Aesthetic Objects of Desire

My artist talk for Aesthetic Objects of Desire at the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival in May 2013 at Unpack Studio Toronto.

Please ignore the video quality! A friend recorded the talk from the audience. Also my video camera was on the verge of no longer functioning but I hadn't realized it yet.

Letters from Home

Today I knew where I was
when I woke. A brightness behind
my lids. The fire of morning
through the gauze of white curtain.
A fierce breeze straight from the mouths
of waves. Unstoppable. I'm sorry
for the things I've said. I know
you subtracted me long ago.
Please take me back. 

Infidelities by Sonia Farmer, p. 49

Island Time Residencies

I recently completed an MFA at OCADu in which I focused on how the Caribbean landscape can be reimagined outside of the tourist eye. After my MFA, I looked to continue  my practice around island culture and landscape while shifting my attention back to Canada. Island Time 01 at Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto Islands and Island Time 02 at 2 Rooms Artist Residency in Duntara, Newfoundland

For these residencies, I continued and expanded my research on how the landscape of islands is perceived and imagined, and how it can be renegotiated. I explored similarities between islands, such as small communities which are both close-knit and insular, tourism as a necessary but problematic industry, living in a landscape that dominates one’s existence and is susceptible to the elements, and existing in a state of being considered apart from time (standing still) which is usually untrue. 

Duntara

Duntara

2 Rooms Contemporary Art Projects in Duntara

Main living space in the residency

Studio Time

Working in the shed

Research

Research

Wild Blueberries

Research at the Ryan Premises National Historic Site

Bonavista

Keels, Bonavista Penisula

Keels, Bonavista Penisula

Lichen

Emily and Natalie presenting their project

During my stay at the residency overlapped a few days with Emily Pittman and Natalie Field of The Gathered Gallery.  

Trinity Historical Sites

Trinity Historical Sites

Trinity Historical Sites

for my Bajans

English Harbour Arts Centre

Rock Sculptures in English Harbour

Rock Sculptures in English Harbour

Coaker Factory Building in Port Union

Coaker Factory Building in Port Union

King's Cove

Catherine Beaudette, director of 2 Rooms Contemporary Art Projects

Saltfish Haiku

At lunch today, we were eating saltfish and having a discussion about haikus.


In tomato sauce,
saltfish comes with history
but still so tasty.

Message in a Dream

As I walk through a bazaar on a beach
where vendors sell fruits, dried fish, fragrant oils,
calabashes, hemp dresses, natural juices,
a woman walks out of the waves:
"I must read your palms, O woman of magic."
She pulls me down into the sand,
sits behind me, my back against her chest.
She puts my palms like cups into the cups
of her palms. We sway like sea-grape branches.
Vendors gather like apostles around us.
Lightning rises out of my palms
hits the water and the waves spit fire.
"You are too passionate," she whispers.
"You will kill things along the way."
I wake to the sound of the city's sirens
and my curtains dancing like wind parting
in the wake of a woman's leaving.


Tanya Shirley
from The Merchant of Feathers
Peepal Tree Press

life doesn't last,

art doesn't last,

it doesn't matter.

Eva Hesse.