Ways of Thinking is designed for anyone interested in exploring contemporary art and its exhibition framework. This section offers succinct and synthesized information on the exhibition’s concept, the artists and the works featured. One finds a general presentation, areas of inquiry and ideas to reflect upon as well as suggested Internet links and bibliographic references that allow one to gain a general understanding of the artist’s approach to artmaking, the works featured and the curatorial framing adopted. Ways of Thinking’s primary objective is to draw the public into the Gallery so that it can experience first hand the work in the exhibition and gain insight into the issues at work in contemporary exhibition making. Once the exhibition is over, Ways of Thinking becomes part of a documentation database of particular interest to students, teachers and researchers interested in the Gallery’s exhibition program.
IGNITION
AMÉLIE BRISSON-DARVEAU, GWYNNE FULTON, ZOHAR KFIR,
NIKI MULDER, TARA NICHOLSON, SABRINA RUSSO, MARIGOLD SANTOS
The Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery’s contemporary exhibition program is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. The Gallery and the artists gratefully acknowledge CIAM (Centre Interuniversitaire des arts médiatiques) for its technical support.
IGNITION is an annual, curated exhibition that features new work by students completing their Master of Fine Arts degree in Concordia University’s Studio Arts program. It provides an up-and-coming generation of artists with a unique opportunity to present ambitious, interdisciplinary works in the professional context of a gallery with a national and international profile. MFA students work directly with Gallery staff to produce an exhibition that places an emphasis on critical, innovative, and experimental work engaging in an exploration and consideration of diverse media and practices. This year IGNITION features seven artists whose practices include photography, video, installation, drawing, and sculpture.
The work featured in this edition of IGNITION was selected by Rebecca Duclos, independent writer, curator, and Director of the graduate program in Studio Arts at the Maine College of Art, and Michèle Thériault, Director of the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery.
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Works (from top to bottom) : Gwynne Fulton, Zohar Kfir, Marigold Santos, Sabrina Russo,
Tara Nicholson, Amélie Brisson-Darveau, Niki Mulder. |
Amélie Brisson-Darveau’s abstract textile sculptures are modeled on the artist’s shadow from which clothing patterns were traced. These phantasmagorical, improbable and unusable clothes, whose function can only be imagined, possess a rich materiality that references real clothing. Gwynne Fulton’s sound and video installation, deep-six, de/constructs a meteorological murder mystery from fragments of film, ambient sound, music, dreams, memories, and film noir soundtracks. Out of this vortex of sound and image, one thing emerges with clarity: one cannot predict the weather. Zohar Kfir presents a video projection titled PARA site that asks viewers to consider how storytelling can take place phenomenologically, in the absence of cinematic narrative. Fragmentary cinematic loops evoke displacement, loss, and longing, and hint at an unrealized tale that exists in the interstices between one story and the next. Niki Mulder’s installation features kitchen tables and chairs, craft objects, collages, un-bound books and other documents that chronicle her interest in post-punk/DIY/craft cultures, feminist practices, her aboriginal ancestry, and her involvement with marginal communities. As part of her piece, she will be serving frybread panini during the exhibition’s opening. Tara Nicholson is a photographer who re-investigates historical and emotional narratives surrounding the mythologies of the Canadian landscape, particularly our collective view of northern landscape and distant territories as places of isolation and safe haven. Everything I read and everything I wrote last year, by Sabrina Russo, is a video and sculptural work that experiments with ways of recording everyday experience. Using books and notes related to coursework as material, this work addresses the difficulty in measuring what one has learned and in framing the past in a meaningful way. Finally, Marigold Santos’ large-scale drawings explore notions of multiplicity and fragmentation of the uprooted self, as figures borrowed from Filipino folklore merge with archetypal landscapes.
AMÉLIE BRISSON-DARVEAU
GWYNNE FULTON
ZOHAR KFIR
NIKI MULDER
TARA NICHOLSON
SABRINA RUSSO
MARIGOLD SANTOS
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AMÉLIE BRISSON-DARVEAU
Born in Québec in 1976, Amélie Brisson-Darveau works between Montréal and Zürich. Her work has been presented in numerous exhibitions and events in venues such as Engramme in Switzerland, Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary, La Biennale Internationale du lin de Portneuf, and Diagonale in Montréal.
