Canadian artist Arianna Richardson has habit of taking the rejected and turning it into refinement.
Richardson is a sculptor, sewer, and performance artist from Alberta, and for the next two weeks, her latest exhibit will be on display at the John V. Hicks Gallery in Prince Albert.
‘Surface All the Way Through’ is described as an exhibition of textile and text-based signs created out of discarded plastic. Richardson said the exhibit is an exploration of superficiality, distraction, reflection, containment, emotional blockages, consumerism, accumulation, and waste.
Two pieces from Alberta artist Arianna Richardson’s traveling exhibit ‘Surface All the Way Through’. The exhibit runs at the Mann Art Gallery until Sunday, Feb. 23.
“The objects in this show are fabricated entirely of plastic: a material that I am endlessly attracted to for its shape-shifting mimicry and limitless supply of exciting surface qualities,” Richardson said in a press release. “As a toxic, uncontainable, and grossly over-produced material, it is also repulsive and surrounds me with dread and despair. It is between opposites that I have created these objects: working to both deflect and deal with my own conflicting attitudes in a time of vast uncertainty, inexpressible emotions, and constant horror.”
Richardson’s pieces include materials “rescued from their fate as discarded objects.” The materials are selected from her own personal consumption habits, or from thrift stores.
Mann Art Gallery Interim Artistic Director Jesse Campbell said the exhibit feels light and playful, but has serious undertones.
“There is a sense of discomfort from the push and pull between the fanciful space and the amount of waste that our world continually produces,” Campbell wrote in an email to the Herald. “Apart from consumer culture’s driving force of plastic production, one cannot help but think of the amount of material waste and environmental impact produced in the art world.
“Plastic tubes, disposable paint palettes, and the amount of shipping and travelling that are core parts of art galleries and studios make for an uncomfortable realization that art consumption can take its toll. I appreciate how Arianna draws attention to this conundrum through her beautifully crafted, handmade objects: a practice that in itself has been an inherent driver of humanity for tens of thousands of years.”
‘Surface All the Way Through’ arrived in Prince Albert through the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Council’s Arts on the Move program. It runs at the John V. Hicks Gallery until Sunday, Feb. 23.
The exhibit was previously on display in Melfort from Dec. 1-23, and will be on display next in Leader starting March 1.
@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca
