consider my non-formal training and research in gender culture, queer theory and art theory to be as important in my development as a professional artist.
Spending the majority of my existence in regionally isolated areas; whose arts communities are often very one-sided, I see the need for intervention, both within the art world and in the community at large.
Since some of my biggest interests are skewing context and (re)examining societal standards, especially as they relate to language and dissemination of information, I have a particular professional interest in the function of artist-run centres as a breeding ground of deviation. (Sanctioned dissent?) Imagine the ironic implications of officially endorsed and publicly funded guerrilla art; art which not only potentially bites the hand that feeds it (which much art does and many artists do, as well), but art which exists in the activity of biting that hand. In this way, even the process of making an application may be a part of my artwork. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so much so, this seems to be the kind of work that the Canada Council has been supporting in recent years, and I am forced to wonder whether by biting the hand that feeds me I am actually being critical of the system or buying into the expected role of a contemporary artist.
Most of my work is culturally driven - I cull from my surroundings. I am a sponge. Specifically, I’m interested in things which are awkward, out of place or pathetic and therefore draw attention to themselves. There is an obsessive nature to my work; I am a paranoiac and am easily affected by insignificant things. My work takes those things and makes them literally as important as they seem in my head, to display their absurdity and somehow trivialize my own worries. I think there is somewhat of a self-deprecating humour to my art, but by working with not only my own but also other people’s words, phrases and ideas, I am pointing out the absurdity which I see around me.
I want the viewers to have to convince themselves of the meaning in my work, or to decide that there must be a code to my language which they are simply not versed in. That way, they can go away enjoying or appreciating the art, while I leave them with that awkward empty feeling of not quite getting it, or that the artist couldn’t quite make it work.