May. 13, 2009 - Issue #708: Three Square Meals
Yet Again, And Again
Art Party: Chelsea Boida gets festive and geometric
Boida has meticulously cut and folded design magazines into large circle, star and crystal shapes, a child-like practice that can’t help but evoke the imagery of snowflakes and home-made party decorations. Boida pays close attention to craftsmanship, meticulously repeating patterns and concealing the starting and finishing points of each piece. She sticks to a neutral colour palette, harvesting tones of gold, beige and grey for her pieces and augmenting them with tones of red and blue, which subdues the festivity of her work. Boida isn’t trying to compete with the space either, though she does paste over part of the windows, obscuring a portion of the Hydeaway’s extraordinary view, but does so in the same way that fog or snowfall occludes the river valley on a stormy day. It is just part of the atmosphere.
Looking at Boida’s work, ideas about the relationship art has to mathematics and geometry come to mind. The conversation about the intersection between science and art is really hot right now, yet the conversation about math and art is significantly less talked about—it is formalism at its most complicated and rigid; yet again the notion of "elegance" describes work in both fields. Whether we like it or not, our sense of esthetics is impacted by geometry and ratios.
Not to nerd-out too much—Boida’s work is less intense than I make it sound. The use of paper in her craft, the absence of a formal subject matter, lets her work float on top of the Hydeaway, contributing to the aforementioned festive atmosphere, rather than detracting from it.
As I blithely mentioned in my review of Justin Shaw’s exhibition, the atmosphere of multiuse spaces frequently drowns out the quietness of the art (and most art is quiet in dim lighting against a backdrop of electric guitar). Yet, curator Institute Parachute persistently tries to bring in interesting art into meet the challenges of the Hydeaway’s space. A daunting task, but alt-alterity has to start somewhere, and young curators have to exercise their muscles in safe places where they can stack their CV, experiment a little, try their successes and swallow their failures. As my colleague Adam Waldron-Blain noted last week on PrairieArtsters.com, we can’t continue to whine about the stalling of the visual arts community, the absence of dialogue, the dearth of experimentation. If any of this is going to change, there has to be stronger cultivation of young artists, curators and critics. In spite of their setbacks, it’s still in these small spaces where these goals are being realized. V
Until May 31
Yet Again, And Again
By Chelsea Boida
The Hydeaway, (10209 - 100 Ave)
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