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Will stares of clothed apparitions last the month? How transitory are our hopes and fears, that they need to be wrung out more frequently than our clothes? Laundry is a comfort, if it does nothing but allow time to pass thoughtfully in the open air.
Evening...
Daylight...
Hanging Out the Laundry - Installation
I think there is more than laundry, there is 'Mistress Quickly', laundress and so much else. (Merry Wives of Windsor/Shakespeare) And the stream of streams, the Balcony proved to move thoughts: "This stream had been the good angel of my thoughts all the day, keeping them ever moving and ever fresh, cleansing and burnishing them, quite an open-air laundry of the mind." (The Quest of the Golden Girl/Gallienne)Will stares of clothed apparitions last the month? How transitory are our hopes and fears, that they need to be wrung out more frequently than our clothes? Laundry is a comfort, if it does nothing but allow time to pass thoughtfully in the open air.
Evening...
Mary and Moses Sculpture Garden
North Saanich, Vancouver Island
July 2011
Ponder - Yin
Ponder - Yang
Outside In - May 2011 - Victoria BC
Revisioning - Commission by Joe Clare - Edmonton Alberta - 2010
opaque substance of his animal being to grow transparent, or, at least, translucent; so that a spiritual gleam was transmitted through it, with a clearer lustre than hitherto.”
The House of the Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorn.
Revisioning is the 7 masks/faces of discovery, sagacious explanations and
penetrations into the true essence of our internal contemplation of self.
The number seven, considered a sacred numeral because of the
seven phases of creation (Genesis), seven plexuses or chakras
or etheric body and some versions of the Kabbalah have seven sphiroth.
Seven possesses the quality of psychic awareness and
has the ability to question sincerity.
Through humour, these comedic masks emulate
Aristotle’s Poetics: “...the comic mask is ugly and distort,
but does not imply pain.”
We can don a face that emulates our joyful nature,
embracing the ludicrous with a numinous experience.
We can revision our thinking to encourage a magical outlook.
Auricle - Commission by Joe Clare - Edmonton Alberta - 2010
Clairaudience (mystical hearing) is integral to the Anahatha or heart/stillness
Chakra. Through this spiritual centre, we hear the pulse of the universe.
Auricle is composed of four sculptures because four denotes earthly phenomena,
grounding us to be accessible to numinous experience. As we are bound by Earth’s four cardinal points (North, South, East and West), time’s four seasons/ four lunar
weeks we are also associated with four classical "elements" of fire, air, earth,
and water. The association with Earth means that four symbolizes being
"down-to-earth." Four is the first composite number is linked to the
idea of an other-directed or "composite personality" that takes cues from
diverse and often contradictory sources, leading to fiercely
autonomous, "out-of-the-box" thinking.
Auricle allows diverse hearing of disparate thought.
Doors of Perception - Davis Museum - Barcelona Spain - 2009
Eye for and I - Toronto - Rhodes Street Gallery - 2009
Congregation - National Gallery - Almaty Kazakhstan
In my opinion, artists create self portraits, no matter what the
original intention –the outcome of the work reveals self.
Try as we might, we reveal our identity, our uniqueness,
a signature of our soul.
This is how I view one aspect of my recent installation.
I did not consciously set out to do this. Once the work was presented,
I was struck by several levels of interpretation the work
may be subject to or clarification the sculpture would explain,
and especially, how it revealed who I am and how I think of myself.
First I realized at least one archetype was dominant in each figure.
Some figures could be construed to reveal more than one archetype –
or if I think about it some more, maybe more than two...
Even the spiral in the central
configuration was an archetypal symbol...
And further, the shapes that each
figure was composed of were abstracted primal symbols –
triangular, circular and square.
I even began to see some hieroglyphics,
pictograms, marks representing sacred
iconography in the lines of the figures.
After digesting that revelation, I realized
I was describing life stages. Simplification of life stages -
but surely they were there. And more, the stages were
equal to the next, none more prominent, as if there was a balance.
Each was interconnected with the other, and each was
blatantly important as the next.
Interestingly, I did not order them sequentially. What did that mean?
Now my questions for myself...
So what does this say about me, how does it portray my character,
my personality? Why did I call the work Congregation,
when none of the figures actually meet?
Why do the figures only connect by the spiral, the whirling...?
