TRAPPED

Trapped consists of a collection of embroidered animal pelt sculptures that examine the influence of the aesthetic and cultural narratives surrounding the Group of Seven on my understanding of the relationship between an artist and the land she calls home. In the last century, the monumental influence of the mythical landscapes envisioned by the Group of Seven painted emotional and aesthetic topographies that shaped the ways we saw our land and defined the visual language we used to imagine ourselves. Although their original intent was to free Canadian art from a colonial vernacular that repressed burgeoning national identities, ironically their work has metamorphosized into the very thing they sought to resist. The subversive power of these works has become 'trapped' by their breath-taking beauty and mass appeal, which has accelerated their co-option into the canon of twentieth century Canadian art. Sadly, their aesthetic has atrophied to the point where it is no longer capable of bending light to reflect the realities of the Canadian landscape in the twenty-first century. These sculptures examine the way cultural narratives about the Canadian landscape, about 'home,' contour identity. The sharp juxtaposition of the animal pelts and embroidered allusions to iconic Group of Seven paintings creates a deliberate tension between the ugly and the beautiful, the feared and the familiar, the abject and the iconic. I anticipate that this gradual construction of my imagined country will take me on a true voyage: away from the familiar and into the unknown in search of home.