HOME·[made]
untitled · a publication of the Union Gallery since 1994
By Alexandra Chowaniec
With three such individual perspectives, it is affecting to see such an intensely coherent exhibition emerge from the artists of the recent Union Gallery exhibition, entitled HOME·[made]. Artists Aimee Sawyers, Irina Skvortsova and Karine Thibault engage the viewer with both personal and cultural perspectives on domesticity, gender and sexuality, and identity in the context of “home”.
In her silkscreen prints, Aimee Sawyers embarks on a personal exploration of her concept of “home”. She actively reflects on the socio-cultural elements (often embodied in her eccentric and colourful portrayals of common household objects) that connect with or diverge from her own experiences. Irina Skvortsova confronts the viewer with a darker expression of the intangible “home”. Almost surreal portrayals of figures, torsos embedded in closed doors and key holes with no sign of keys, evoke the anxiety and disconnect of the “emotional homelessness” that she describes in her work. She indulges both herself and the viewer with her currently fitting medium of lithography, from which only the richest black marks can be materialized. Karine Thibault embraces a “home” that extends beyond borders. Her oil paintings juxtapose personal memories and experiences of home with appropriated ones from across the gallery space. Taken with images of what has been and of what she seeks to realize, the viewer experiences her “home” as a journey through both the quotidian and exotic.