Then I need to understand and explain the shrouding,
the emptiness within the figures, the broken fragility of the sculpture,
the facelessness. And finally, the cluster of apple branches placed in the
middle of the spiral centre must be clarified,
which can be described as the only
congregated gathering of any kind in this show.
Coda - Vallauris Fance - 2007
CODA is a reflection, a codicil. Reassessment of materiality, of sculptural practice, of abstraction and figuration... CODA was a necessity. This statement brought me to a new thought process.
CODA is a reflection, a codicil. Reassessment of materiality, of sculptural practice, of abstraction and figuration... CODA was a necessity.
This statement brought me to a new thought process.
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Working with blocks of cement expanded with pumice, carving again seemed to be a departure for me, when it really was going back to my working roots.
Carving is my first love.
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Ebb and Flow - Spiazzi - Venice Italy 2007
This work is about a concept of passage, and the oscillation between waning energy and fluidity in uninterrupted movement of conscious and unconscious thought.
The work is a steadfast concentration on forms that do not fluctuate, that are statuesque, in that they impose stillness upon the viewer, requiring concerted enquiry. There is no geography or architecture to give the sculpture reference.
Inspired by the wake from the vapporetti, and gondolas on the
canals of Venice, the movement of the boats breaking the water's stillness,
unrelenting, moving forward distorting surfaces; the water remains
unchallenged. The canal holds all surface warps and entwining penetrations,
and remains an unaffected system, a way to and from somewhere.
The canal is the emotional space that is created by the expectant forms that have optimistically emerged as sculpture.
Canal: Ebb and Flow is about a concept of passage, and the oscillation between waning energy and fluidity in uninterrupted movement of conscious and unconscious thought.
The canal holds all surface warps and entwining penetrations, and remains an unaffected system, a way to and from somewhere.
Coming or going, the surface is thrust into undulating forms.
Group Exhibition - Verrocchio - Tuscany 2007
Catharsis - Vallauris France 2007
Nine works were shown - each circumnavigate a process within a liberating, energizing exploration of ideas.
Each work is an opportunity for renewal of invigoration, of healing.
But more, the sculptures describe valuable attributes of consideration.
Structurally tortuous, these works shape the unknown, intense feelings resulting from profound introspection.
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| Flightless Bird |
5 works in Plaster of Paris, produced in residence at the
Atelier Silex in Trois Riviers, Quebec.
This sculpture has no top or bottom. These works are the rediscovery
of self through a route of curves and arcs that
emotional pathways create...
5 works were necessary to describe this foray because
distinct deviations for each variant rework the idea of change.
distinct deviations for each variant rework the idea of change.
The object of the work is to describe trajectory or path,
which is not a means to a
destination - but the arcing and curvature of a personal journey.
which is not a means to a
destination - but the arcing and curvature of a personal journey.
Variations on a theme, this set collectively describes the void, its importance to disengage the past with an open heart for the present opportunities and adventures.
Change is a slow, discomforting process that challenges our understanding
while altering our paradigms. These works prudently caress worn ideas and
release a prospect for transformation.
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Single work in Plaster of Paris, produced in residence at the Atelier Silex in Trois Riviers, Quebec.
Duplicity is the portrait of a relationship triangle. It explores the pull and pain of deceit and betrayal, unrequited love and passion.
Emotional suffering is explored with structural contours that pull and strain.
Figurative abstraction presents as ovoid shapes that appear conjoined.
The unsaid communication in relationships is the main concentration of this work. Describing blatant allure, enticement and nuances of humiliation, discomfiture, the debilitating forces of jealousy and anger, this work strives to contain the monstrously convoluted humanity that lovers endure.
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| Duplicity - (Detail) by Debora Alanna - Atelier Silex 2006 Carved Plaster - 18" x 24" x 20" |
HIATUS: Work resumed at a residency in TROIS-RIVIÈRES, Atelier Silex, Quebec in the summer of 2006.
Documentation at a residency in 1998 in the KanoriaCentre for the Arts in Ahmedabad was lost due to film melting in 46 degree heat. 1998-2006, for personal reasons, no sculpture was made. A book of poems and short stories that began in this time period is still in progress.
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| Space Between - 1996 by Debora Alanna - Plaster Bandage - 12" x 8" x 6" |
This work was made in in 1996 of plaster bandages, prior to knowing
that a trip to India was eminent.