My art practice varies from video to installation, via performance. My research, as it pertains specifically to fibres, investigates questions of identity, social environment, occupation of space, and movement.


THE WORK
Une garde-robe pour mon ombre, 2009
I trace my shadow to make patterns for clothing that will be sewn. From the fluid and abstract forms of my tracings, I create fanciful, improbable, unusable clothing. Its rich materiality is real but its actual use could only occur in an imaginary space, one in which viewers observe their projected shadows, floating, and try my clothing on.
Amélie Brisson-Darveau, Une garde-robe pour mon ombre, 2009.
Installation view, courtesy of the artist.
EXPLORE
- the notion of the shadow in Une garde-robe pour mon ombre and its various meanings, including references to death, dimensionality, the viewer’s relationship to the work, the work’s relationship to space, etc.;
- the materials used in this work and consider their significance.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Bouchard, Marie-Ginette. La fibre porteuse de sens et de signes. Diagonale 01(2008): 14.
Delgado, Jérôme. Sous le couvert du lin. ledevoir.com (web media) August 2009.
http://www.ledevoir.com/culture/arts-visuels/262050/sous-le-couvert-du-lin
(Accessed April 9.2010).
Christine Unger. Angela Silver and Amélie Brisson-Darveau: A Cumulative Poetry. Montréal: FOFA Gallery, Concordia University, 2009.
Ombres à porter d'Amélie Brisson-Darveau chez Diagonale. Artefaks.com (web media) February 2010. http://www.artefaks.com/fr/calendrier/ombres-porter-amelie-brisson-darveau-chez-1372.html (Accessed April 9.2010).
Régimbal, Christopher. The Difference Between Memory and Fiction. Montréal: Concordia University (Strata MFA Group Exhibition Catalogue) 2008: 72-79.
GWYNNE FULTON
Gwynne Fulton is an interdisciplinary artist-researcher based in Montréal, Québec. The recipient of numerous awards, including SSHRC and FQRSC, Fulton is a currently an MFA candidate in Cinema at Concordia University. Her films have traveled the international festival circuit from Ann Arbor and San Francisco to Auckland and Jakarta.
Playing upon the tropes of psychoanalysis and deconstruction, my artistic practice involves a paradoxical attempt to document ghosts, traces, necessary clouds and other atmospheric aberrations. These oneiric endeavors have generated a series of experiments with photography, film, and sound, which are concerned with spectral transmissions.


THE WORK
Deep-six, 2010
deep-six combines a multi-channel acoustic environment with a single-channel video projection in a meteorological murder mystery pieced together through fragments of film, ambient sound, music, memories, and film noir soundtracks. Out of this vortex of sound and image, one thing emerges with clarity: one cannot predict the weather.
Gwynne Fulton, deep-six, 2010.
Installation view, courtesy of the artist.
EXPLORE
- the ways in which this work makes reference to various narrative genres;
- the various sources from which sound and images have been appropriated and the ways in which they have been assembled and juxtaposed.
ZOHAR KFIR
Zohar Kfir is a video artist whose work includes experimental video, interactive art, Internet art and writing. 
She holds a BFA in Digital Media from Camera Obscura School of Art in Tel Aviv and a MPS degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. Kfir is currently an MFA candidate in Open Media at Concordia University. Her video works have been shown in galleries and video festivals in Israel, Europe and the United States.
My work investigates visual representations that evolve over time. My video work and writing are short experimental stories that represent emotion or place and in which images are rhythmically constructed upon form instead of words. I am attracted to the brevity and exactitude of visual compositions over sound, the flow and musical tonality of visual impressions.
