If the red is rose and there is a gate surrounding it…, follows my ongoing inquiry into intersections between material culture, inheritance, and social order. My practice takes up personal experiences and references, creating works that simultaneously highlight and cut across disparate periods and aesthetics, such as Neo-Classical, French Country, American Colonial, Gothic Revival, and contemporary interpretations of each that collectively formulate the canonical imaging of Traditional North American domestic design.
The gate is a signifier of passage, ownership and security, often acting as permeable barrier between public and private spheres. Through fragmentation, alteration and representation, I conflate multiple forms of the gate in If the red is rose and there is a gate surrounding it… engaging myriad consumer and social ceremonies and ritualized treatment of public and private property upheld by symbolic structure. Using theatrical gestures of staging and other visual strategies, I highlight both temporary and commodified delineations of space, ideology and metaphorical boundaries, inviting discussions of desire and self-perpetuation. By provoking recurring formulas, the work reflects tropes of material culture that validate and uphold a complex and privileged social order. Consistent with my material practice, If the red is rose and there is a gate surrounding it…, draws reference from domestic materials, architecture and ornamentation to explore relationships laden with symbolic significance that straddle both personal and social.
If the red is rose and there is a gate surrounding it…, CSA Space, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2019
Accompanied by a text by Danielle La France