Banyan Tree and Space Between sculptures are the beginning of many plaster works, where shape and form describe interior spaces.
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Sea Convergence by Debora Alanna Digital Investigations: Differential Space Teck Gallery, Simon Fraser University, 1992 |
Original sculpture was made from sea stones in Monterey, California. Digitization of work
(3D laser scan) was made at Cyberware, in Monterey CA.
Wireframe image was produced at the Vancouver Film School (VFS).
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| 3 Forms - Detail |
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| Mountainous Risings by Debora Alanna - 'Magic Lab' UBC - 1992 Alias software |
| 1991 - 1984 Light as Material - Burnaby Art Gallery – 1991 Mixed Media, including: cement, styrene, glass, neon, florescent lights, incandescent lights, poly balls, grout |  | ||
Light as Material - Detail |
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| Light as Material - Detail |
Each work of this show was based on a poem called ‘Hundred Headless Woman’ by Max Ernst.
The incorporation of light into each work moved illumination from outside the work to integrate it within the sculpture.
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| Light as Material - Detail |
CHALLENGE OF THE MOUNTAINS
Challenge of the Mountains was exhibited in the group show, Urbanarium. The theme of the work was ‘Lost Vancouver’.The premise of this work was that the Rocky mountains created a psychological barrier, segregating thought process and physical connectivity from eastern Canada.
Challenge of the Mountains was exhibited in the group show, Urbanarium. The theme of the work was ‘Lost Vancouver’.The premise of this work was that the Rocky mountains created a psychological barrier, segregating thought process and physical connectivity from eastern Canada.
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Challenge of the Mountains Exhibited in Urbanarium – ‘Lost Vancouver’ 1987 - Vancouver BC Expanded mealuminum ( 7 - 9' tetrahedrons), black grout, aluminum lathe shavings |
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| After the Urbanarium show, this work was presented in varrious venues, including Triumph at the University of British Columbia, and on Trafalgar Street, in Vancouver BC, seen here. |
Lightworks 1989 – Gallery Too, Vancouver, BC
Cold rolled steel, poly balls, underlay
Grounding of vision, such as that referred to by Edwin Abbot in his novella, Flatland, written in 1884:
“But now, drawing back to the edge of the table,
gradually lower your eye ...,
and you will find the penny becoming more
and more oval to your view, and at last when you have placed your eye exactly on the edge of the table...
the penny will then have ceased to appear oval at all, and will have become, so far as you can see, a straight line.”
The straight line referred to by Abbot succinctly describes the visual illusion that visual perception alludes to. The abstraction of an eye, of vision is the primary idea in Lightworks.
The eye is grounded, and the form repeated to reiterate the importance of the perception of seeing. The eyes are interrupted by the bisection of the curved formation over the ‘eyeball’.
This distortion to sightedness is a response to the vision of the artist being questioned; assertion of that particular, and maybe peculiar vision is articulated with rhetorical persuasion.
If the eye is the window to the soul, then these windows are open to new insights, different perceptions - closely guarded ones.
If the eye is the window to the soul, then these windows are open to new insights, different perceptions - closely guarded ones.
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| Lightworks - Detail |
3 Forms 1986 – or Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Plaster, black paraffin, welded aluminum
Each form represents three different aspects of existence – response to place, impetus of spirit, and interconnection.
- A welded aluminum altar was created to display the work, which was situated in the centre of the gallery.
- The idea of altar brings import to the concepts revealed.
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1986 – or Gallery, Vancouver, BC Plaster, black paraffin, welded aluminum |
Sculpture: Garden
1984 - Unit Pitt Gallery
Welded steel, Cement
78 pieces 1’ x 1’ x 1 or 2’ & 9-9’ steel poles, polystyrene plastic, dust-bane
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1984 - Unit Pitt Gallery Welded steel, Cement Sculpture: Garden was conceived to reveal the congregation of ideas as they exist in the state of cultivation. the natural building block shape. Steel tubes were hung that allowed a convergence of these objects, where groupings interacted. The central ‘pool’ made of polystyrene, suggested the wellspring from which the ideas began. 78 pieces 1’ x 1’ x 1 or 2’ & 9-9’ steel poles, polystyrene plastic, dust-bane |