THE WORK
PARA site, 2010
PARA site asks viewers to consider storytelling taking place phenomenologically, in the absence of cinematic narrative. Entering the installation, the viewer is confronted with a series of fragmentary cinematic loops, which individually evoke displacement, loss, and longing. Collectively, these fragments hint at an unrealized tale that exists in the interstices between one story and the next.
Zohar Kfir, PARA site, 2010.
Installation view, courtesy of the artist.
EXPLORE
- narrative structure and the ways in which it is examined in this work;
- notions of duration and ambiguity and how they function and relate to each other in the various components of this work.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Zohar Kfir, official Web site:
http://www.zzee.net/
Contemporary Israeli Art Fund. Silent Mess at Inga Gallery, Tel Aviv. www.artisrael.org/(web media) February 2010. http://www.artisrael.org/event/2010-02/silent-mess-at-inga-gallery-tel-aviv (Accessed April 9.2010).
Sheffi, Smadar. China is Our Home. www.haaretz.com (web media) April 2006.
Sheffi, Smadar. In the Spirit of the Industry. www.haaretz.com (web media) August 2000.
Tzur, Uzi. One Eye Closed: Stockholm, Moscow, Montreal. www.haaretz.com (web media) March 2010.
NIKI MULDER
Niki Mulder has a dog named D. (Ding Dong Sue Ramona Turnbull-Mulder partially named after bass player Dee Dee Ramone) They have moved from East Vancouver to Halifax and are now residing in Pine Hill outside of Montreal. D. has never made art in her life besides digging random holes.
I use art to make contact with people, to critique my surroundings, and to share personal experiences with others. Sometimes information that I have gathered from these activities takes the form of posters, books, collages, and banners. At other times it is brought to the classroom and becomes part of my teaching.
THE WORK
scrap city is now serving frybread paninis, 2010
Mixed media installation.
This installation includes kitchen tables, chairs, and pegboards that display an unbound book and objects. Two enlarged pages of the book are applied directly on the wall with vinyl text. At the opening I will be serving frybread panini to the public.
Niki Mulder, scrap city is now serving frybread paninis, 2010.
Installation view, courtesy of the artist.
EXPLORE
- collecting and the various ways in which it is important to this work;
- the hierarchies that emerge in relation to the objects that make up
this installation and their perceived importance or value.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Flinn, Sean. A handmade Tale: From Fashionistas to Foodies, These Ten Local Designers Take The Pain Out of Finding One-Of-A-Kind Gifts For Everyone On Your List. Thecoast.ca (web media) December 2005. http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/a-handmade-tale/Content?oid=958365 (Accessed April 9.2010).
Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery. Coeur de griffonage. fofagallery.concordia.ca (web media) February 2008. http://fofagallery.concordia.ca/ehtml/2008/02coeur.htm (Accessed April 9.2010).
TARA NICHOLSON
Born in British Columbia, Tara Nicholson is a photo-based artist who continues to investigate notions of wilderness. Graduating from Concordia’s MFA Program this spring, her thesis work, ‘Wilderness and Other Utopias,’ was recently exhibited at Montreal’s Parisian Laundry Gallery. Tara has exhibited and attended residences across Canada and will be teaching this summer at the University of Victoria.
Incorporating the use of photography, sound and film, Tara Nicholson has traveled throughout Northern Canada to produce several bodies of work. Recently completing her MFA thesis work within the remote islands of Haida Gwaii, her work investigates physical and psychological constructions within the Canadian landscape.
THE WORKS
From the seriesFurther North, 2009-2010
C-type prints.
Poolside, Québec, 2009
Mattresses, Québec, 2009
Plastic Chairs, Québec, 2009
Trailer Pad, Ontario, 2010
Closed, Ontario, 2010
Belle Neige, Québec, 2009
Motel-Hotel, Québec, 2009
Bunny Hill, Québec, 2009
Commencing in 2009, ‘Further North’ is a photo-based project exploring the canons of Canadian identity while re-investigating historical and emotional narratives surrounding the mythologies of Canadian landscape. Documents of countless road trips, this work examines our collective view of northern landscape and explores distant territories as places for isolation and safe haven.
Tara Nicholson, Poolside, Québec, 2009.
From the series Further North, courtesy of the artist.
EXPLORE
- notions of wilderness, nature, and landscape and the ways in which they are important in this series of works;
- the role of the viewer in considering these works.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Hutchinson, M.N. and Arthur Nishimura. Contemporary Photography in Alberta. Calgary: The Triangle Gallery, 2008.
McVeigh, Jennifer. What we saw at exhibitions in the West. Galleries West Magazine, 7.2 (2008): 40.
Secco, Maria Noel. Re-Imagining the Familiar. Strata: Concordia University MFA Group Exhibition 2008. Montréal: Concordia University, 2008.
SABRINA RUSSO
Sabrina Russo is an interdisciplinary artist based in Montréal. She completed a BFA in Photography at the Ontario College of Art & Design and is currently an MFA candidate in Studio Arts at Concordia University. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, the United States, and England.
My work explores tensions between intimacy and distance, using personal experience as a starting point from which to ask broader questions about documenting and image making. Rhythm and movement are important components of work that aims to connect with the present through the past and to mark the passage of time.
THE WORK
Everything I read and everything I wrote last year, 2010
Video projection, sound, paper.
Everything I read and everything I wrote last year is a video and sculptural work that experiments with recording everyday experience. Employing books and notes related to coursework as material, this work addresses the difficulty of measuring learning and framing the past in meaningful ways.
Sabrina Russo, Everything I read and everything I wrote last year, 2010.
Installation view, courtesy of the artist
EXPLORE
- time and how it is alluded to in this work;
- the notion of measurement and the types of tension that arise in this work as a direct result of an attempt to quantify something.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Bauer, Lorna. Proof 16. Toronto: Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, 2009.
Caton, Persilia. Looking Forward, Looking Back. Toronto: Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, 2009.
Russo, Sabrina and Karen Zalamea. OAR: The Office for Archival Review. Montréal: Centre des arts actuels Skol, 2009.
Sramek, Peter. Identites: Mapping the Self. Toronto: Ontario College of Art & Design, 2009.
Wallace, Doug (ed.). Flash Forward: Emerging Photographers 2008. Toronto: The Magenta Foundation, 2008.
MARIGOLD SANTOS
A second year MFA student in Print Media at Concordia University, Marigold Santos pursues an inter-disciplinary art practice involving drawn and printed works, sculpture, animation, and sound. She completed her BFA in Printmaking and Drawing at the University of Calgary in 2006. The recipient of numerous awards, Santos has exhibited her work in Canada, the United States, and Japan.
My interest lies in transformation with my reflection on fleeting childhood memories and my family’s immigration to Canada serving as autobiographical points of departure. Experiences as history, fragmented by memory and re-told to become personal myth, are negotiated through the act of drawing, operating within narratives of the otherworldly. This is the realm of play where I situate my work.
THE WORKS
forage, 2010
land asuang, 2009
crystal monster, 2009
dusk, ardor, 2009-2010
Mixed media on paper.
These large-scale drawings explore notions of multiplicity and the fragmentation of the uprooted self through figures borrowed from Filipino folklore combined with archetypal interiors and landscapes. Seeking to embrace growth, transience, and the self in process, these recent works allude to the disintegration of memory and its reinvention via new narratives revealed in a phosphorescent glow.
Marigold Santos, land asuang, 2009.
Courtesy of the artist.
EXPLORE
- myth, narrative, and memory and the ways in which these notions are addressed in these works;
- the way in which these works are installed in the Gallery and how this contributes to our understanding of them.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Adams-Bacon, Sarah. Calgary. Akimbo.ca (Web Media) May 2007. http://www.akimbo.ca/akimblog/?id=109 (Accessed April 9. 2010)
Martin, Deidre. Cinema of Love: Harold and Maude Sing Out. UPPERCASE Magazine 2 (2009): 25.
Murphy, Travis. Featured Images Visual Arts Section. Filling Station Magazine, 39 (2008):19.
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Produced with the support of the Frederick and Mary Kay Lowy Art Education Fund.
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